BETWEEN AMERICAN OIL COMPANIES AND TRUTH OPTION IN NIGERIA

 

For the U.S Government authourities to embark on a criminal investigation of some American oil producing and services companies over alleged payment of bribes in their business dealings in Nigeria is a welcomed development. However, the perspective of the claim by U.S. oil firms that doing business in Nigeria is difficult without giving bribes is unacceptable and could best be said to be simply rubbish.

From the tone of the submissions by the culprit American companies it was obvious that there were deliberate efforts to slant the real issues at stake by portraying Nigeria as a very corrupt country and U.S. a saintly heaven. This in itself was an outright deceit by both the investigated companies and the investigating authourities.

In the plethora of cases involving American companies doing business in Nigeria, it is very difficult to actually ascertain the plane of corruption whether from the American side or from the Nigerian side. It is like the egg and chicken case where it takes divine wisdom to ascertain which precedes the other.

The claim by the U.S Justice Department that the investigation was targeted at companies with difficulties in complying with U.S. anti-bribery laws in countries ( Nigeria) that may be awash in dishonesty was diversionary. There are no pitfalls of operating in Nigeria (different from the U.S.) as claimed by the Americans. The real pitfalls are with the American companies that have robbed Nigeria over the years by their opaque business practices and the case of Vetco Gray Controls, Halliburton and Kellogg etc. were clear instances. The public hear of American bribe scandals outside the U.S. only when two or more American firms bid for jobs in Nigeria and maybe when one of them “outsmarts” the others, otherwise nothing is ever mentioned of atrocities by American companies in Nigeria even by their own transparency NGOs.

Is it not funny that though the United States has the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act which prohibits American people and their firms from bribing foreign officials to win businesses and this same Americans and other western nationals have plied their acts with some western sophistications across the globe including Nigeria.

As earlier highlighted in media reports, the U.S. Energy policy demands for a more transparent, accountable and responsible use of oil resources yet it also emphasizes the context of “enhancing the security and stability of American investments”. The question is: Which one gets the priority: transparency or protecting American interests?

If the U.S. laws on bribery of foreign country officials truly say that the consequences for such bribery carry very severe punishments including long years of imprisonment for any American found guilty, then all American firms doing business not only in Nigeria but across Africa should be jailed straight away without wasting time setting up investigation panels because they are all guilty of bribery and corruption under whatever slang they like to call it.

In addition, all the American banks and other financial institutions housing stolen public funds from Nigeria right from the military era should also be exposed and sanctioned by U.S. authourities. Properties bought with such monies on American soil should be sold and the proceeds return to Nigeria.

Media reports claimed that the U.S. government was conducting a wide corruption probe of its firms doing business in Nigeria and had sent inquiries to several firms while others have also voluntarily been co-operating with the government. This is just an image laundering exercise. If they are sincere in exposing the “American practice” outside America especially in the Nigerian oil and gas sector, they should call for open submission of memoranda from Nigeria on the issue especially from the Niger Delta oil and gas province. The U.S. authourities would be amazed at the level of rottenness of American and British firms doing oil and gas business in Nigeria.

Over 15 per cent of total oil exports from Nigeria are stolen daily. This apparently can only happen through collaboration between Nigerian officials and foreign oil firms including foreign buyers of the stolen crude oil. None of these categories can be excused. And if properly looked into, the western collaborators may be more culpable as in most cases, they initiate such criminal acts.

Let the American authourities investigate with honesty the entire hydra-headed crude oil theft from facilities in the Niger Delta of Nigeria and elsewhere in the Gulf of Guinea they would be amazed that the “final thieves” either are from or end up in the U.S.  Who trains the local thieves? Who buys or rather receives the stolen crude oil? Whose refineries are the stolen crude feedstock’s processed outside Africa? And even the portion that ends within Africa, who are the technical partners in those refineries (that is in cases where they are not wholly owned by the holier-than-thou westerners)?

The indictment of the executive of Willbros in the U.S. mentioned the alleged bribery of top officials of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and some top government officials though it never stated whether it was state or national officials. It also fingered some unnamed officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Department of Resources (DPR) and the National Petroleum Management Services (NAPIMS).

The truth is that the indictment was based solely on Willbros’ one-sided face-saving submissions to its country’s in-house probe panel. There was nothing wrong in an American firm being indicted by an American probe panel. It is very unfortunate that Willbros of all companies that have done terrible things in Nigeria would shamelessly claim that they were coerced by Nigerian officials to give bribe. This was a very big lie.  

In my years of reporting the oil industry as a journalist, if there was any foreign oil service firm to be described as ethically and morally bankrupt it was Willbros Nigeria. A check at their last host community, Choba at the outskirt of Port Harcourt would confirm this assertion. The company’s track record throughout the period it operated in Niger Delta, around Onne and Choba were marred by its environmental recklessness and irresponsibility; host community neglect which most times led to violent confrontations between youths/women and armed soldiers usually employed by the company to defend its atrocities. The aquatic and marine lives in the New Calabar River has been reduced to near-zero by the discharge of toxic pipe coating substances from the company’s operations into the rivers down to Iwofe through Ogbogoro, all in the Ikwere are of Rivers state. Yet there is no tangible community development project or programme to compensate the fishermen and farmers rendered redundant by Willbros’ activities. The company was a major contributor to the current militant protest in the Niger Delta as it failed to identify with host communities. Of course they started paying for their irresponsibility by the level, sophistication and frequency of armed robbery before they ran away from Nigeria.

To say that the Americans doing business in Nigeria have contributed immensely to the level and sophistication of corruption and fraud in the Nigerian economy especially the oil and gas sector is an understatement. We have heard the cases of Halliburton, MW Kellogg in the TSKJ constriction, Mobil, Chevron, former Ashland and a host of other producing, drilling and other services companies.

So it was a blatant lie to claim that American companies that do not want to pay bribes are unable to obtain permits needed to carry out business in Nigeria, while those that do, risk of being charged with breaching the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practice Act. How many of such companies have been charged and convicted so far and of what benefit has such conviction brought to Nigeria?

Americanfirms in Nigeria have been at the fore front of either not paying at all or under-declaring their due taxes and royalties. They bring in foreign workers from all kinds of places at their whims and caprices under all kinds of disguise including technical experts just to weld iron rods together or supervise catering units of such companies. And in all these cases, taxes are not paid at all either to the local, state and governments or to the federal government. Meanwhile, they deceive the NNPC in the joint venture accounting by claiming that they pay these funny ‘expatriates’ the American-style wages while in the actual sense, these foreign worker especially from Asia and Latin America are paid pittance and the real money goes into the coffers of these companies. Majority of the real western workers in Nigeria came with three months visiting visa but have stayed in the country for years.  So there are so many issues for investigation by the American authourities not just to fine a company and collect huge sums for the sake of just enforcing American laws. Thank God for the civil agitation by the Niger Delta resource rights activists that have scared some of these dubious American and British firms out of the Nigerian oilfields.

 

By

IFEANYI IZEZE

PORT HARCOURT, NIGERIA

(iizeze@yahoo.com)