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The Management of most Multi-national Oil Companies were absent at the one day public hearing on holistic review of all agreements and memoranda of understanding between oil companies in Nigeria and host communities, organised by the House of Representatives joint Committees on Treaties, Protocols, Agreements and Petroleum Resources (Upstream) on Tuesday.
The only available Managing Director was that of Britainnia-U Nigeria Oil and Gas limited, Catherine Ifejika who faced the joint Committees.
In his remarks during the hearing, Speaker of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila said the House of Representatives must act to ensure that these agreements are enforced and the communities are granted their dues, or the lawmakers will failed in their responsibility as a government of the people.
According to Gbajabiamila, ensuring that the relationship between the host communities and the oil companies is always on an even footing is necessary to guarantee the efficient operation of oil exploration and production activities.
He said, operational disruptions due to communal disaffection and unrest have an outsized impact on the nation’s economy and it affects revenue stream and undermines the ability of government to deliver its obligations to the Nigerian people.
“As such, we have a responsibility to prevent those circumstances that may, as in the past, result in such disruptions. Beyond that, we have a further moral duty to protect these communities that have for the past five decades laid the golden egg of the Nigerian state.
“Beyond the economic consequences of disaffection between oil companies and the host communities, there are other national security considerations that are even more sever. Militancy in the Niger Delta has in the recent past spawned an entire industry of criminality that unsettled the foundations of the Nigerian state.
“We emerged from those dark days due to determined efforts by the federal and state governments, working with a variety of stakeholders. Too much was lost to the violence of those days, most of it has never been, and may never be recovered. We must never return to that old reality.
“Agreements between the oil companies and the communities where they operate, define the rights and responsibilities of the parties and provide written assurances that the interests of the people of those communities will always be protected.
“These agreements are guaranteed by the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and it is this assurance that gives the communities confidence. Therefore, when oil companies fail to live up to their responsibilities, these communities do not consider these failures to be the sole responsibility of the companies. They rightly hold the government accountable too” he said.
Speaking, Ifejika, Managing Director of Britainnia-U Nigeria Oil and Gas limited, explained that her company has been supporting the host community by employing people in the community as members of staff, giving out food items and providing health care services to the vulnerable despite the company’s low barrel produced.
But Members of the Committee frowned at her explanation, saying the Company’s service to the community is meager going by the global memorandum of understanding which requires that certain percent of
the Company’s profit be allocated to the host communities.
The joint Committees further discovered that the memorandum of understanding between the company and its host community had expired since three years ago.
Nicholas Ossai, Chairman of the Committees on Treaties, Protocols, Agreements who was not satisfied with claims of Ifejika ordered her reappearance on Tuesday next week during which the host community will be available at the hearing to attest to her claims concerning the service rendered to them.
James Kwen, Abuja
