BY: IFEANYI IZEZE
At the face value, the announcement by the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom
Wike, that the state government has fully acquired Shell Petroleum
Development Company of Nigeria’s 45 percent interest in Oil Mining
Lease (OML) 11 situated in Ejama Ebubu and the adjoining Ogoni and other
communities in Rivers state, would have elicited commendations and wild
jubilations but for the glaring lots of no- nos in the purported
takeover as announced.
As the governor said in his live broadcast, the acquisition followed a
High Court order, declaring the state as the purchaser of “the right,
title and interest” of Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria
Land/Immovable Property in the acreage.
“This Order was subsequent upon a suit filed by one Mr. Agbara Isaac
Osaro and five others against SPDC, Shell International Petroleum
Company Limited Shell International Exploration and Production BV and
Government of Rivers State.”
It is curious that the Rivers State Government could tow this option as
the best available to resolve the issues around Shell’s devastation of
Ejama Ebubu and other areas in Ogoni. If Wike was expecting
commendations from Ogoni people, he must have been disappointed as all
he has thus far gotten from them have been the opposite.
Of curious interest also is the fact that critical federal government
institutions in charge of the oil industry such as the Department of
Petroleum Resources (DPR), Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Nigeria
National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), NAPIMS and even Shell, seem not
to be aware of this purported acquisition by court ruling. Since when
did the courts start awarding oil blocs or divested interests from such?
By the way, where did the Rivers State Government get the 45 percent
stake it said it’s taking over from Shell in the NNPC/Shell/Agip/Total
joint venture?
There is no such thing as Shell’s 45 percent interest in OML 11. The
acreage OML 11 was a joint venture between the Nigerian National
Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) with 55 percent stake, SPDC with 30 percent
stake, Total with 10 percent stake and Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC)
with 5 percent stake. Therefore, it is unbelievable and impracticable
that the Rivers State Government will purport to have acquired 45
percent of interest when all that Shell had before the Ogoni crisis was
30 percent.
This acreage was awarded and even operated for over three decades before
the recent NNPC downsizing of its stakes in some of the joint ventures
to 40 percent. So the new order cannot apply to the venture staking
particularly in the controversial Ogoni oilfields and the entire OML 11.
Recall that the problem of the OML 11 started when a major oil spill
from Shell’s Trans Niger High Pressure Crude oil Pipeline occurred at
Ejama and Ebubu communities, which devastated approximately 255 hectares
of arable agricultural land, fishing swamps and rivers in the area.
Though Shell admitted the spill was from its pipeline, the Anglo-Dutch
oil giant up till today has failed to de-pollute and remediate the area,
despite several lawsuits and court rulings in favour of the people of
the area.
Without supporting the threats from different Ogoni groups on the
matter, no doubt, there are so many gray areas or rather hidden issues
in the entire asset divestment and acquisition as announced by the
governor which if not properly addressed, would introduce serious
complications in the UNEP- mediated peace process and the proposed clean
-up and remediation programme in OML 11 areas and the entire Ogoniland.
First, is the Rivers state government going to inherit only the assets
of Shell in OML 11 without the accompanying liabilities or will inherit
both?
How is the Rivers state government going to get Shell to pay its
counterpart funding for the clean-up and remediation exercise as
proposed by the United Nations Environmental Programme for the Ogoni
area including parts of OML 11?
It would have been better to allow the UNEP-proposed clean-up and
remediation exercise of the oil spill devastated area to be completed or
even kick-off in earnest before the talk of asset takeover and
resumption of oil exploration and production activities by any interest
group?
It should have occurred to the Rivers state governor that the said
handover at best could be a diversionary ploy and an attempt by Shell to
elude its liabilities in OML 11 communities and the entire Ogoniland by
handing over its assets in the area to the State Government
The divesting Shell has serious obligations assigned to it in the
exercise and if it’s allowed to hands-off the acreage now, the entire
effort by both the federal government and UNEP at cleaning the massive
oil spillage in Ejama Ebubu area and other parts of Ogoniland would
definitely run into a hitch except the Rivers state government is
promising to pay the expected counterpart funding assigned to Shell.
Another serious issue borders on the choice of a new operator (s) as
proposed by the governor. Which of the oil companies would be acceptable
to both the state government and the Ogoni people and whose definition
of “acceptable” is going to be accepted across board without
suspicion and unnecessary rancour?
Already there are insinuations by some Ogoni groups that Wike may be
zealous in this asset acquisition thing because it serves his personal
interest. Whether this is mere propaganda or outright blackmail against
the governor, it is better to have everybody carried along in this
matter.
No matter how good the state government’s intentions may look, if
their action is perceived wrongly, you cannot expect any form of
cooperation from the communities as we are already seeing from all kinds
of Ogoni groups. And the government also cannot ask them to go hell
because they may decide to embark on the journey just to see what will
happen.
Now, without mincing words, the Ogonis should be told in any language
they understand clearly that it’s time for a paradigm shift if they
actually want Nigeria and the world to continue to take them seriously.
To me, the struggle has completely lost focus. Every Ogoni man and woman
is a ‘human and environmental rights organisation’ thus making a
mockery of the spirit and intent of the initial struggle against Shell
and the federal government. Now you don’t even know what the legacy
issues are. This has to be addressed!
For over ten years, I have been urging the Ogonis (MOSOP) to be more
creative in their demands. If you don’t want Shell or any other
existing oil multinational operator to come work in Ogoniland, MOSOP and
some other groups should have incorporated an oil company and source for
technical partners to do business with. But no, the self-acclaimed
activists prefer to be on this path of everlasting struggle just because
they eat from it at the expense of the generality of the Ogoni people.
Nigeria and the entire world cannot shut down because Ogoni is resisting
Shell. Every struggle is to achieve a means but the Ogoni’s own is
becoming an everlasting campaign that most times gets so blurred you
cannot even decipher what they are asking for. Not to worry, the Ogonis
will hear from me more elaborately in the forthcoming piece. God bless
Nigeria!!
(IFEANYI IZEZE WRITES FROM ABUJA: IIZEZE@YAHOO.COM; 234-8033043009)