By Ediri Oyibo
What does the future hold for the people of the Niger Delta region of Nigeria in the next 60 years? For critical observers, the future is bleak. But, how is this so when Nigeria has made over $1 trillion in oil revenues in the past 60 years? How did we get here?
Since crude oil was first discovered in Nigeria, several mechanisms to transfer benefits to the Niger Delta, the goose laying the golden eggs, have been set up. These include statutory allocations to the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), 13% derivation and 3% NDDC levy from oil companies.
The core mandates of these mechanisms are to ensure the rapid development of the Niger Delta and to also ensure that the issues of the environmental degradation in the region and the impact of oil and gas operations are appropriately delivered.
However, these mechanisms have continued to fail to impact in any significant way the lives of the people of the region just like previous benefit transfer mechanisms, the Niger Delta Development Board of 1960 and the Oil Mineral Producing Area Development Commission (OMPADEC) of 1992.
This is so because there are no defined, deliberate and enforceable participatory frameworks created by the government with the goal of ensuring that affected communities participate meaningfully in decision making on resource projects. More so, there are no social impact assessments required or conducted for resource projects as pre resource project assessments are principally limited to environmental impacts. And even more, is that the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) bill was denied passage. NOSDRA would have emphasized increased enforcement and the rate of fines and penalties for oil companies polluting the Niger Delta, as well as give NOSDRA powers to enforce penalties and fines and to inspect and monitor the decommissioning of oil facilities.
The result is that the Niger Delta that hosts over 800 oil field communities with over 900 active oil wells and thousands of other oil exploitation infrastructures continues to suffer neglect. 13,329 settlements in the region, out of which, only 98 are rated as urban, with the rest as scattered rural villages, are mostly cut off from basic amenities. 88% of rural dwellers in the region are considered to be living in abject poverty.
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According to a research conducted by We The People, a civil society organisation, NDDC projects where they are located are known as disposable projects, meaning that the instant the projects are commissioned, the next few weeks they go into dysfunction and are abandoned. With the research, it is now known that the NDDC has up to 10,000 abandoned projects littering the landscape of the region. The region is left to rot from the impact of oil exploration and exploitation, with the people of the region left for dead. There is practically nothing to show for the amount of wealth being generated from the region.
The forensic audit of the NDDC ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari and the investigation into the atrocities of the Commission started by the National Assembly (NASS) gave a glimmer of hope that the benefits transfer mechanisms for the region would finally be rejigged, fine-tuned so that development in real terms can start happening in the Niger Delta. But Nigerians were dead shocked by the way and manner the NASS made a mess of the investigation, to make matters worse.
The drama shown at the NASS is an indication that the neglect of the Niger Delta is deep-rooted and that it is being orchestrated by players in the government in connivance with Niger Delta elements who are unperturbed by the dire future of the region when oil and gas exploration and production would have become a thing of the past.
In the 60 years of oil and gas exploration and exploitation in Nigeria, there is nothing to write home about for all the revenues received. What then does the next 60 years hold? The time to take action is now if not, a gloomy future awaits the people of the Niger Delta who will live with the rottenness that oil exploration and exploitation is leaving behind.
Meanwhile, in efforts to synthesize key recommendations necessary for policy action in the Nigerian oil and gas industry, the Nigeria Natural Resource Charter (NNRC) had made key recommendations needed to revolutionize the fortune of the Niger Delta. Major issues relating to managing local impacts of oil and gas activities are usually captured by NNRC in precept 5 of its benchmarking exercise report (BER).
The precept directs that the government must pursue opportunities for local benefits and account for, mitigate, and offset the environmental and social costs of resource extraction projects if benefits from extractive activities are to be impactful to the people.
But, it is unfortunate that since the charter was instituted, Nigeria has consistently performed below average in managing local impacts of resource extraction. The 2019 BER showed no noteworthy changes have occurred since the 2017 BER. Key legislation to ensure the participation of communities, protect the environment, mitigate costs, respect rights and ensure that communities benefit from oil and gas projects suffered setbacks in the period.
This is more so even as the government has failed to pass key legislation as the petroleum industry bill (PIB) that has been touted as the salvation for the Nigerian oil and gas industry. The PIB has defied passage and assent for almost two decades. President Buhari, who happens to be the substantive minister of petroleum and, therefore, should know better, had declined assent to a component of the bill that has spent 19 years in circulation in Nigeria. He had promised that the executive would send a better version of the bill to NASS. Till date, its audio.
It seems that the leadership of the nation is oblivious of the rapidly evolving nature of the dynamics in the global oil and gas industry and how volatile the industry is. It also seems that the leaders are oblivious of how developed countries have completely revolutionized their oil and gas industry with proper policy frameworks like the PIB. Nigeria deserves better because the nation’s oil and gas have to be managed efficiently for the good of all, especially as the PIB as proposed would see international oil companies (IOC) pay 10% of their net profit to petroleum host communities to benefit oil and gas producing areas to help cushion the suffering of so many years.
Needless to say the outbreak of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic showcased in full scale the volatile nature of the oil and gas industry. The drastic fall in the price of crude, as a result, meant that the government had to prioritize expenditures. Hitherto, certain issues, including issues that have to do with the Niger Delta, were not prioritized. This portends a bad omen for the future of the Niger Delta when oil has lost its value as coal and stones did before it.
It is, therefore, imperative that the government understand the urgency to address the issues bothering on the Niger Delta while the revenues from oil and gas continue to flow as there is a chance, as witnessed already, that when oil dries out, Nigeria will move on, while the Niger Delta region retains the negative externalities as the dire future begins and lasts forever.
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Given the urgency, the executive should, therefore, immediately send the PIB to the NASS because clarity on issues bothering on the petroleum industry is needed now more than before. The executive must also ensure that the forensic audit of the NDDC is not made a mess of like the NASS did. The tardiness in the management of scarce resources as the one witnessed with the NDDC must be avoided. In addition, the government should extend the forensic audit to other beneficiation institutions with the aim to ensure a total cleansing of the entire mechanisms of resource governance.
And then, the NASS should wake up to its responsibilities of checks and balances to see that the government agencies are living up to expectations. The NASS must in addition to this and as a matter of urgency pass the much-awaited PIB immediately the bill is received from the executive. The benefits of the bill to Nigeria and indeed the Niger Delta cannot be overemphasized.
Also, the NOSDRA bill, mentioned earlier, should be revisited. The environmental impact assessments, considered for expansion by the 8th Assembly, to include human rights, social components and conflict assessments, should also be considered, and be required and conducted for resource projects, going forward. Every means to change the fortune of the Niger Delta for good should be exploited as the region cannot afford to be in rot long after oil is a thing of the past. The time to act is now.
Ediri Oyibo is a journalist and he wrote from Abuja.
