The National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS), an arm of
the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), has directed operators in
the
petroleum industry to contribute to the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP)
Intervention Fund for the people of the North East.
A letter to the operators, exclusively obtained by The Guardian, shows
that contributions will be made to a proposed “Dedicated Account,” while
specific areas of infrastructure development interventions were spelt out,
which should be “treated as urgent.”
However, as urgent as it is meant to be, the NNPC and some of the
operators were reluctant to speak on specific issues raised by The Guardian in
an enquiry sent to them.
Although the NAPIMS’ directive did not indicate how much the IDP Fund is,
The Guardian learnt that each operator is expected to contribute at least $100
million annually to the fund.
The directive is coming as a surprise to many analysts, especially as
there is already a Presidential Committee on the North East Initiative (PCNI)
engaged in various intervention programmes.
President Muhammadu Buhari in January last year appointed a committee
headed by Gen. Theophilus Danjuma, and Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, and
a host of others as members, to rehabilitate infrastructure and resettlement of
the IDPs.
Aside from these, respective individuals and corporate establishments,
foreign and local, have initiated various support programmes for the North East
IDPs, which make the NNPC/NAPIMS directive curious, especially as the Federal
Government will share in the contributions based on its equity stake in the
joint venture (JV) operations.
The NNPC is the government’s concessionaire in the oil ventures, and
would inevitably pay from its share as part of the operating cost for the year.
The letter titled “Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) Intervention
Programmes/Projects and Proposed Dedicated Account” reads: “Further to the
creation of a line item in the 2017 budget (5800:11) and the allocation of
funds therein, it is our firm belief that to achieve the purpose for which the
intervention programme and attendant budget was meant, you are hereby advised
to carry out the following:
“•Immediate construction of the resettlement projects;
“• Constitution of a project monitoring committee (composed of
NNPC/NAPIMS/operators facilities engineers and community development
personnel);
“• Opening of a dedicated account exclusively for the purpose of prompt
payment for IDP intervention (projects and programmes) activities;
“• Funding of the account one-off, to avoid payment delays due to the
vendors/contractors; and
“• Ring-fencing of the IDP budget.
“NAPIMS, in conjunction with operators, will utilise the IDP intervention
funds to construct resettlement facilities that can be replicated at various
locations as detailed overleaf:
“Proposed Projects
“• Units of 2 bedroom twin bungalows – 50 units per settlement (expected
to house 100 families);
“• Schools (primary and secondary);
“• Health care centres/cottage hospitals;
“• Market stalls;
“• Provision of potable water; and
“• Electrification.
“The facility is also expected to have roads, drainage channels and waste
disposal systems.
“A soft copy of the bill of quantities and cost structure will be
forwarded to you soon.
“Please treat as urgent.”
The letter was signed by former Group General Manager of NAPIMS, Dafe
Sejebo, for the NNPC, who ironically was relieved of his position the same day,
after making a presentation on the IDP intervention programme.
But the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) declared
the NNPC-NAPIMS directive as illegal and should not be encouraged, as it is
government’s responsibility to take care of its citizens and not tax-paying
corporate entities.
SERAP President, Tokunbo Mumuni, told The Guardian in a telephone
interview: “From my personal opinion, the legal obligation of a company that I
know would be payment of taxes. Any company established under the law to now be
compelled to make donations to any cause is illegal.
“And if a company or individual refuses to do it, such will not be
subject to any legal penalty because it is the business of government to take
care of Nigerians who are dependent on it.
“For NNPC to issue a directive to companies is not legally justified. For
a company to do specific things, as long as it’s not coming under any
legislation by the lawmakers, there is no compulsion in it. No government
establishment has a right under the law to issue any directive not from the
legislature for any company to comply with.
“If this type of thing is encouraged, it will create problems in the land
and should not be encouraged. I don’t think the directive of the NNPC
represents the law of the land, as this is not passed by the legislature and
codified in the written law.
“Contribution or intervention, to me, should be a matter of conscience
for such companies carrying out legitimate business under the law through their
corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes. Contribution should be a
voluntary thing, not a directive because it is the business of government to
take care of its citizens, and the business of corporate establishments to pay
tax.”
The NNPC Group spokesman, Ndu Ughamadu, in a very brief text message,
wrote: “The JVs/IOCs under their trade group, OPTS, voluntarily agreed to
assist the IDPs. It is part of their corporate social responsibilities.”
When prodded further that there is no such indication of an agreement
between the corporation and Oil Producers Trade Section (OPTS) in the NAPIMS
letter, he added, “What I sent to you is NNPC’s stand”, indicative that all is
not as they seem with the IDP intervention programme.
The Guardian had sought to know why the corporation is “urging” operators
to support an IDP Fund, in addition to building houses for the North East families.
Our questions were:
• Why are operators being compelled as a matter of policy to contribute
at least $100 million yearly to the fund?
• Why is such intervention coming as a matter of policy from NNPC/NAPIMS
rather than leaving it to the discretion of the individual company’s CSR
programme?
