The South-South Governors Forum has described President Bola Tinubu’s Executive Order mandating the direct remittance of all oil and gas revenues to the Federation Account as a historic and landmark decision.
Chairman of the Forum and Governor of Bayelsa State, Douye Diri, said in a statement on Wednesday that governors in the region welcomed the move as a critical shift toward restoring constitutional integrity in Nigeria’s petroleum sector.
According to the Forum, the Executive Order is comprehensive and unambiguous, raising hopes that after years of opaque and complex deduction structures, the federal, state, and local governments would begin to receive their rightful entitlements from the Federation Account.
The governors particularly welcomed provisions aimed at eliminating opaque deductions and stripping the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited of the 30 per cent Frontier Exploration Fund, which they said often resulted in large idle cash balances.
They also praised the directive mandating operators and contractors under Production Sharing Contracts to remit royalty oil, tax oil, and profit oil directly to the Federation Account, noting that it would significantly plug revenue leakages.
The Forum described the move as a positive step toward fiscal justice for sub-national governments, especially oil-producing states. It added that increased remittances could boost funding for infrastructure, healthcare, education, and other critical sectors across the three tiers of government.
The governors further commended the President’s decision to undertake a comprehensive review of the Petroleum Industry Act, describing it as evidence of responsive leadership.
They argued that the current framework of the Act sidelines states and local government councils by allowing the Federal Government to deal directly with host communities.
The Forum reiterated its longstanding demand that the allocation to oil-producing communities, reduced from the proposed 10 per cent to three per cent in the existing law, be revisited.
It also urged the Federal Government to review provisions excluding states and local governments from administering community funds, warning that the current structure could create tensions if left unaddressed.
