Issues
Participation In Petroleum Development Towards Sustainable Community Development In The Niger Delta
Continued from last Monday June 7, 2010.
The book “Participation in Petroleum Development, Towards Sustainable Community Development in the Niger Delta” by Eseme-Alabo Dr. Edward Bristol-Alagbariya is essential for key oil industry experts, administrators, scholars and students who want to gain further insight on how the Niger Delta can benefit from oil exploration and exploitation. The Tide, beginning from this edition, run excerpts of the book. Enjoy it.
10.2 Improved Community Involvement Enhanced by Greater Citizens’ Empowerment in Decision Making and the Stakeholder Perspective
The questions designed to address the crises in the Delta region are aimed at identifying the existing forms or measures of CI in petroleum development in the communities of the region. The author examines whether or not these forms or measures of CI are capable of fulfilling the globally-recognised need and widely accepted principles of PP in environmental decision-making, so as to suggest necessary improvements. Focused on the stakeholder theory in business relations, the author identifies three major stakeholders of the petroleum development business in Nigeria. As indicated in Chapter 1, these stakeholders are the oil-producing communities and the JV partners of the business (ie, the MNOCs and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), representing the FG for and on behalf of the FRN).
Studies are continually revealing that the results of development proposals are better when the affected, concerned and interested members of the public are empowered to participate in the decision-making process of such proposals. There is thus no alternative to interactive CI in petroleum development in Nigeria, the lack of which is the root cause of the marginalisation and poverty in the Delta region and hence the crises in the region. Similarly, there is no alternative path to Nigeria’s prosperity than greater citizens’ empowerment in the country’s decision-making processes. As the oil-producing communities are stakeholders (of the petroleum development business in Nigeria), whose interactive involvement cannot be ignored or undermined in the decision-making process of the business, so are the entire citizens of Nigeria stakeholders whose interactive involvement in the governance of the country cannot be ignored or undermined.
10.3 Identified Forms and/or Measures of Community Involvement in Petroleum Development in the Delta Region and other Related Issues
The author identifies two main forms or measures of CI in petroleum resources development in the Delta region. Including other instances of CI, these are designed to enable citizens of the resources-producing communities to make input into the ancillary decision-making processes of the resources development projects sited in the communities. The main measures of CI are those statutorily designed by the FG, and the CSR or industry-driven measures designed by the MNOCs operating in the region. For example, the EIA process identified in Chapter 5 and the public objection hearing system identified in Chapter 6 are statutory forms of CI designed by the FG. Another form or measure of CI designed by the FG is the Nigerian (Local) Content Policy (NCP), which involves the generality of Nigerians. The NCP evolved from the FG’s economic self-reliance policy based on equity participation of Nigerians and Nigerian businesses in all spheres of Nigeria’s economy, especially in the petroleum and other sectors of the economy dominated by foreigners, was designed to enhance the industrial development and advancement of the country as a sovereign entity. Other forms and measures of CI identified are those increasingly being designed by the MNOCs to fulfil their social responsibility (CSR) initiatives following those of their parent companies and groups, such as their sectoral groups. Most of these initiatives are designed outside and introduced into Nigeria by individual companies (such as Shell Nigeria) or by individual corporate groups (such as the Shell companies in Nigeria, of which NLNG is a part). CSR measures, increasingly designed by the MNOCs to address the crises in the Delta region, include Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) entered into with host communities. Other CSR measures mentioned in passing in Chapter 6 include the involvement of professional CBOs in the EIA process of development projects in the communities, and the employment of the services of land-owning families and communities to provide surveillance services to protect the MNOCs’ oil and gas installations. These three measures are discussed in Chapter 9. Other measures discussed in Chapter 6 include the National Content Plans of the MNOCs, as exemplified by the NLNG Local Content Plan designed from the Shell (ie, Shell Nigeria) Nigerian Content Policy (NCP). The Shell Project-Advisory Committee (PAC) system is discussed in Chapter 6 as a voluntary CI measure. Other voluntary CSR measures identified in Chapter 7 include the engagement of local NGOs and other community-based organisations such as community development committees (CDCs) to execute the Community Developments (CDs) and other community relations (CR) initiatives of the MNOCs in the oil-producing communities. The main CSR CI measures discussed in Chapter 7 are the Shell Nigeria stakeholders’ workshops, the NLNG stakeholders’ workshops, and the Niger Delta Environmental Survey (NDES) initiated by Shell Nigeria and almost entirely funded by the MNOCs under the umbrella of the Oil Producers’ Trade Section (OPTS) of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Also, the FG is involved in the NDES. This makes the NDES a hybrid form of CI in petroleum development.
