How Spaces for Change Aided Reduction in Violent Activities by N’Delta Communities

Peter Uzoho

Spaces for Change, a prominent civil society organisation in Nigeria has celebrated its 13th anniversary and its landmark advocacy interventions that led to several policy reforms and attitudinal changes in different sectors of the country’s economy.

Among those changes was the reduction in violent activities by the marginalised people of the oil-producing communities who hitherto were resorting to destruction of oil and gas facilities, shutting down of exploration and production operations and attacking of companies’ personnel to press home their demands.

Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the 13th anniversary celebration held in Lagos, the Executive Director, Spaces for Change, Mrs Victoria Ibezim-Ohaeri, observed that the oil-producing Niger Delta has been underdeveloped, with millions of people living in the region impoverished while their livelihoods were destroyed as a result of the mineral oil extraction activities going on there.

She stated that it seemed that billions of dollars that the country has raked in from these mineral resources were not trickling down to the people in terms of benefits, development, jobs, and empowerment.

According to her, during policy-making, the people of the region were just recipients of handouts and were in a benevolent situation, saying that was the era her organisation met the Niger Delta and had to take actions to correct it.

“And when it was time for the government to make an effort to reform the petroleum laws, we were at the forefront of that campaign to end that benevolent regime so that communities would move from passive beneficiaries to active stakeholders, active participants, and decision-makers in issues that affect them, and that is natural resource governance.

“So, what we have done over the years is to empower communities, provide them with the legal resources, with the training, with the information. We’ve also created spaces for negotiation between the people”, Ibezim-Ohaeri said.

Through her organisation’s roles, she said ordinary people of the Niger Delta now have access to the highest regulatory bodies and operating companies, adding that Spaces for Change has facilitated and brokered dialogues with all the stakeholders in the region including the internation al oil companies (IOCs), the indigenous companies, the regulators, and groups like the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NETI).

“We have forced the door open so that communities can have a voice. And what causes communities to resort to violence is when they don’t have spaces to engage, when they have nobody to talk to, so they blow up pipelines. You can see an increasing reduction of violent activities is because of the opening of spaces where people can make a call, call a director of somewhere, attend this meeting, and table those grievances, and they begin to see results. So, we are very happy that today that era of benevolent handouts to communities has come to an end.

“So, we now have a new legal framework that makes it mandatory for corporations to make a contribution that is used to deliver social and economic benefits to the local people. So that is sort of what we do at Spaces for Change”, she explained.

However, she expressed worry over the energy transition conversation and the deceit by companies pulling out of fossil fuel investment without taking the necessary steps to clean up the environment before divesting.

She revealed that the organisation had reissued a lot of policy briefers and advisories to governments and to other stakeholders, expressing their worry about energy transition as companies deceitfully indulge in greenwashing their identities.

Ibezim-Ohaeri added, “While we agree with the benefits that may come, which is the reduction of carbon emissions, we are also worried about companies greenwashing their identities, simply just changing their identities and logos and calling themselves green-friendly companies. We are worried about companies divesting from fossil fuel investments without cleaning up the environment. We are worried about national policy arrangements that have created a picture of what the new green economy will look like without mentioning communities.

“We are now talking about what the alternative livelihoods for communities will be. So, these are the sort of conversations we have started having with relevant stakeholders in the industry.”

Some of the organisation’s partners including NEITI, Ford Foundation and the Fund for Global Human Rights, who were represented at the anniversary celebration, hailed Spaces for Change for the positive impact its advocacy and interventions have had on Nigeria’s socio-economic development.