Lots of impor­tant sto­ries today, so we are going to put rush these up there before I run out of time.

From All Africa, the Niger­ian gov­ern­ment is propos­ing giv­ing more money from the sale of oil back to the com­mu­ni­ties that it comes from. Reporter Jus­tus Nduwugwe says the gov­ern­ment hopes this will ease the vio­lence in the region.

In order to stem the resur­gence of mil­i­tancy in the Niger Delta, the Fed­eral Gov­ern­ment is plan­ning to spend about $376.8 mil­lion or about 10 per cent of its total income from oil to develop oil com­mu­ni­ties in the crisis-prone zone in the next bud­get year.

Accord­ing to a report in the Finan­cial Times yes­ter­day, the gov­ern­ment is mulling a plan to trans­fer 10 per­cent of all oil and gas ven­tures to those liv­ing in the Niger Delta, which has been the site of numer­ous attacks by mil­i­tant groups.

If the plan scales through, “the com­mu­ni­ties would receive cash ben­e­fits, deliv­ered through a trust-style mech­a­nism, which they could use indi­vid­u­ally or pool for social projects… Offi­cials believe the com­mu­nity stakes could be worth more than $376.8 mil­lion in the first year”.

The London-based news­pa­per quoted the President’s Spe­cial Adviser on Oil, Mr. Emmanuel Egbo­gah, say­ing that Pres­i­dent Umaru Yar’Adua has backed the idea.

Egbo­gah said the pres­i­dent intends to add the pro­posal to reforms that the gov­ern­ment hopes to enact by the end of the year, which would also impose tougher terms on oil com­pa­nies who are cur­rently embroiled in a tor­tu­ous debate in parliament.

He fur­ther said the 10 per­cent stakes would pay div­i­dends on rev­enues after taxes and costs to com­mu­ni­ties, bypass­ing pow­er­ful gov­er­nors of the eight oil-producing states who were instead call­ing for an increase in the extra share of petro­leum rev­enues they already receive.

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