Give Niger Delta Oil Economy – Faith Nwadishi Urges Government -Advocates Host Community Fund

want us to say there? That is what it should be. Some should actually rethink our democracy processes and ensure that citizens are put at the centre of it all and then use this little time we have to enjoy our oil to make plans for our future generation.

How do you relate to the fact that the focus of government seems to be more on oil while other mineral resources are left in the hands of individuals and states?

Oil is easy money for government. We are so concentrated on oil that we are leaving the other mineral resources that we have, to the hands of individuals. That is not right. Then, the second part of it is that, when we started exploration of oil, we were not ready. Let me give you a little bit of history on how we started the exploration of oil.  As at when they wanted to start exploring oil, Nigeria was still under colonial rule, Nigeria as a whole country was given as one contract to Shell. Then they were calling them Shell BP. That was how we started this whole business. After a while people now started coming in. The first commercial quantity of crude we took out was in 1958. Then, we were producing 1500 barrels per day. Now we are producing 3.3million barrels per day according to the record they give to us. 1500 barrels per day was the first commercial quantity from Oloibiri. At that time, we didn’t have a law so the colonial masters will come and tell us this is what it is because we did not have the technology neither did we have the capacity to determine the quantity of oil produced. We were only interested in how much the IOCs are bringing. So, we go ahead and sign; that was how we were.  Now, technology is coming we are seeing all of these. We do not know how much crude we produce in this country. We do not have that data, DPR will come and tell you oh we can… they don’t have it. Quote me anywhere. We don’t have it. What they are doing for us now is, the more you look the less you see. We say we are producing 2.3 million BPD. Technology has shown that if you want to trace oil if for instance, Shell drew oil, Total drew oil in the open sea they know that this oil is Total’s oil that this oil is Shell’s oil. How come they are not telling us which of those oil that they are stealing in Nigeria, whose oil are they stealing, who is stealing it, who brings the ship that is up to 10- storey building to come and steal the oil?

Can you say that the IOCs have been fair to the host communities?

I will simply say that it is the rat in the house that shows the rat outside where to come and steal the fish in the house. The Constitution has given the government the rights to explore our oil and our natural resources, and they went ahead to make the laws that say that everything under the ground belongs to government. There was a time we were doing an advocacy on that and I said well, I do not have any problem if everything underground is yours but for you to step on my ground to be able to get and for you to have to step on my ground to be able to get what is on under the ground you need to respect me as a landowner. Government has not as much respected the landowners.

Government is foot dragging in allowing informal operators in the extraction of oil while small scale miners in minerals like gold are having a field day. Is this not a case of double standards?

That is because of the way we started all of this oil exploration business and you see that is where the issues of 13 per cent and the agitation from resource control came in. Resource control arose because people are saying let us have our resources. In our clime here the brand of federalism we are running, the constitution has already given the right to mine natural resources to the Federal Government. But that is a conversation we must have because at the state level, for solid minerals, we have what is called ‘Artisanal Miners’ and if you go now, you will see a lot of Chinese and Indians. They are the ones that are taking away our resources because we feel one area is different from the other area but it is the same natural resources. We have to have a conversation around what is happening and on how to harness our natural resources for the benefit everybody.

How do you think the level of poverty among the oil-bearing communities could be minimized?

What we have and are experiencing is what I can call poverty in the midst of plenty. One of the ways they would have been able to address it is the creation of Host Community Fund and its full implementation, having sincere leaders. Apart from the Host Community Fund, we have 13 per cent derivation that runs into millions and billions of Naira that goes to the state governments. What did they do with it? We do not have an oil economy in the Niger Delta. We need to have oil economy in the Niger Delta in such a way that within the community, we have experts in that sector, so you are not going to bring experts from outside. You are going to use experts you have trained to service the oil industry within the oil-bearing areas. In the whole of Niger Delta, we have only Petroleum Training Institute (PTI).  PTI is the only institution that we train people from the Oil and Gas company. How many people can they train? We should have specialized institutions whereby once you are trained this is the business you are doing, the business of refining, the business of exploration, and the business of production. You have people within those areas, so you create a value chain. When you have ready market and ready experts, so you don’t have to go to India, for instance, to get an Indian because the person is good in computer because you have not trained your people. So, if we create a viable oil economy within the Niger Delta Region, we would have started on the right path of addressing the issue of poverty and we will not be talking about all of these issues around environmental deprivation and coal.

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