The identified CSR forms of CI may directly or indirectly fulfil the government’s policy initiatives, such as its poverty alleviation, economic empowerment and SD initiatives. For instance, the NCP is designed by MNOCs such as Shell Nigeria and NLNG in a way to implement the objective of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process by providing impact-benefits for the communities directly affected by petroleum development projects. By so doing, the Shell Local (ie, Nigerian) Content Policy and the NLNG Local Content Plan are able to promote the poverty alleviation and economic empowerment programmes of the FG in the Delta region and other oil-producing areas of the country. In spite of the shortcomings of the project level EIA process being practised, this process stands remarkable as the most vibrant form of CI in petroleum resources development in Nigeria. Therefore, as expressed in Chapter 5, there is need to further develop the EIA, EA, or IA process of the resources development projects at strategic levels of the resources development proposals (ie, at the levels of policies, plans and projects), to enhance SD of the resources and sound and equitable SCD in the oil-producing areas.
Broadly speaking, as compared to project level EIA process, strategic environmental assessment (SEA) has a better prospect of enhancing SD of Nigeria’s major natural resources and overall SD in the country. Given that IA is a source of CD and socio-economic empowerment of citizens of the oil-producing communities, Chapters 8 and 9 demonstrate how CI in the IA process of oil and gas development projects in the Delta region enable communities to bargain for or to derive social investments from the MNOCs. The author demonstrates that these investments are being provided by the MNOCs mainly because of the lack of GSR measures in the form of provision of basic infrastructures and other public utilities in the communities. These investments help to foster CD and to socio-economically empower citizens of the communities, so as to alleviate poverty in, and government’s neglect of, the Delta region. By placing more emphasis on the provision of social investments, the MNOCs appear to be ignoring or compromising the degree of environmental protection required of them. The MNOCs therefore need to improve upon their environmental performance measures towards SD of petroleum resources, as well as their social performances beyond public relations, so as to contribute more meaningfully to environmentally-sound and socially-equitable SCD in the oil-producing areas.
To be continued
This is an open letter to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Chief Nyesom Wike.
Your Excellency,
Sir, ordinarily, I would not be writing an open letter to you, but like a wise man once said, “Silence would be Treason.” So I prefer to stay alive than face the consequences of silence in the face of crime. With each passing day, and as the socio-political tides continue to turn, it has become more pertinent that more people speak up in a concerted MANNER to prevent the death of our party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as we appear to be, in the words of W. B. Yeats, “turning and turning in the widening gyre” heading for an end where the falcon will no longer hear the falconer
It is unfortunate that since losing control of the Federal Government, with the loss of President Goodluck Jonathan at the poll in 2015, our party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has continued on a downward spiral. It is much more painful, that where it is expected that leaders within the party should rise to the challenge and put an end to this decline of our great party, some have instead taken up roles as its undertaker.
It will be hypocritical to claim aloofness to what I believe is your grouse with the PDP and I am not a hypocrite. It will be uncharitable on my part to discountenance the role you have played in strengthening the PDP from 2015 up until the last Presidential primaries of the party. It is my belief that your grouse against certain members of the party who you perceived worked against the party and abandoned it in 2015 and then came around much later to take control of the party, is justified. Also know that your decision to remain in the Party and stifle its progress on the other hand, as a sort of payback, stands condemned. For a man of your pedigree and stature, it is a dishonorable act, highly dishonorable and stands as testimony against all you claim to stand for.
At least, it can be argued that those who you hold this grudge against, abandoned the party completely and did not sit back while actively working to destroy it from within. But what then can be the argument on your own part, seeing that those you are currently working with against your party are the same people who set in motion, and executed surgically, the plans that not only ended our Party’s leadership at the centre, but ended up dislodging the first Niger Deltan to occupy Aso Rock as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. Is this not akin to “cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face?” That will be worse than folly. Let us not throw away the baby with the bath water because we do not like the soap used in bathing the baby. It will be a grave mistake.
