Previous Next

Keep agreements, oil communities urge firms

To reduce conflicts and ensure smooth oil and gas operations in the Niger Delta, indigenes of host communities across Delta state, have called on oil firms to abide by agreements, interact with the right leaders and tackle incidents of pollution in their areas.

They spoke at a Peace Building and Conflict Management training organised by the Partnership Initiatives for the Niger Delta (PIND) Foundation in Ekpan, Uvwie Council Area of Delta State.

The 20 participants drawn from selected oil host communities while identifying issues that cause faceoff between them and oil companies (both multinational and indigenous firms), also mentioned bad community leadership.

Speaking, a participant, Peter Satu, said delay in payment for executed contracts by companies on the part of companies often leads to disruption of oil operations.

Another participant identified simply as Femi, said execution of substandard projects in the communities due to "lack of monitoring and inspection by the oil companies, as they would their own projects" and no rise in pay, despite the current economic realities, are among concerns of the host communities.

Yet another participant, Perez, noted that throwing only "casual jobs at indigenes, when there are qualified persons to also take up technical jobs" bring strife.

Stanley Boyo and Oyen Omawumi, in their separate speeches, decried the environmental degradation across the oil producing areas and the seeming lack of will by the settlers to address the situation.

They pointed out that fishing, which is a major means of survival in the communities, has become unproductive due to the polluted waters.

However, one Solomon Ofoaramieyere, pointed accusing fingers to the locals and their penchant for holding on to power.

He recalled the early 1990s when issues concerning oil operations were tabled at town hall meetings with every community member present to give their input in decisions to be taken.

Speaking in the same vein, Best encouraged the oil firms to visit and find out the right leaders elected by the communities, to deal with, rather than create problems by interacting with ex-leaders.

He added that the introduction of the Local Content Policy that was believed to do the host communities "good," has rather "enslaved the indigenes".

"Since the indigenous companies came, things depreciated. Salary became less and when you complained, they would sack you and employ others. These things cause problems in the communities.

Steven Etsano lamented that despite promising to convert to staff, community workers who have been with Chevron Nigeria Limited for many years the company has failed to do so, leading to incessant protests.

The participants were, however, optimistic that if the findings of the training were acted upon, there will be "peace and harmony" among all stakeholders.

Earlier in a chat with newsmen, Dr. Chukwudi Njoku, the Capacity Building Coordinator for PIND Foundation, said the training and interaction would improve the capacity of the participants on peace building, as well as conflict management and prevention in their communities.

"Conflicts can occur in our daily activities, but in communities that are host to oil companies, we know also that there are special conflicts that occur in those places. We've been able to identify some of those conflicts base on narration and testimonies of participants and we would work together with participants in a session of conflict analysis for us to understand, how they think these conflicts can be managed.

"Their position would help PIND Foundation as an organization to design interventions in those communities that would help with reducing conflict.

"We understand that there are some issues related to the operations of Chevron and other oil companies and we want them to have the capacity to manage those situations such that the economy, livelihoods of people would improve. Because peace and economic development go hand-in-hand and really, there cannot be growth in these places if conflicts prevail," Njoku stated.