Petroleum Resource Governance Framework
While countries remain the entities with significant governance authority, there are several actors with equally important roles. Some are Non-governmental organisations (NGOs), corporations and international organisations and even the citizens. The interactions between these complex interlinkages at an international, national and lo-cal level could lead to positive solutions.
There are several requirements to ensuring a robust petroleum governance framework and the role of transparency cannot be over emphasised. As a response to the chal-lenges caused by the opacity of the petroleum industry, some analysts propose that perhaps “shining the light” could be beneficial. The idea was that through transparen-cy, institutional mechanisms that make government more accountable will be strengthened. This was further strengthened by the idea that perhaps through the transparent management of natural resources, government corruption, institutional erosion, civil conflicts and economic challenges will be resolved. Unfortunately, several years after, these concerns persist despite the popularity of transparency initiatives like the NEITI. It is therefore suggested that while efforts are made to further strengthen the NEITI, there should be a shift towards a broader petroleum resource governance framework. It is in this regard that the Natural Resource Charter is in-strumental.
The Natural Resource Charter could complement the efforts of the NNPC’s implemen-tation of the NEITI’s policies in achieving a comprehensive natural resource governance framework. The Charter provides a practical advice for governments, societies and the international community on how best to manage resource wealth. The Charter contains twelve precepts. The first 10 precepts provides guidance on how a government might manage its natural resources while the last two other precepts such as extractive companies are those responsible for international governance. These twelve precepts are expected to assist governments develop a governance regime that could assist in transforming extractive wealth to sustained prosperity as government will be able to make and implement good policy decisions with support and oversight from citizens and international community.
The NEITI and NNPC must be commended on the basis of its core objective of provid-ing reliable extractive industry financial information so as to provide a platform for dialogue and an opportunity for citizens and NGOs to hold governments accountable. But the idea that transparency alone can somehow lead to greater governance, ac-countability and strengthened institutions, which will in turn lead to resource pros-perity, is unsustainable.
As shown above, key advocates of the NEITI are beginning to acknowledge that such over-expectation is only unrealistic. It is for this reason that scholars are advocating for a shift to natural resource governance which led to the development of the Natural Resource Charter. The concern is that even such commendable gestures remain a challenge to fragile countries that have been plagued by conflicts and weak institu-tions. In this regard, greater responsibility is placed on the governments to muster the necessary political will that can lead to the change and growth they seek. Otherwise, all these discussions will be nothing but fruitless academic exercises. This means that the responsibility rests with governments to adopt and implement these initiatives.
––Divine C. Jude-Okeke Esq,. Oil & Gas Law Governance Enthusiast.