Honourable Minister, sir, it is rather unfortunate that of all people, you have also decided to play the role of an undertaker not only for our party, but for our dear Rivers State.
I will like to take you down memory lane a little. Let me remind you of your emergence as Guber candidate of the PDP in Rivers State, against all fairness and justice in 2014. You will remember that despite the reality being that you as an Ikwerre man was poised to replace a fellow Ikwerre man in Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi in our multiethnic state, Rivers people overwhelmingly stood by you and pushed for your emergence as Executive Governor of Rivers State in 2015. I dare say that your popularity in the entire Niger Delta region was at an all-time high at this point.
I want you to understand why you were loved across board leading to your eventual emergence as Governor of Rivers State in 2015; it was because when it looked like all were against the second term ambitions of the first Niger Delta man to emerge as President of Nigeria, you became not just a pillar but a beacon of resistance by standing for Goodluck Jonathan. Rivers people, as grateful and rewarding as they can be, paid you back by ensuring your electoral victory against the incumbent All Progressives Congress (APC) led by your predecessor. On your emergence, where there were second term Governors in the region, you, a first term Governor, was seen by the people as not just the leader of the PDP, but the leader of the entire Niger Delta region. You earned it, and no one could dispute it.
In 2019, when your re-election bid was being challenged ferociously, Rivers people once again stood solidly behind you. Many were killed in the process of defending your votes. Do you remember Dr. Ferry Gberegbe that was shot and killed while trying to protect your votes in Khana Local Government Area? There are many more unnamed and unrecognised sons and daughters of Rivers State who sacrificed their lives so that you could emerge as a second term Governor of Rivers State.
In 2022/23, Honourable Minister, you oversaw a party primary across board that saw some candidates imprisoned and internal party democracy jettisoned for your wishes, leading to the emergence of flag bearers of our party all singlehandedly picked by you. You have on more than one occasion publicly stated that you paid for all their forms. Even those shortchanged in this process licked their wounds and continued to play their roles as party members to ensure the success of the party at all levels. In what will go down as one of the most keenly contested elections in recent Rivers history, with formidable candidates like Senator Magnus Abe of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Mr Tonye Cole of the All Progressives Congress (APC), and the vibrant youth driven Labour Party (LP), PDP emerged victorious across board except for Phalga Constituency 1 that was lost to the Labour Party. (Not that you did not loose in some other LGA’s but let’s stick to the official figures declared by INEC).
It begs the question, why then do you want to burn down Rivers State, when everyone who now holds political office emerged through a process designed and endorsed by you? Is it that you do not care about Rivers people and you are all about yourself? If so, I am forced to believe that those around you are not telling you the truth. The truth being that in a state where your words were law; where houses and businesses could be demolished or closed down without any recourse to legalities, where Executive Orders could be deployed to stifle the opposition, that your popularity is now at an all-time low. Probably because they are afraid of you, or of losing the benefits they gain from you, they fail to tell you that what you might perceive as a battle against your successor, has slowly but gradually degenerating into a battle against Rivers State and Rivers people. You know, there is a popular saying that, a man can cook for the community and the community will finish the food, but when a community decides to cook for one man, the reverse is the case.
LEAVE FUBARA ALONE
You have gone on and on about being betrayed by Governor Siminalayi Fubara. You point fingers forgetting that some of those same fingers quick to spot betrayals point straight back at you. It is not Governor Fubara that has betrayed the PDP by working against it in the just concluded General Election, and working with the opposition at the State and Federal level to destabilise the party. It is you, Honourable Minister. It is not Governor Fubara that betrayed Rivers people by instigating a political crisis with propensity to escalate ethnic tensions in Rivers State. It is you Honourable Minister. It is not Governor Fubara that has declared himself God over all in Rivers State and has no qualms with burning the state to the ground to prove a point. It is you Honourable Minister. It is you Honourable Minister who told the world that the APC was a cancer and you can never support a cancerous party. It is you Honourable Minister who ended up facilitating the emergence of the same “cancerous” APC that has accelerated the economic decline of this country and further impoverished our people with no remorse. All so you can be a Minister of the Federal Capital Territory? The lack of self awareness is gobsmacking.
