Oghenetejiri Nyerhovwo
The Federal government ,multi -national oil/gas companies, stakeholders as well as government agencies responsible for the formulation of policies have been called upon to draw up a new policy frame work that would serve as guide for the effective administration/handling of host communities related issues in the country just as a call has been made for the decentralization of the Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (DESOPADEC) to serve the oil/gas bearing communities across the state better.
This was made by Mr. Joseph Abinogun, national president, Association of Families of Oil and Gas Producing Communities (ASFOGACOM) in a statement made available to journalists i Warri, the group blamed the recurring crisis in the oil/gas industry on the absence of instrument of equitable management of all stakeholders’ interest, landowners inclusive.
The oil/gas landowners group suggested that the proposed new policy frame work be based on host communities local content saying that the main purpose of the new frame work is to remove the incessant conflict of interest arising from the present obnoxious host community structure, adding, “there have been a plethora of complaints and cries of marginalization from oil and gas landowners who are the primary stakeholders in the host communities apparatus. A clear line of demarcation must be drawn between the interest and obligations of oil and gas landowners and the political structure of the host communities.”
While lamenting the almost unilateral takeover of the host communities’ administration system by those who care less about the interest of landowners, the group called on the Federal Government to, as a matter of public urgent importance include youths of oil and gas landowners extraction in the ongoing oil and gas pipelines surveillance project, adding, “no one can provide a better security to oil installations more than the landowners themselves. Anything short of this will amount to a call for another round of crisis in the Niger Delta region.”
On the decentralization or reorganization of States’ Oil Producing Development Commissions, the national president of ASFOGAPCOM cited DESOPADEC as a good example of such interventionist agency that has not lived up to the expectations of the indigenous people of oil and gas producing communities that deserves urgent restructuring.
According to Mr. Abinogun, “the benefits of restructuring will help government eliminate waste, duplication of offices and functions, gives room for more accountability and transparency in the system as well as administrative efficiency. In addition, such decentralization will take the efforts of the agency closer to the people as each ethnic group will have its’ own local agency manned by their own representatives to take care of their local needs and challenges. This will free the interventionist agency from the suffocating claws of political jobbers who have high jacked the DESOPADEC to the detriment of those for which the agency was created to cater for.”
