BY: IFEANYI IZEZE<\/p>\n
At the face value, the announcement by the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom
\nWike, that the state government has fully acquired Shell Petroleum
\nDevelopment Company of Nigeria\u2019s 45 percent interest in Oil Mining
\nLease (OML) 11 situated in Ejama Ebubu and the adjoining Ogoni and other
\ncommunities in Rivers state, would have elicited commendations and wild
\njubilations but for the glaring lots of no- nos in the purported
\ntakeover as announced.<\/p>\n
As the governor said in his live broadcast, the acquisition followed a
\nHigh Court order, declaring the state as the purchaser of \u201cthe right,
\ntitle and interest\u201d of Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria
\nLand\/Immovable Property in the acreage.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis Order was subsequent upon a suit filed by one Mr. Agbara Isaac
\nOsaro and five others against SPDC, Shell International Petroleum
\nCompany Limited Shell International Exploration and Production BV and
\nGovernment of Rivers State.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is curious that the Rivers State Government could tow this option as
\nthe best available to resolve the issues around Shell\u2019s devastation of
\nEjama Ebubu and other areas in Ogoni. If Wike was expecting
\ncommendations from Ogoni people, he must have been disappointed as all
\nhe has thus far gotten from them have been the opposite.<\/p>\n
Of curious interest also is the fact that critical federal government
\ninstitutions in charge of the oil industry such as the Department of
\nPetroleum Resources (DPR), Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Nigeria
\nNational Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), NAPIMS and even Shell, seem not
\nto be aware of this purported acquisition by court ruling. Since when
\ndid the courts start awarding oil blocs or divested interests from such?<\/p>\n
By the way, where did the Rivers State Government get the 45 percent
\nstake it said it\u2019s taking over from Shell in the NNPC\/Shell\/Agip\/Total
\njoint venture?<\/p>\n
There is no such thing as Shell\u2019s 45 percent interest in OML 11. The
\nacreage OML 11 was a joint venture between the Nigerian National
\nPetroleum Corporation (NNPC) with 55 percent stake, SPDC with 30 percent
\nstake, Total with 10 percent stake and Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC)
\nwith 5 percent stake. Therefore, it is unbelievable and impracticable
\nthat the Rivers State Government will purport to have acquired 45
\npercent of interest when all that Shell had before the Ogoni crisis was
\n30 percent.<\/p>\n
This acreage was awarded and even operated for over three decades before
\nthe recent NNPC downsizing of its stakes in some of the joint ventures
\nto 40 percent. So the new order cannot apply to the venture staking
\nparticularly in the controversial Ogoni oilfields and the entire OML 11.<\/p>\n
Recall that the problem of the OML 11 started when a major oil spill
\nfrom Shell\u2019s Trans Niger High Pressure Crude oil Pipeline occurred at
\nEjama and Ebubu communities, which devastated approximately 255 hectares
\nof arable agricultural land, fishing swamps and rivers in the area.<\/p>\n
Though Shell admitted the spill was from its pipeline, the Anglo-Dutch
\noil giant up till today has failed to de-pollute and remediate the area,
\ndespite several lawsuits and court rulings in favour of the people of
\nthe area.<\/p>\n
Without supporting the threats from different Ogoni groups on the
\nmatter, no doubt, there are so many gray areas or rather hidden issues
\nin the entire asset divestment and acquisition as announced by the
\ngovernor which if not properly addressed, would introduce serious
\ncomplications in the UNEP- mediated peace process and the proposed clean
\n-up and remediation programme in OML 11 areas and the entire Ogoniland.<\/p>\n
First, is the Rivers state government going to inherit only the assets
\nof Shell in OML 11 without the accompanying liabilities or will inherit
\nboth?<\/p>\n
How is the Rivers state government going to get Shell to pay its
\ncounterpart funding for the clean-up and remediation exercise as
\nproposed by the United Nations Environmental Programme for the Ogoni
\narea including parts of OML 11?<\/p>\n
It would have been better to allow the UNEP-proposed clean-up and
\nremediation exercise of the oil spill devastated area to be completed or
\neven kick-off in earnest before the talk of asset takeover and
\nresumption of oil exploration and production activities by any interest
\ngroup?<\/p>\n
It should have occurred to the Rivers state governor that the said
\nhandover at best could be a diversionary ploy and an attempt by Shell to
\nelude its liabilities in OML 11 communities and the entire Ogoniland by
\nhanding over its assets in the area to the State Government<\/p>\n
The divesting Shell has serious obligations assigned to it in the
\nexercise and if it\u2019s allowed to hands-off the acreage now, the entire
\neffort by both the federal government and UNEP at cleaning the massive
\noil spillage in Ejama Ebubu area and other parts of Ogoniland would
\ndefinitely run into a hitch except the Rivers state government is
\npromising to pay the expected counterpart funding assigned to Shell.<\/p>\n
Another serious issue borders on the choice of a new operator (s) as
\nproposed by the governor. Which of the oil companies would be acceptable
\nto both the state government and the Ogoni people and whose definition
\nof \u201cacceptable\u201d is going to be accepted across board without
\nsuspicion and unnecessary rancour?<\/p>\n
Already there are insinuations by some Ogoni groups that Wike may be
\nzealous in this asset acquisition thing because it serves his personal
\ninterest. Whether this is mere propaganda or outright blackmail against
\nthe governor, it is better to have everybody carried along in this
\nmatter.<\/p>\n
No matter how good the state government\u2019s intentions may look, if
\ntheir action is perceived wrongly, you cannot expect any form of
\ncooperation from the communities as we are already seeing from all kinds
\nof Ogoni groups. And the government also cannot ask them to go hell
\nbecause they may decide to embark on the journey just to see what will
\nhappen.<\/p>\n
Now, without mincing words, the Ogonis should be told in any language
\nthey understand clearly that it\u2019s time for a paradigm shift if they
\nactually want Nigeria and the world to continue to take them seriously.
\nTo me, the struggle has completely lost focus. Every Ogoni man and woman
\nis a \u2018human and environmental rights organisation\u2019 thus making a
\nmockery of the spirit and intent of the initial struggle against Shell
\nand the federal government. Now you don\u2019t even know what the legacy
\nissues are. This has to be addressed!<\/p>\n
For over ten years, I have been urging the Ogonis (MOSOP) to be more
\ncreative in their demands. If you don\u2019t want Shell or any other
\nexisting oil multinational operator to come work in Ogoniland, MOSOP and
\nsome other groups should have incorporated an oil company and source for
\ntechnical partners to do business with. But no, the self-acclaimed
\nactivists prefer to be on this path of everlasting struggle just because
\nthey eat from it at the expense of the generality of the Ogoni people.<\/p>\n
Nigeria and the entire world cannot shut down because Ogoni is resisting
\nShell. Every struggle is to achieve a means but the Ogoni\u2019s own is
\nbecoming an everlasting campaign that most times gets so blurred you
\ncannot even decipher what they are asking for. Not to worry, the Ogonis
\nwill hear from me more elaborately in the forthcoming piece. God bless
\nNigeria!!<\/p>\n