Some days back I came across a video where you talked about death and how you do not cry when you hear about the death of some people because you have no idea what might have caused it considering many a politician swear “over dead bodies” and still go back on their words. Those words made me think, and I could see the reason behind them. You see, in chosing to be God in the affairs of Rivers people, you have closed your eyes and ears to reason; you see nothing and hear nothing that can cause you to rethink on the path you have chosen. In your quest to “show Fubara” you have unwittingly united a vast majority of Rivers people behind him, so much that even those who despised him because of you, now like or love him, because of you too. In your scheming, I will advise you not to forget that “the voice of the people is the voice of God”.
Note that the war which you have or are waging against Governor Fubara, has gone beyond being merely political as you might see in your minds eye. It is now one that, fortunately for some and unfortunately for others, has evolved into a war against Rivers people. It is good to point out that no one has taken a stand against Rivers people and won. No one has gone against God and won. In your defiant characteristic manner, it will be unfortunate if you believe your own hubris and that of those around you on the possibility of you being the first to successfully go against Rivers people. It will be a needless gamble; one where if you win you create more enemies for yourself than you can withstand on your political journey, and if you lose, your legacy becomes an inglorious and irredeemable one in Rivers State, the Niger Delta, and Nigeria at large. For your sake as regards posterity, it is my greatest wish that you have a moment of sobriety and a deep reflection and introspection on this path you have chosen.
Honourable Minister, sir, what is left of your legacy is on the brink of being completely desecrated and relegated to the dustbin of our political history, and it will be a sad end to what I will say has been a wonderful political career that many can only dream of. The ball is in your court, and may God Almighty have mercy on us all and forgive us for our shortcomings.
Gabriel Baritulem Pidomson
Dr Pidomson is former Chief of Staff, Government House, Port Harcourt and former member, Rivers State House of Assembly.
In 2015, I made a conscious decision to invest my financial resources, my time, and energy into supporting Nyesom Wike’s gubernatorial campaign. I poured my heart and soul into ensuring Nyesom Wike emerged victorious even at the risk of my personal safety.
Again in 2019, I doubled down on my commitment. I invested a significant amount of money to procure campaign outfits for all twenty-three Local Governments Areas of Rivers State. I spared no expense in supplementing Wike’s election efforts in my own local government, and once again putting myself at great risk to safeguard the fairness and transparency of the electoral process.
However, despite my unwavering loyalty and sacrifices, I found myself abandoned and forgotten by Wike. Throughout his eight-year tenure, he failed to acknowledge my contributions or fulfill his promises and agreements. Even as a former Deputy Governor, Wike denied me my severance benefit.
My investment in Wike’s governorship was not just financial – it was a commitment of passion, dedication, and belief in a better future for Rivers State. Yet, his leadership style of dishonesty, greed, drunkenness and rash abuse of senior citizens brought me nothing but disappointment, misery and losses.
By the grace of God, today I speak not as a victim, but as a hero. I have accepted my losses, and I have moved on. And as I reflect on my experience, I cannot help but urge Wike to do the same and allow peace and development to reign in Rivers State.
Nyesom Wike, when you speak of investing in Governor Sim Fubara’s election, remember those like me who also invested in you. Remember the sacrifices I made, the risks I took, and the promises and agreements you left unfulfilled.
It is time for you, Wike, to let go of the past and allow Governor Sim Fubara the breathing space he needs to lead Rivers State forward. Allow him to focus on the challenges of good governance and the aspirations of the people. Spare him these unwarranted and ill-conceived political manoeuvrings founded on personal agenda and not for general good of Rivers State and her people.
I may have lost my investment on Wike, but I have not lost hope in the future of Rivers State. And together, we will continue to strive for a brighter tomorrow.
Long Live the Governor to Rivers State, Sir Siminialayi Fubara!
Long Live the Good People of Rivers State!!
Long Live the Federal Republic of Nigeria!!!
Engr Ikuru is former Deputy Governor of Rivers State.
Tele Ikuru
