Governors from the six states of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) zone have reached a rare consensus to jointly push the Federal Government for an increase in the oil derivation principle from the current 13% to at least 25%, ahead of the 2027 general elections.
The resolution was reached at a closed-door meeting held in Port Harcourt, attended by the governors of Rivers, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo, Ondo, and Cross River states, along with senior representatives from the NDDC and the Niger Delta Affairs Ministry.
A communiqué issued after the meeting stated: "We the governors of the Niger Delta states are united in our determination to ensure that the communities that bear the environmental burden of oil extraction receive a fair and equitable share of the revenues generated from their land and waters."
Political analysts say the timing — more than a year before the 2027 elections — is deliberate, as governors seek to position resource control as a defining campaign issue that cuts across party lines in the region.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have both remained publicly non-committal on the derivation push, with analysts suggesting neither party wants to antagonise other geopolitical zones before the election season.
Civil society groups in the Niger Delta have cautiously welcomed the governors' position but warned that similar resolutions have been passed in previous years without concrete follow-through. "We want to see bills, motions, and legal instruments — not another communiqué," said Emmanuel Pepple of the Niger Delta Civil Rights Coalition.
