Starrays
By Benedict Iorgyer and Moses Agbe – NASS
A frontline advocacy group for improvement in the wellbeing of oil and gas producing communities, the Niger Delta Civil Society Forum, NDSCF, has called on President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu to use his prerogative powers to create the Niger Delta Derivation Board to handle the 13% statutory derivation fund set aside for the development of the Niger Delta region with the thrust to enhance development in oil and gas producing communities across the country.
The coordinator of the group, Comrade Ezekiel Kagbala made this call in an interview with journalists at the National Assembly Complex, Abuja on Wednesday, February, 18, 2026 after formal submission of the group’s request to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria earlier today.
In the interview and statement made available to the press, Comrade Kagbala called for legal and constitutional implementation of the 13% derivation of the oil revenue, which is currently shared among governors of the Niger Delta region for the purpose of enhancing development in oil and gas producing communities of the country.
Kagbala argued that giving the funds to governors does not augur well for the development of the region as the funds are often siphoned or misappropriated for personal aggrandizement, eluding the oil and gas producing communities of the desired development.
“Legal and constitutional implementation of 13% derivation fund to host communities and this advocacy has gone to the extent that we have to employ dialogue, lobby and even to the extent that we had to write to the President.
“We submitted the letter to the President today. We also copied the Senate President, Attorney General of the Federation, Secretary to the Federation and Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Commission.
“All we are requesting is for that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the President that is committed to the Nigerian project and the Nigerian people to ensure that 13% derivation is not given to the governors. It should be given to the oil producing communities: the people who suffer from environmental degradation, loss of fishing rights, lack of water to drink and die every day because of pollution. The 13% derivation should be given to them through a derivation board and a presidential monitoring committee”, Kagbala emphasized.
He argued further that, “We believe that if the president sets up a 13% derivation committee for management of 13% derivation fund to oil producing communities, these oil communities that are looking dejected currently, there will be breathe of life there. The communities will experience electricity, have borehole where they can have drinkable water. Those communities although they cannot fish anymore, they will be able to have palliative development to cushion the effects that oil exploration has brought about in their community”.
As regards the timeframe the association wants the President to set up the board and meet its demands, Kagbala noted that they want it implemented as soon as possible as what he referred to as injustice from the governors has gone on for too long, “The money that belongs to the oil producing communities has been given to the governors for 30 years. This is an economic injustice to the people whose resources feed the nation.
“Oil and gas matters are in the exclusive legislative list not concurrent list so giving those monies to state governors means that you are taking what is in the exclusive legislative list to concurrent list without amending the constitution.”
Kagbala argued that if the trend of giving 13% derivation fund to the state governors persists, it will undermine the development of the people as the governors consider it to be political gifts handed to them by the president and do not use it for developmental purposes.
Kagbala reiterated that the president does not need the permission of the governor or any stakeholder to set up a derivation board for the oil producing states as it remains a matter on the exclusive legislative list hence the president needs to act fast and savage the situation.
