Many oil corporations seem hesitant to bring host communities under one roof to exchange ideas on better relationship between the two. This may stem from the fear that when the community people come together, the forum usually drift into activism and ‘resource-control’ agitation.
They call it airing their opinions but they seem to incite the youths into fresh agitations that may not take into consideration the gains of years past such as 13%, intervention agencies (such as the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, and the Ministry of Niger Delta), Amnesty Programme, and now oil pipeline protection contracts.
Even places where the $1bn UNEP-awarded cleanup is going on, their leaders also cry over pollution and poor farming.
In this situation, however, one of the pipeline protection contractors known as Pipeline Infrastructure Nigeria Limited (PINL) which is in charge of Rivers, Bayelsa, Imo, and Abia states, seems to dare the lion by freely bringing together stakeholders in the four states. They give them a chance to say how pipelines or oil facilities can be protected through cooperation and collaborations. This is as frequent as every quarter, now heading to once every month.
At the session ongoing at the moment, the dreaded voice of the natives rang out. Phillip Osaro Obele, a paramount ruler in Eleme, took to the floor in an activist’s fashion and spoke like in the days of resource control.
He noted that he sat and learnt at the feet of legends in the Niger Delta such as the late Dapa Biriye and other fathers of Niger Delta agitation. He admitted that PINL has done much to give the oil region a voice, saying communication is key because it helps people to open up and reduce bottled up anger and violence.
He wondered if the welfare packages PINL was offering were commensurate with what the pipes were taking away and if it would be permanent.
Obele raised the issue of dangers of earthquake in years to come from drilling oil and gas out of the earth. He said: “The earth has layers and oil/gas is one of it. If they drill all the oil and gas, what will replace them to restore the balance in the earth’s structure. Will there not be earthquake in the near future?”
Read also: Over 883 illegal refineries destroyed by pipeline protection firm in oil region
Experts agree there is a possibility. It is indicated that: “Oil drilling activities, particularly those involving wastewater injection, can increase the risk of induced earthquakes in the future. These earthquakes are often linked to changes in pore pressure within fault zones caused by the injection of fluids.”
Obele thus asked about the revenue justification. “When all the wealth has been drilled and piped away, what happens to the indigenous communities?
“There are no roads and no healthcare services in these oil communities; nothing. So, what are we benefiting? We are protecting the pipelines that take away our wealth to Bonny Island to overseas, but the proceeds are entering into which pocket?”
He went on: “PINL is always in touch with us with some welfare support. But how permanent are the benefits?”
He made a case for Eleme, saying: “My appeal to the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) is: remember Eleme town. Oil has polluted Eleme areas and we do not breathe good air nor drink good water. Take this message to Abuja as our own voice.”
Outside the hall, however, he told newsmen in an interview that PINL was doing great through mobilization of the communities to see the pipelines are their asset.
PINL lays down plans:
In his presentation, Akpos Mezeh, the Community Relations Consultant, explained the essence of the forum, saying it is for all parties to join in appraising the journey so far since all parties started the process together.
“It is only proper that from time to time, we will come together to assess progress and seek ways to improve.”
He said the mandate to PINL to protect the Trans Niger Pipeline has been achieved through engagements with the host communities. “These collaborative approaches have not only led to stronger relations but also forged a united front against pipeline vandalism.
“Apart from the community stakeholders, we also have a mandate to reach out to other groups. We have our non-state actors, local government chairmen, government security agencies, regulatory agencies.”
He said in collaboration with the communities and government security agencies, they can measure their achievements thus; “We have carried out social investments based on needs assessment done mitigating the socioeconomic drivers of oil theft while promoting sustainable empowerments of our communities.
“We have also ensured that we restore the environment hitherto destroyed by incessant crude oil theft with the associated hazards.
“Also, we have achieved near-zero infractions on the Trans Niger Pipeline and of course that is giving us increased crude oil production. It has also boosted investors’ confidence in our economy with the attendant revenue increase.”
