Women to dance naked in Abuja over mismanagement of 13% derivation

Nude women from nine oil-producing states of the federation may soon storm the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to protest the mismanagement of the 13 per cent derivation by some interest groups.

The women drawn from Ondo, Edo, Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers, Cross River, Akwa-Ibom, Imo and Abia states aged between 50 and 70 years, said they would dance nude in Abuja over the mismanagement of an estimated N8 trillion that accrued to their states in the last 13 years.
According to the women, their governors have no tangible evidence to show for the huge financial allocation that accrued to their states and have done everything within their powers to silence anybody who dared to find out the true position of things regarding the spending or infrastructural facilities provided with the 13 per cent fund.
In a statement, the aggrieved women alleged that only recently, hundreds of women from the nine oil/gas producing states of the federation stormed the Yenagoa Cultural Centre to make a strong case for direct allocation of 13 per cent derivation fund through National Derivation Committee (NDC) and state implementation committees.
The statement, which was signed by a woman activist from Oben Flowstation in Edo State, Princess Nonwen Uhunmwangho, told the Elias Mbam-led Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) that anything short of direct allocation of the 13 per cent fund was not only unacceptable to them but would be a direct invitation to confrontation from women of the Niger Delta as they have lost faith in the current management of the fund under the state governments.
“Thirteen per cent belongs exclusively to the oil/gas producing communities,” Uhunmwangho said, noting that “the continuous payment of the 13 per cent funds to the state governors was an aberration that has left the oil and gas producing communities in abject poverty, hunger and penury and must be corrected now.” She emphasized that from the provision of Section 162 (2) it was clear that the principle of 13 per cent derivation is firmly enshrined in the 1999 Constitution that whatever formula the National Assembly approved it, it must constantly reflect 13 per cent derivation.
Therefore, she said the 13 per cent derivation fund was the first line charge on the Federation Account and it was a mandatory provision of the 1999 Constitution.