ODAHIEKWU OGUNDE, Yenagoa
The alleged divestment by the International Oil Companies (IOCs) from onshore assets to offshore fields has received a backlash from stakeholders in the Niger Delta.
The stakeholders claimed that the divestment move by IOCs was contrary to the energy transition advocacy to renewable energy sources.
They also alleged that the IOCs’ action was a ploy to evade development obligations and responsibility for polluting the region.
The stakeholders urged the Federal Government to compel IOCs operating in the region to honour the Memorandum of Understandings (MoU), Global Memorandum of Understanding (GMoU) and other agreements entered with host communities.
Their complaints were contained in a communique issued on Monday after a one-day forum, titled, ‘Community Dialogue on Unmasking the Motives of IOCs Divestment in the Niger Delta’.
The forum was facilitated by the Environmental Rights Action and Friends of the Earth Nigeria, ERA/FoEN, held in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State capital.
They argued that while global divestment advocacy was driven by the quest for cleaner energy sources, the same could not be said of IOCs who were merely abandoning polluted sites for deep sea fields to escape scrutiny of their operations.
The stakeholders said the call became imperative following the divestment by some IOCs who had abdicated their social obligations to their host communities as spelt out in the MoU and GMOU.Oil community leaders, youth and women leaders, academics, environmental and rights activists and the media participated in the forum.
They held that “there is a need for a better understanding and deepened community engagements on the global environmental justice and community definitions of divestments vis-a-vis the model of the IOCs in the Niger Delta.”
They observed that community people of all classes had suffered exclusion in the divestment process, noting that the divestment process had largely weakened local struggles for environmental justice.
The stakeholders noted that there was the need to integrate the communities to make them the central focus of the ongoing divestment process.The communiqué read in part: “There is complicit silence by the Nigerian state and the regulatory agencies as IOCs dictate the terms of divestment.
“The decision making on the divestment process and other matters relevant to the local communities in the Niger Delta and the IOCs and Nigerians government have excluded the communities.
“There is the need for the IOCs to decommission their toxic assets and carry out remedial actions monitored by independent bodies and civil societies in the communities.
“The need for de-militarisation of the Niger Delta communities that are legitimately agitating for a safe environment for their development.”The oil and gas companies in Nigeria should be held liable for nearly six decades of ecocide in the Niger Delta as precursor to remedial actions and compensation.
“Divesting abandoned toxic assets and complex problematic relationships with communities that the Domestic Oil Companies (DOCs) have inherited and continued to perpetrate.
“DOCs have inherited and continued the tradition of impunity and lack of accountability to local communities.
“In his remarks, Executive Director, ERA/FoEN, Mr Chima Williams, said the it was a fact that divestment had become a major issue as the oil majors abandoned their toxic onshore facilities and went offshore where they evade monitoring.
He explained that the exclusion of communities and their concerns in the divestment discourse motivated ERA/FoEN to facilitate the dialogue.
Vice Chancellor, Federal University Otuoke, Bayelsa State, Prof Teddy Adias, and Prof Sofiri Joab-Peterside, Sociology lecturer at University of Port Harcourt, shared their perspectives on divestment to lay foundations for the dialogue.