The Federal Government blames the Oil Companies for the Niger Delta crisis and submitted that their negligence led to oil spillage, gas flaring, and water and air pollution, which in turn engendered the current youth restiveness in the region. But the nation’s oil producers blamed the Federal Government’s penchant for greed for the continued gas flaring in the oil-rich Niger Delta region. Unfortunately, while this blame game goes on, the indigenes of the Niger Delta bear the brunt and the whole country suffers.
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Govt or oil firms, who is to blame for Niger Delta crisiss?
The Federal Government yesterday reappraised Niger Delta crisis and submitted that negligence on the part of oil companies operating in the area led to severe environment problems like oil spillage, gas flaring, water and air pollution, which in turn engendered the current youth restiveness in the region.
But the nation’s oil producers under the aegis of Oil Producers Trade Sector (OPTS) blamed the Federal Government’s penchant for greed for the continued gas flaring in the oil-rich Niger Delta region.
In a Guardian report, The government, through top federal officials, including Niger Delta Affairs Minister, Ufot Ekaette, the Minister of State, Godsday Orubebe and the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Y.A. Abdullahi also accused the oil firms in the Niger Delta of falling short of their Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) to their host communities, especially in the area of protecting the people from the hazards posed to them by the companies’ crude exploration activities.
However, According to OPTS, government’s haste to join the league of oil producers even when it had not planned for the utilization of the associated gas that has to be disposed of through burning, accounted for some of the woes associated with gas flaring and its attendant devastation on the environment being experienced in the Niger Delta today.
The issue was joined at a consultative meeting on the region’s environment-related challenges tagged: “Moving the Niger Delta Environmental Agenda Forward.” The Ministers disclosed the Federal Government’s intention to move beyond mere talkfest on the Niger Delta environment issues to tackling them head-on.
The Vice Chairman of Shell Companies in Nigeria and Chairman, Oil Producers Trade Sector, OPTS, Mr. Basil Omiyi, said: ”The choice we made as a nation in our oil industry has something to do with the state of the environment, especially when it comes to gas flaring” and added ”The country was in a hurry to earn income from oil and didn’t quite say we’ll wait until we’re able to utilize the gas before we do so; or it didn’t quite make the policies that enable gas utilization to happen.
‘For example, if we had said oil for export and local refineries, gas to power were part of Nigeria’s energy policy, there would be no gas flare today, and the power plants will be built in the heart of the Niger Delta, and power will go into the national grid’, he concluded.
Meanwhile elder statesman and renowned accountant Senator David Dafinone, laid the blame for the “disturbing” state of the Niger Delta at the doorsteps of the nation’s past leaders who, according to him, failed to address the Niger Delta question “in a holistic way.”
Specifically, Dafinone, who spoke in Lagos at the launch of a biographical work titled Dafinone: An Uncommon Life written in his honour by Dr. Udu Yakubu as he turned 82, said the Federal Government’s failure to effectively act on the Willink Commission of 1958 made the Niger Delta problem to fester, which haunts the nation to this day.
He stressed that resolving to military action in the region would not solve the problem.
His words: “It is my considered opinion that the force of arm may not solve the situation. They need to go to the round table to dialogue to resolve the issue. From 1962, I worked closely with Alhaji Ahmadu Bello and at one of the conferences held in the north, he categorically stated that those Nigerians who say the Niger Delta is out of their reach or who say that the Niger Delta is not in their backyard, hence they cannot say anything must not forget that the Federal Republic of Nigeria is a State, and a breakdown in one part of the country may affect the whole nation. That is what we have been experiencing.”
Dafinone also took a swipe at the current political dispensation, describing it as a “militarisation of democracy.”
He said this approach had bogged down Nigeria, stressing that the nation needed to restructure in line with true federalism to attain its full potential.
But the federal government insisted that the violence in the Niger Delta region could be traced to the people’s vexation over environment degradation and neglect.
Ekaette said at the consultative meeting: “Over the years, there has been a near total neglect or failure to diligently integrate environmental concerns into oil exploration and production activities by the oil companies. This region is heavily polluted due to oil spillage, sabotage, pipeline vandalisation and emission from gas flaring.
“It is not enough to sign Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) especially with the people who do not understand the meaning of MoU. Sometimes, the terms of the MoU are not kept and at the other times, the terms of the MoU are reversed.
“Oil waste pits and hazardous waste dumpsites abound in the region while untreated industrial effluents, solid and municipal wastes are discharged with little concern about the environmental impacts.
“The on-going agitation in the region includes quest for a better environment gravely affecting peace and security in the region. Unfortunately, youth restiveness has assumed a high level of criminality in many instances and the primary cause cannot be removed from the gross neglect by the oil companies and allied industries to the yearnings of communities, lack of basic infrastructure and employment opportunities and the degradation of the environment on which the rural people depend for their sustenance.”
On his part Orubebe said the current difficulties in the Niger Delta area were as a result of the “inactions” of its past leaders to chart a course for its environmental development.
He said it was high time the Ministry networked with relevant stakeholders to solve the problems.
His words: “It is worthy of note that oil, which is the major source of revenue for Nigeria, is one of the primary roots of the insecurity in the region because of its attendant negative impacts on the environment and natural resources. This is as a result of the negligence of the oil companies in addressing issues of environmental pollution in oil production.
“As a result, today, the Niger Delta is a place of frustrated expectations and deep-rooted mistrust…many years of neglect and conflict have fostered a siege mentality, especially among youths who feel they are condemned to a future without hope and see violence as a strategy to escape deprivation.”
Chief Ufot Ekaette, argument is that oil companies still have a lot to do towards ameliorating the condition of deprivation among communities in the region which engendered the crisis there.
He disagreed with the argument of oil companies that they had done their part through their commitment in the joint venture with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company, NNPC, to take care of the infrastructural development of the communities, and that the government needed to do the rest.
The Minister said the oil companies needed to do more by way of corporate responsibility as the crisis was fuelled by the fact that while staff of the oil companies lived in posh, well lit quarters that had all the modern conveniences while the host communities usually lived in want and squalor.
He argued that if the inhabitants of the Niger Delta were treated as human beings, they would not have been this restive. “The companies say they play their part and that government ought to play its part but good corporate responsibility should make oil companies to cater for the communities…The ongoing agitation in the region includes (the) quest for a better environment affecting gravely, peace and security in the region. Unfortunately, youth restiveness in the region has assumed a high level of criminality in many instances, Ekaette said in his keynote address.
Omoba says: Truth is in the middle. The Federal Government from Gown to Yar’adua were all greedy, incompetent, corrupt and beholden to a cabal that feeds fat on the Niger Delta while devastating the area.
The Oil companies can only be indicted if the government has done their part. In the end, there is clear case of collusion between the government and the oil companies. The magnitude of corruption and inflated contracts awarded by both looters is a clear indication of the abuse of the collective wealth meant for the development of the Niger Delta and to the benefit of other Nigerians.
Unfortunately, the indigenes of the Niger Delta bear the brunt while the whole country suffers.
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