NIGER DELTA CHANGING NARRATIVES

Aside from being perceived as backward and degraded, occasioned by crude oil exploration, exploitation and production, the Niger Delta region means different things to different people. To some, it is a region where communal right to a clean environment and access to clean water supply is violated. By its admission, the oil industry has abandoned thousands of polluted sites in the region. Aquifiers and other water supply sources which are being adversely affected by industrial or other activities need to be recovered while communities are adequately compensated for their losses.

To others, it symbolizes a location where the government employs non-participatory approach to development/ broad-based consultative approach that strips the people of their sense of ownership, where the government and other Nigerians have failed to see the problem of the Niger Delta as a national one.

To the rest, it is a zone where fierce war has been raging between ethnic and social forces in Nigeria over the ownership and control of oil resources. And as a direct result, a long dark shadow has been cast on efforts to improve the wellbeing and economic development of the region’s individuals, peoples, and communities. However, looking at recent developments particularly as it affects the region; it will not be hasty to say that the narrative is changing. I will concentrate on two. First is the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill(PIB) by both Houses after years of back and forth movement. And recently, precisely on Monday August 16, 2021, President Muhammadu Buhari signed the bill into law. The Act provides legal, governance, regulatory and fiscal framework for the Nigerian Petroleum Industry and development of host communities.

The second development has to do with the recent declaration by Nigeria’s Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo at the GbaramatuVoice Newspaper’s 6th Anniversary Lecture/Niger Delta Awards. Professor Osinbajo, among other remarks, told the gathering that this administration is determined to see through the completion of all the critical projects that had been embarked upon in the region. In his words, “we have invested significantly in the Niger Delta as the region that holds the energy resources that have powered our progress for six decades as well as the keys to an emergent gas economy. In 2017, following my tour of the Niger Delta, which involved extensive consultations with key stakeholders in the region, the New Vision for the Niger Delta was birthed in response to the various challenges which had been plaguing our people. The objective of this New Vision is to ensure that the people of the region benefit maximally from their wealth, through promoting infrastructural developments, environmental remediation and local content development. …”

Even as this appear welcoming, the truth must be said to the effect that the people of the region are particularly not happy with the paltry three per cent allocation to host communities by the new Act.

Jerome-Mario Utomi, Lagos