By Obiabin Onukwugha
Nigerian civic organisation, Budgit and environmentalist activists have called for a review of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), in order to allow for its adequate implementation.
They made the call at a Training on Corruption in the Extractive Industry, organised by Budgit in partnership with Oxfam in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, recently.
The environmental stakeholders reasoned that the PIA created room for international oil companies to shortchange host communities rather than bringing the needed development to them.
The environmentalists also stated that the federal government of Nigeria has not been able to hold defaulting companies to pay the relevant fines as provided by the law.
They particularly called on the Federal Government to revisit the framework for governance of the Host Communities Development Trust; the Board, Management, Advisory Committees and the 3% allocation to the host communities.
In his presentation tagged “Review of the Host Communities Regulations, Implementation Templates and Procedural Guidelines of the PIA”, Executive Director of Wells of Science Foundation, Mfon Gabriel posited that provisions of the law, especially 3% operational cost of IOCs makes it difficulties to hold oil companies accountable.
On his part, The Executive Director, Policy Alert, Tijah Bolton, regretted that the PIA failed bring respite to the Niger Delta communities.
He said: “To be frank, the fossil fuel regime has not really benefitted the communities in the Niger Delta and elsewhere, where oil and gas resources are being extracted from. Most of what we see is environmental degradation. We see a lot of poverty. We see a lot of conflict in these communities as a result of the invasion as it were, of their communities by oil and gas multinationals. And it appears that over the years the Nigerian State has been a willing collaborator in the dispossession of our oil and gas communities.
“Now when the petroleum Industry Act came, it was supposed to be some kind of respite for these communities and that was why a special chapter in the legislation was provided to address host community development. Unfortunately, what we saw was that the host community framework within the PIA actually reinforced the dispossession of Host Communities in the Niger Delta.
“And this is quite unfortunate because these are communities that actually were looking forward to the HCDT Provision as something that is going to give them benefits. So now, one of the specific areas where these communities are disappointed is in the quantum of resources that will be flowing to them. So we have 3% of preceding year operating expenditure that will be contributed to the Trust, whereas this Trust is actually going to be controlled more or less by the Setlaw, that’s the oil companies. The oil companies have the yam and the knife as it were and they leave the communities with the shorter end of the stick.
“So we have a law that allows the communities to be criminalised so that if there is a damage to facilities, that little 3% will now be deducted from it to address that damage and things like that. So these are some of the issues that are still lingering within the PIA and have to be addressed. At some point it is going to be necessary to actually revisit the framework for governance of the Host Communities Development Trust; the Board, Management, Advisory Committees. The way it is now wields too much power to the hands of the Setlaws and that will need to be addressed.
“The issue of criminslising of the communities will also need to be addressed because it is a time bomb waiting to explode in the communities. The issue of even the definition of who is a host community, which is left for the Setlaws to determine. These are all issues that are actually triggers to conflict.”
Bolton highlighted the need to train youths and communities of the Niger Delta in renewable energy as Nigeria and the world at large transits from fossil fuel.
“Some time ago I was at a workshop where someone presented s satellite image of different parts of Nigeria and they showed the Niger Delta as one of the darkest spot. That shows that electricity coverage, energy penetration in the region is abysmally low.
“So, the Niger Delta actually suffers from energy poverty and this is a paradox because that is the region of the country that is responsible for generating the oil and gas resources that energises the rest of the country and even other countries where we export these resources to.
“So, if there is something the PIA is supposed to achieve for us, it is to reenergize the Niger Delta to provide sustainable energy for the people and how can that be done?
“The current energy system has been said to be dirty, fossil fuels right. The rest of the world is migrating to cleaner renewable energies. So they should have provided some kind of bridge between this old energy system and the new cleaner energy system that the world is to, but that does not exist in the PIA.
“So one of the things that the Host Communities Development Trust should do is to take some of these small resources that is coming to them and begin to invest in skilling up community people, especially young people in new skills that will be needed for the renewable energy system because this one is being phased out and new kind of energy systems are coming and then they can also begin to invest in mini-grids, small community mini-grids; solar energy systems and all that. Communities can pull resources together to do this in partnership with the Setlaws. I think this is the way forward,” he stated.
