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A rights activist in Rivers State, Dr Sokari Soberekon has declared that President Muhammadu Buhari would be the best president in Nigeria if he increases the oil derivation percentage from 13 to 50.
He made the statement during a sermon in a church over the weekend.
Dr Sokari, who likened himself to the biblical Moses that always wanted the best for his people, lamented that even though oil has sustained Nigeria since 1956, the Niger Delta which produces it has not felt its impact.
According to Dr Sokari, the Niger Delta and her people had remained poor and underdeveloped while her oil keeps making politicians and their supporters rich.
Recalling how he made former president Shehu Shagari to approve the oil derivation fund at the Civic Centre, Port Harcourt, in 1981, after late governor of Midwestern Region, Prof. Ambrose Alli, had failed to achieve same through the courts, Dr Sokari regretted that his effort had not been recognized and rewarded, hence he is still poor and suffering.
Dr Soberekon, who is addressed as Senior Advocate of the Niger Delta by those who admire his activism, called on President Buhari to restructure Nigeria into six geo-political zones if he would not increase oil derivation from 13 to 50%, adding that restructuring would bring peace and prevent another civil war, noting that he would not want Nigeria to be like Syria that had been ravaged by war for years now.
“Those that believe in war should know that war has no half-time, injury-time or extra-time when it starts, unlike a football match,” he said.
He called on the Federal Government to pay oil derivation money into a different account to be managed by a different non-political body monitored by the government and the people.
On the Nigeria-Morocco-Europe gas pipeline deal, he said it should be monitored by representatives of the communities where the oil is produced. Dr Soberekon maintained that if the federal government cannot grant the 50% tax-free oil derivation, it should allow the Niger Delta people to manage their resources and pay tax to the federal government, which he said is true democracy.
