On December 16, 2022, the National President of the Host Communities of Nigeria Oil and Gas Producing Areas (HOSTCOM), High Chief Dr Benjamin Style Tamaranebi, led key stakeholders in the oil and gas industry to the commissioning of the Abuja Liaison Office of HOSTCOM. The commissioning marked the body’s end of year activities on the Petroleum Industrial Act (PIA), assented to by President Muhammadu Buhari in August 2021 after years of incubation. The event was held at Green Minds Hotel, Utako, Abuja.
Dignitaries event included Engr. Gbenga Komolafe, the Chief Operating Officer of the Nigeria Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC); His Eminence King Dr. Edmund M. Daukoru, the Amanyanabo of Nembe Kingdom (Mingi XII), a former Minister of State for Petroleum Resources and Chairman HOSTCOM Board of Trustees; as well as Oba Frederick Obateru Akinbutan among other stakeholders.
Specifically, Tamaranebi in his welcome address, harped on the need to bring the Abuja area office to the standard required in order to effectively and efficiently reach out to, and impact on the 6,300 oil-bearing communities in the Niger Delta region, making up HOSTCOM in all their projects in order to attract sustainable development process from the oil & gas regulators and operators, in line with the PIA implementation instruments.
The PIA itself has five chapters and chapter three focuses on issues and plights of the host communities and what should be done to address their challenges. It specifically provides for direct social and economic benefits to oil communities. PIA 2021 was passed into law to, among others, address the age-long problems occasioned by devastation caused by the activities of oil companies in the Niger Delta.
The Act aims to achieve this through the establishment of the Host Communities Development Trust (HCDT). It introduces changes to the legal and governance framework, administrative processes, regulatory and fiscal terms, and host communities’ engagements in the oil and gas industry.
Reminiscing on Tamaranebi’s push for 10% equity share
The first Executive Bill on the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) which later became an Act was sent to the Sixth National Assembly by the administration of late President Umar Yar’Adua in 2008. The bill’s passage suffered setbacks as a result of disagreement over 10% as a dedicated fund for the development of host communities and sharing of oil profit among the multi-national oil companies.
The push was engineered by Tamaranebi and other critical stakeholders in the region whose agitations and inputs resulted in the federal government’s decision to peg the equity shareholding accruable to the host communities at 3%.
At one of the deliberations with the Senate Committee on Petroleum at the National Assembly, Tamaranebi who led his team in defence of the host communities agitations, had insisted: “We are demanding 10 percent equity and the government is offering host communities 2.5 percent operational costs is a clear attempt to shortchange us. Host communities are not beggars. They are not asking for grants or favour but for equity participation or shareholding.
“Ten percent equity will guarantee the operating companies their safety on the assets and personnel and will minimise or drastically reduce pipeline bunkering, vandalism, crude oil theft and many more because once communities know that 10 percent equity is coming to them, they know that they would be losing if they sabotage the operations. But if 10 percent is given to them, they will consider it as their own business and won’t go there to sabotage.”
He again called for the scrapping of all interventionist agencies in the Niger Delta, particularly the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), which he alleged has a history of being used to sponsor elections by any government in power.
“For about 20 years, NDDC has not met up with the mandate of developing our communities. It has been a cash cow being milked by everybody, political cronies, allies! If party A comes in, they will use NDDC to sponsor their elections. If party B comes in, they will use NDDC to sponsor their political party or whatever. Is that the mandate of the NDDC? The whole world has seen it that whoever is appointed into NDDC cannot meet the expectations of the people but rather servicing the political elite.
“Collate all the funds and put it into HOSTCOM and let host communities appoint trustworthy people to administer the funds,” Tamaranebi insisted.
Recent pipeline leaks and protest by communities
In reminiscence, members of Kantu and Odidi oil-bearing communities in Warri South-eest local government area of Delta state on March 28, 2023, staged a protest at the Odidi Flow Station in condemnation of “frequent pipeline leaks leading to continuous destruction and degradation of the environment and the means of livelihood of the residents.”
The protesters, comprising community youths and women, who wielded placards with different inscriptions, gave the management of NEPL/NECONDE “a seven-day ultimatum to commence genuine implementation of the Petroleum Industry Act and payment the 3% of 2022 Operating Expenses as stipulated by the PIA with immediate effect.”
They claimed that the leaking Trans Forcados Pipeline, which was constructed in the early 1960s, “has outlived its life span, leading to continuous pollution of our environment and destruction of our ecosystem, creating hardship for the locals.”
In a joint statement by the Chairman of Kantu/OML42 Communities Forum and the Chairman, Odidi Federated Communities, Windfree Atemubaghan and Preye Okrikpa, respectively, they noted with concern that “the ageing Trans Forcados Pipeline has been destroying our environment because it has expired and cannot withstand the pressure of crude oil transported through it.”
The statement further canvassed for the award of all community-based marine and other service contracts to indigenous contractors, in line with the Nigeria Local Content Act. This, to me, is a timely demand, given the level of devastation caused by oil exploration activities in the host communities over the years.
As Nigerians await the inauguration of President-elect Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu on May 29, 2023, the current developments signal the unavoidability of the federal government’s action beyond policy pronouncements and lip service. Indeed, it is high time the struggles of Tamaranebi and those in his train are rewarded.
Ambassador Yakubu writes from Abuja
