By: Ifeanyi Izeze
It isdisheartening that the Anglo-Dutch oil giant, Shell, seemed not to
have leant asingle lessons in its self-inflicted misfortunes in the
oil-rich Niger Deltaarea. How come that not nearly enough is being done by
Shell to polish orrather mend its tattered perception by the people of the
Delta? Does anybodyneed to tell Shell that its grandstanding and
self-glorification to a peopleand a region it has so battered could be
provocative and may further worsen itswoes in the area?
Whether Shellwants to hear this or not, the spate of frictions between oil
companies andtheir host communities in the Niger Delta region was created
or ratherinstituted by Shell’s dishonest and opaque dealings with the
governments andpeople of the Niger Delta operational areas. Go and check
this out! And it is curious that Shell isyet to come to the reality that
its brand is widely perceived as toxic by mostif not all indigenes of the
area.
What is the essenceof the ongoing covert campaign of dangling mind-blowing
fictitious figures as itscontributions to the federal government and the
Niger Delta Development Commission(NDDC)? How come Shell now organises
crocodile-smiling stakeholders’ meetingall over the place to throw around
figures of the billions of dollars it paidto both the federal government
and NDDC? Is it actually to inform the people ofthe Niger Delta or incite
them again against the federal government and NDDC?
First it was the2017 Swamp West Hub Integrated Stakeholders Engagement
Forum forTarakiri/Egbema/Oporoma Community Leadership in Yenagoa Bayelsa
state. This wasfollowed by another forum titled ‘EA Hub Integrated
Stakeholders EngagementForum for Iduwini/Mien/Kou/Bassan-West Cluster
community.
Earlier in Port Harcourt, Igo Weli,Shell’sGeneral Manager, External
Relations, while reacting to the recent shut-down of SPDC flowstation and
gas plant by angry youths of Belema community in Rivers state, didnot
spare any discretion in reeling out outlandish statistics solely
contrivedto blackmail the federal government and the NDDC and incite the
angry youthsagainst the government and the Niger Delta development
interventionist agency.
At the peak of the Belema community crisis, Shell was quick to
disclosethat it paid $31 billion to the Nigerian government as its
contributionsbetween 2002 and 2016.
Recently at the2017 Swamp West Hub Integrated Stakeholders Engagement
Forum forTarakiri/Egbema/Oporoma Community Leadership in Yenagoa Bayelsa
state, Weli, representedby the Assets Manager, Swamp West Hub, Mesh
Maichibi, told the local peoplethat Shell and its Joint Venture (JV)
partners contributed $29 billion to theNigerian government between 2012
and 2016 in addition to another $1.8 billionpaid into the coffers of the
Niger DeltaDevelopment Company (NDDC) funds within the same period for the
development ofthe oil-bearing communities in the Niger Delta region.
Mischievously, thecompany was quick to remind Nigerians that, “We also
know that we have NDDC andthe NDDC was set up to develop basically the
Niger Delta and the FederalGovernment has come up with a law where all the
oil companies must pay certainamount to the NDDC for them to use in
development. As a company, as a jointventure partner, we have contributed
$1.8bn into NDDC’s fund within the period.And the expectation is that this
fund will be used for the development of ourcommunities’
socio-development, roads, bridges and all of that. That is part ofthe
joint venture development that we have. Despite these huge contributions
bothto the development of our host region and the national economy, we
have hadsituations where our facilities were shut down.”
Is that what theangry youth in Belema or Bayelsa want to hear from Shell?
If you paid $29billion to the federal government and $1.8 billion to the
NDDC, how does thatconcern Belema community that has continued to live in
abject poverty, neglectand environmental devastation for decades since
Shell started oil explorationand exploitation in the area? Has it bothered
Shell that the only spots you cansee fickles of civilisation (electricity,
clean water, good sanitary systemsetc) are around the company’s facilities
in the same Belema community? Can Shellpoint to any tangible and
functional Community Social Responsibilities Services/projectsin the
entire Belema up to Kula area?
Is the man inTarakiri, Egbema, and Oporoma communities in Bayelsa
interested in how muchShell paid to government/NDDC or in the company
doing even the little basicthings to improve the quality of life in those
communities that host itsoperations?
Do we need anybody to tell usthat not only does the Shell’s statistics
appear bizarre but may have beencontrived to hoodwink
Nigeriansparticularly the people of the oil host communities. Even a
novicecan decipheroutright inconsistencies and halftruths if not blatant
lies which make these claims by Shell’s Igo Weli contentious, absurd, and
misleading.Weli should go and crosscheck what the former Managing Director
of Shell,Nigeria, Mr. Mutiu Sunmonu saidin December 2010 and see if what
he is now saying jives with what was said earlier.
It is vexing for Shell tocorrelate its contributions to the development of
the Niger Delta vis- a -vis theNDDC not minding that the Anglo-Dutch oil
giant is a major culprit in the unsustainableand wicked exploitation of
the oil and gas resources of the Niger Delta withits attendant devastation
of the means of livelihoods of the people of theregion.
Agreed that the FederalGovernment through its NDDC has mismanaged, even
out rightly embezzled fundsearmarked for the development of the region, is
it in Shell’s position toincite the people against their government? Has
Shell done any better with theimplementation of its corporate social
responsibility (CSR) in the same NigerDelta?
Shell should know that we knowthat these figures they are dangling are
peanuts compared to the huge profitsthe company declares annually from
short-changing our people and destroying ourenvironment.
As Shell has resolved to danglefigures of what it paid to the federal
government and the NDDC, we want also toknow how much the company fleeced
fromthe region within the same period under review. How much did Shell
make fromits operations in the Niger Delta including near and deep
offshore? If we know,then we can work out what percentage of their entire
earnings is $29 billion infour years.
Shell being smart by half dangled$29 billion and $1.8 billion as monies
paid in the last four years to thefederal government and NDDC
respectively. We will want to know if the amount tothe NDDC was exactly
all that Shell was obligated to pay to the escrow account between2012 and
2016 or it’s a fraction of it. Sincethe NDDC came into existence and oil
producing companies were obligated by theAct establishing the agency to
pay certain percentage of their annual budgetinto the escrow for the
development of the region, has Shell been paying up asat when due or there
are still backlogs of unpaid arrears by the company? We needall these
facts to help us ascertain whether Shell has done what Napoleon couldnot
do by paying $1.8 billion to the NDDC in four years.
Also, Shell did not tell uswhether the $29 billion it claimed to have paid
to the federal government wasfor taxes, royalties, rents or government’s
share of the return on investmentsby the joint venture.
If Shell’s top management is notcomplicit in this grand scam to delude
(un)suspecting stakeholders, then it follows that they are complacent
and/or incompetent as it appears they are being led by their noses
byunscrupulous subordinates.
Is Weliand those that sent him on this mission of mischief not aware that
thecompany’s entire operational areas are littered with ourtightly
unsustainableand poorly implemented community projects that could not be
rationalized whenjuxtaposed against the project cost, location, impact,
objectives etc?
The earlier SPDC recognizes/realizesthat they can no longer hoodwink
anybody in their operational areas by obfuscating issues and come clean in
their dealings with allstakeholders the better it will be for them and
their future in the NigerDelta. Running to offshore arena would not save
them from paying the wages oftheir sins against the people. God bless
Niger Delta!
(IFEANYI IZEZE writes from Abuja and can be reached on:
iizeze@yahoo.com;234-