Stakeholders kick, accuse IOCs of dictating divestments in Niger Delta

By Akinola Ajibade

The International Oil Companies ( IOCs) operating in the country are dictating the terms of ongoing divestments from onshore to offshore operations, stakeholders alleged. 

The Oil Majors are Shell, Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Total among others Of note, some of the  firms have a long history with Nigeria, especially oil producing areas of Noge Delta, where they produce and explore oil fir growth 

The stakeholders, who expressed their minds in a communique  issued at the end of a ‘Community Dialogue on Motives Behind IOCs Divestment in The Niger Delta’ accused the IOCs of dominating the spate of activities in the region.

The event was organised by the  Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.

A Professor of Sociology at the University of Port Harcourt, Sofiri Joab-Peterside,and the Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University, Otuoke, Professor Teddy Adias,spoke  on “Redefining Divestment: The Nigerian Experience” and “Ramifications of Community Exclusion in the Divestment Debate: The Oloibiri Experience”, respectively.

They lamented  that the divestment processes had posed grave threats to ongoing court cases instituted by local communities against the divesting oil firms, amidst claims of unsafe operating environment.

According to the communiqué,”The global environmental justice community campaign for divestment of public finance, loans and subsidies from extractive industries has been replaced, abused, and misrepresented by all divesting IOCs in the Niger Delta and the Nigerian Government to the detriment of local communities.

“There is a complicit silence by the Nigerian state and the regulatory agencies as IOCs dictate the terms of divestments.The oil and gas industry in Nigeria has only brought untold hardship on local communities through oil spills, gas flaring and other pollutions that have ruined lives, land, and livelihoods of indigenous people.”

The  participants complained that multinationals had excluded host communities in the region in decision-making on the divestment processes and other matters relevant to their environment and livelihoods.

They  said that the divestment processes had also largely weakened local struggles for environmental justice and divided communities, noting that domestic oil companies have inherited and continued the tradition of impunity and lack of accountability to the people.

They added:”Though all community people of all classes have suffered exclusion in the divestment processes, women and children suffer profoundly because the ongoing processes further aggravate their non-inclusion at all levels of engagement”

They advocated the need for a better understanding and deepened community engagement on the global environment justice community definition of divestments concerning the model of the IOCs in the Niger Delta.

There was need to hold the oil and gas companies in Nigeria liable for nearly six decades of ecocide in the region as a precursor to remedial actions and compensation,they added.