Bayelsa State Government has urged the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) and the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) to recalibrate extant formula for sharing revenue in respect of oil and gas production.
Governor Douye Diri gave the advice yesterday in Yenagoa while declaring open a two-day stakeholders’ sensitisation forum on the use of natural gas as alternative energy.
The governor, represented by his deputy, Senator Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, decried the current revenue sharing formula, saying it lacked equity and justice for gas producing states like Bayelsa.
He lamented that although Bayelsa ranked as the highest gas producing state in the country, it had yet to enjoy full benefits of its huge natural gas endowment.
Diri said gas flaring had been a severe menace that constituted an existential threat to the people and their right to life in the Niger Delta.
He said Bayelsa had continued to make sacrifices to keep the economy of the nation afloat; adding that in many of its communities, the difference between night and day had been obliterated.
Expressing concern about the severe health losses for the people, caused by gas flaring, the governor said the region had lost over $11billion as estimated economic cost to the menace.
He, however, thanked the Gas Monitoring Committee of the RMAFC for choosing Bayelsa to host the forum.
Diri advised stakeholders to take the opportunity to make valuable inputs to better the lot of the state.
The Chairman, Gas Monitoring Committee, Patrick Mgbebu, assured the governor that the commission will discharge its constitutional responsibility to ensure the Federal Government executes the commercialisation of abundant gas resources in the state.
This action, he said, would reduce gas flaring being perpetrated by oil companies in their host communities.