On how this was achieved, he said: “We have been able to motivate our surveillance guards through regular and timely payment of salaries; we have never owed them even one month. We also pay the contractors at the right time. We are also passionate about the safety of workers and the people living in the communities where we have our operations. We have cared for the protection of community people.
“We have also encouraged host community leadership through regular engagement and support. We have also carried out other social responsibilities and interventions that prioritized the welfare of the communities.”
Challenges of oil pipeline protection:
Mezeh enumerated the challenges faced in meeting perfect pipeline protection scheme. He mentioned connivance as well as freeing arrested vandals as the two biggest obstacles to reaching zero attack on the Trans-Niger pipeline that runs through 215 communities to the export terminus in Bonny.
The PINL Community Relations Consultant said one of their challenges had to do with failure to prosecute arrested suspects. He said most of the community people complained that if they arrest suspected vandals and hand over to the police, soon, the suspects would reappear few days after and even threaten those that arrested them. He received loud ovation of affirmation (yes) at the Atlantic Hall of the Hotel Presidential in the garden city when he asked the audience if that was what they told him.
The next challenge is, he said, was community leadership disputes and tussles. “We even went to the local council chairmen to identify the real leaders.
“Our appeal is to the community leaders not to see struggle for positions as a do or die affair. This is because, if you don’t win today, you may win tomorrow, if you don’t win tomorrow, your child may win next tomorrow.”
He said the situation forced the firm to invite all factions to meetings to avoid isolating any group. “We found out that in some places, people do not even recognize or respect their paramount rulers. That is a sad situation and we hereby beg the community people to respect their paramount rulers.”
He mentioned connivance as the biggest challenge facing pipeline protection efforts. He called it stakeholders and community connivance to damage pipelines, saying there have been instances of connivance between security operatives and vandals or between community persons and vandals.
“The criminals are heavily armed and if the arrested ones are released, they return to attack the people they suspected to be behind their arrest.”
He also mentioned issues with some contractors who he said did not perform as much as others because they failed to relate with the host community people.
He said awards were given to best performing contractors to motivate them and encourage the others to aspire to be recognized.
He regretted the Owaza (Abia State) Incident that took lives of two security operatives, saying their guns have not been recovered to this moment.
He said the objective remains to make the pipeline breach free. “The essence of today’s meeting is for us to appraise our journey so far and of course we all started the journey together and it’s only proper that we come together from time to time to assess ourselves whether we made progress.
He declared that PINL’s mandate to protect the Trans Niger Pipeline has been achieved through engagements with the host communities. “These collaborative approaches have not only led to stronger relations but also forged a united front against pipeline vandalism.
“Apart from the community stakeholders, we also have a mandate to reach out to other groups. We have our non-state actors, local government chairmen, government security agencies, regulatory agencies, etc.
“In collaboration with the communities and government security agencies we can measure our achievements such as carrying out social investments based on needs assessment; done mitigating the socioeconomic drivers of oil theft while promoting sustainable empowerments of our communities.
“We have also ensured that we restore the environment hitherto destroyed by incessant crude oil theft with the associated hazards.
“We, also, have achieved near-zero infractions on the Trans Niger Pipeline and of course that amounts to giving us increased crude oil production. It has boosted investors’ confidence in our economy with the attendant revenue increase.”
On how this near zero breach on the pipeline was achieved, Mezeh talked about being able to motivate surveillance guards through regular and timely payment of salaries.
He said they have encouraged host community leadership through regular engagement and support, and have also carried out other social responsibilities and interventions that prioritized the welfare of the communities.
In his intervention, Kennedy West, President-General, Movement for the Survival of Ijaw Ethnic Nationality (MOSIEN), said PINL has done huge work and appealed to the NNPC to carry out upward review of the contract to enable the firm do more.
He said: “There are others also mandated to protect pipelines. You (PINL) got our thumps up for doing very well.”
He appealed to the NNPC to do an upward review of the contract to enable them do more. This forum is the only platform to get the people and the communities to air their grievances. Such regular engagements will lead to zero-breach of the pipeline or zero attacks.
He said bringing these people (full hall of the biggest hall in the biggest hotel in Port Harcourt) is huge.
