Between Delta State govt and Shell (2)

IN his address to the Institute of Directors, Brian Anderson, who was until June 1997 the Managing Director of Nigeria’s Shell Petroleum Development Company Limited observed that: “The world around us is changing rapidly; liberalisation, globalisation and technology are three powerful forces at the global level shaping the future.

Societies are moving from a highly regulated environment as trade and ideas are globalised. Rapid technological development is taking place of which information technology is the great enabler”.

It is in the light of the aforesaid that one could not help but wonder: Where were Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan and our DeltaState leaders, brinkmanship, dialoguing dexterity and magnetic pull before Shell decided to leave Warri and nay DeltaState. No matter what, this is a great indictment on Governor Uduaghan and the entire DeltaState leadership. Shell was the greatest provider of employment as it were in DeltaState. The DeltaState leadership is inexcusably guilty for this brazen administrative socio-economic solecism and harakiri.

It is has been vaunted with goebelian gusto by the Uduaghan administration that we should be thinking of alternatives to the oil industry. But is this the way to go about it? It is clear that the  consequences and effect will tell enormously on the Delta State economy as Shell contractors, allied and service companies, are beginning to move to River State, Edo State and Akwa Ibom State, etc.

We know that Pan Ocean Oil Service Company has already moved to EdoState. The buying of the divestment carcases of Shell, like equipment,  estate houses, hospitals, etc, are now the focus for our  DeltaState leaders and politicians.

The Nigeria Petroleum Development Company, NPDC, is supposed to take full accommodation of all the infrastructures that Shell is leaving behind. But that is not the case as our leaders and politicians are bending over backwards to buy Shell’s assets and divestment paraphernalias. Why is the NPDC that took over part of Shell’s divestment  assets in DeltaState move its headquarters to EdoState? Why is the Bonga Oil Field being serviced from Lagos instead of DeltaState that is nearer? There are, indeed, so many loose and open -ended omnibuses which Governor Uduaghan and his team must block to salvage DeltaState from the labyrinth of massive joblessness, social kamikaze and economic contretemps.

There are virtually no government- owned  industries in Delta State as Asaba Textile Mills, Delta Glass Factory, Bendel Steel Structures, Africa Timber and Plywood Industries  Sapele, etc, have been harakiried, comatosed and kwashiorkored  by dubious privatisation. The Delta Steel Company Limited Ovwian-Aladja was sold out whilst the Ibori administration slept and now Uduaghan has followed suit over SPDC. Delta is now the Mecca of unemployed artisans and young graduates and the socio-economic consequences are too diabolically disastrous to contemplate.

The discourtesy of Shell leaving their host communities without a farewell is a disgrace to diplomacy after over 46 years of operations. We call on theses oil service companies to relocate their secretariats and headquarters to the communities in which they operate, and development projects and assistance should not be channeled through fraudulent conduits, but by providing them directly through their in-house agencies.

In spite of the recent events that threatened the bold initiatives and strategies of the Federal Government, further dialogue and conciliation amongst the host-governors, communities and other stakeholders drawing on reliable statistical data should douse the embers of conflict  and reckless relocation of  oil  companies and their contractors from long drawn-out contracts and location.

In conclusion, it must be emphasized that the environmental protection issues and the politics relating to them cannot be divorced from the vital economic role of the Niger Delta. While oil from the region accounts for over 90 per cent of national and state budgets, the attribution of derivation, that is, the proportion of funds allocated to producing areas or states, which now stands at the mere pittance of 13 percent should be all-embracingly repositioned with reasonable increase to 25 percent. But our Governors must put these monies to good use with honesty and transparency.

Mr.  BOBSON GBINIJE, a social critic, wrote from Warri, Delta State.

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Between Delta State govt and Shell (2)