EDITORIAL: Time to Remove the 13% Derivation Fund from the Grip of Governors

By Ezekiel Kagbala 

For over three decades, the 13% derivation principle, clearly provided for in Section 162(2) of the 1999 Constitution, has been bastardized through political manipulation, reckless corruption, and deliberate administrative abuse. What was constitutionally designed to uplift and rebuild oil-producing communities has been hijacked by state governors and turned into a private political treasury. The continued control of this fund by governors is not only unconstitutional in spirit but morally indefensible and economically destructive.

It is no longer in doubt that the 13% derivation fund is in the wrong hands. It was meant to repair the environmental devastation, economic deprivation, and social neglect that the oil-producing communities of the Niger Delta have endured for decades. Instead, it has become a slush fund, fueling political patronage, self-enrichment, and grand corruption at the state level. While billions of naira flow to governors under the guise of derivation, the people whose lands produce Nigeria’s wealth continue to live amid polluted rivers, crumbling schools, dead farmlands, and hopeless youths.

Successive administrations in the region have shamefully treated the derivation fund as an extension of their political largesse, doling out contracts to cronies and funding white-elephant projects that have no bearing on the lives of oil-bearing communities. This systemic looting has persisted because of a dangerous silence from the federal government and the National Assembly — a silence that has emboldened state executives to act as though the 13% derivation were their personal entitlement.

The creation of state commissions such as DESOPADEC, EDSOPADEC, ISOPADEC and others was supposed to provide a direct channel to impacted communities. Instead, these commissions have become instruments of deception and corruption, controlled entirely by governors who appoint loyalists and manipulate budgets without transparency or audit. These institutions serve the governors, not the people.

The result is evident everywhere: abandoned projects, underfunded commissions, and communities living in squalor despite the massive inflows of oil revenue. Investigations, protests, and countless petitions have yielded nothing because the structure itself is flawed and complicit. This rot can no longer be tolerated.

The Federal Government must now act decisively. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who has spoken about fiscal discipline and justice, must demonstrate leadership by retrieving the 13% derivation fund from the hands of governors. The fund must be managed through a new 13% Derivation Commission, established by law, to directly oversee allocation and development in host communities. Alongside it, a Presidential Monitoring Board must be created to enforce accountability, ensure transparency, and guarantee that every naira is used for the people’s welfare, not for political gain.

This reform is not just necessary — it is urgent. It is a constitutional and moral obligation. The Niger Delta people can no longer be spectators while their birthright is squandered. The era of impunity and diversion must end. The 13% derivation was never a political gift; it is the lifeline of oil-producing communities and the foundation of federal equity.

Every kobo misappropriated from this fund represents another school unbuilt, another hospital unfunded, another youth jobless, and another family trapped in poverty amidst plenty. That injustice must stop.

President Tinubu and Senate President Godswill Akpabio, a son of the Niger Delta, must rise to this defining challenge. History will not be kind to any leadership that continues to look away while host communities are robbed under the cloak of state autonomy

The call by Comrade Ezekiel Kagbala, President of OHPRPH and leader of the NDCSF, reflects the collective voice of the region: the 13% derivation fund must be rescued, redirected, and restructured to serve its true beneficiaries — the oil-producing and impacted communities.

For peace, justice, and true federalism, the time to act is now. Anything less is complicity in the ongoing economic betrayal of the Niger Delta people.

Editorial Powered by the Niger Delta Civil Society Forum (NDCSF), led by Comrade Ezekiel Kagbala

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