A strategy to put a top to the incessant militants� disturbances in the oil-rich Niger Delta region has been floated by Notore Chemicals Limited, the company that bought over National Fertilizer Company of Nigeria (NAFCON).
The Notore strategy, in content and execution, will most likely go a long way to bring peace to this insecurity prone region if adopted by oil companies operating in the region. The oil companies have been the victim of attacks by militants whose grudge is that Niger Delta has been neglected by various administrations in Nigeria for years.
Notore, which is owned 60 percent by Nigerian interests, has signed an MoU with its Onne local community, an MoU that robustly takes care of the needs of the community, Onajite Okoloko, Notore�s chief executive officer, revealed to Business Day last week.
Said Okoloko: �The main content of the MoU is made up of a number of elements: One is that Notore will fund projects that would be selected through a committee made up of key stakeholders of the community.
We will organise them into a group in which they have a broad representation. So when a decision is made, it cuts across the entire community. They will select the project subject to Notore�s budget. The MoU�s life span is five years and once the community selects a project we will go ahead to execute the project according to the will of the people.�
Notore is also empowering the local contractors economically in executing this project and this comes in form of an incentive.
According to Notore�s chief �For every year that we operate freely without any interruption from the community they will have the ability to nominate and get bonus projects valued up to 20 per cent of the budget of that year. So it is an incentive for them, it is an incentive for us too.
Other things we do also in the community are to provide scholarship, provide local contractors contracts that will impact on the economy. We are creating wealth in the local economy.
�We also engage a lot of local people for employment � even on contract basis for certain type of jobs. And of course we are also encouraging the community to throw up graduates in certain areas that would provided value addition to the project we hire them for.
�So it is an all encompassing structure. There is the developmental aspect, social economic empowerment, which we do by awarding contracts to local contractors in the area and also engaging them, and then there is also the capacity building which we do through scholarship in unique areas.�
That is the broad spectrum of what we are doing.�
Angered by years of perceived neglect by the Nigerian government and multinational oil companies, communities in Nigeria�s oil-rich Niger Delta have periodically erupted in protest in recent years. Again, beginning in October 1998, youths in the Delta began a new round of widespread protests, including occupations of oil installations and even kidnapping of oil workers, sometimes leading to violence and loss of life. Through such dramatic action, they hope to attract the government�s attention and win compensation from the oil companies.
Nigeria gets about 90 per cent of its petroleum from the sprawling Delta in the south, an area inhabited by �minority� ethnic groups such as the Itsekiris, Urhobos, Ijaws, Ibibios, Ogonis, Kalabaris, Efiks, Ikwerres, Ilajes and Ibibios.
In spite of the enormous resources it generates for the national coffers, the Niger Delta is perhaps the least-developed area of the country. Less than five per cent of federal oil revenue is spent directly on the oil-producing areas. The Delta therefore lacks good roads, electricity, potable water and good schools. Communication facilities are few and far between. Unemployment is high because the rivers, creeks and streams which provide people with their main source of livelihood � fishing � have been extensively polluted through the activities of the more than a dozen oil companies operating in the area.
Nigeria lacks legislation compelling oil companies to contribute to the development of their host communities. General guidelines on maintaining safe environmental practices lack teeth and are merely appeals to the major oil firms to be socially responsible. Nevertheless, the government, through appeals, has had some success in making oil companies appreciate the need to be �good corporate citizens.�
The protests of the communities in the Niger Delta also have had an impact.