• Why is such an intervention only for the North East, since the Niger
Delta region where the funds are coming from has suffered a worse devastation
on account of militancy and E&P activities?
• What plans are there to also compel the same interventions in the
Bakassi IDPs, Nigeria’s first IDP victims? and
• Does the NNPC/NAPIMS have similar plans to also settle IDPs in the
Middle Belt displaced by the Fulani herdsmen?
The OPTS of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) was also
non-committal, even as a very competent source disclosed that “interventions
are being harmonised in support of the government initiative, and companies are
expected to align with the programmes.”
In an official email to The Guardian’s enquiry, which was sent out to all
the JVs, Chevron Nigeria Limited (CNL), responded as follows:
The Guardian: To what extent has Chevron complied with the directive to
oil/gas operators to intervene in the rebuilding of the North-East region
following Boko Haram insurgence?
Firm: CNL is committed to the industry-wide strategy for the intervention
blueprint for the IDPs in the North-East region of Nigeria in line with the
proposal by our partners, NAPIMS of NNPC.
The Guardian: Since the intervention is a budgetary provision for the
2017 operations, how much is being set aside for the provision of the
infrastructure identified in the programme?
Firm: We request that all enquiries about this proposal should be
directed to NAPIMS.
The Guardian: How comfortable is Chevron about undertaking these
interventions as the Northeast is outside its areas of operations?
Firm: As we stated earlier, CNL is committed to the industry-wide
strategy for the intervention blueprint for the IDPs in the North-East region
of Nigeria in line with the proposal by our partners, NAPIMS of NNPC.
On its part, Total Exploration and Production Nigeria (TEPNG) said:
“Total’s CSR efforts go beyond its areas of operation though we have specific
programmes for our host communities.
“Without prejudice to the budgetary provisions you made reference to,
Total has always been in support of all genuine efforts aimed at alleviating
the plight of citizens who have in one way or another been affected by the
activities of insurgents in the North East. In 2015, the company collaborated
with the Nigerian Red Cross Society and carried out some rehabilitation and
livelihood support programmes.
“We are also considering other ways of assisting the IDPs such as
training in various skills and provisions of starter packs, to enable them to
engage in economic activities aimed at restoring normalcy to their lives while
reducing dependency.
“This is in addition to our decision to deploy four units of maternal
referral centres which will be equipped with state-of-the art technology
enabling the centres to serve as specialist hospitals designed to cater for
women and children in the region. Two of these units will be located in Borno
State.
“Apart from the above, we are also collaborating with NAPIMS, the
Presidential initiative for the North East and OPTS to implement other projects
aimed at ameliorating the situation in the North East of the country.”
The Shell Companies in Nigeria (SCIN) simply said: “Shell with financial
contributions from staff of Shell companies in Nigeria has provided funds to
support internally displaced persons (IDP) affected by the conflict in
North-Eastern Nigeria.
“The intervention, which is being led by two implementing partners,
Family Health International (FHI360) and Mercy Corps, provides IDPs and
vulnerable host populations in Dikwa Local Government Area of Borno State with
health, food, water, sanitation, livelihood support, education and shelter
materials.”
Notwithstanding the need for the rehabilitation of IDPs in Nigeria, the
selection of the North East alone for urgent interventions as noted by SERAP
throws up a lot of posers, such as:
• Why is participation in the North East IDP Intervention programme under
compulsion and should be treated as urgent, when similar interventions in other
parts of the country have not been accorded the same treatment?
• In particular, what programme has been put in place for the Bakassi
IDPs, for instance, Nigeria’s very first experience of human displacement, who
were abandoned by the same Federal Government that unilaterally ceded their
land to Cameroun?
• Furthermore, why has the Ogoni cleanup declared by the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP) in its report as a matter of urgency more than
seven years ago not received such integrated and coercive intervention?
•Why has the Federal Government not rebuilt the Niger Delta, from where
the $100 million contribution will be raised, arising from oil and gas
activities and environmental degradation, as being clamoured?
•Will the displaced persons in the Middle Belt, especially in Benue and
every other state down to the South West, South South and South East Nigeria on
account of the wanton destruction by Fulani herdsmen, be treated with similar
interventions?
All these issues further reinforce agitations and the call for
restructuring, especially as there appears to be uneven distribution of the
nation’s wealth.
In agreement, a former chairman, Board of the Nigerian Extractive
Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), and former President, Movement for
the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) Ledum Mitee described such a move as
the height of social injustice, adding that such discrimination was fuelling
various agitations in the country.
He said: “When you treat people differently, you are creating injustice
in the society, and imagine that you are asking oil operators and not those who
are selling groundnuts or doing textile. Oil exploitation is killing certain
citizens of this country every day, and you remind me of what happened in some
parts of the country, and the indigenes of those areas are not getting anything
from the havoc associated with oil exploitation. I think this is the height of
injustice.”
He argued that such discriminatory attitude raised issues on the unity of
the country. “This preferential treatment in different parts of the area is
part of the things that underline some of these agitations that are now being
inflicted on the whole country today.”
While not disputing the need for assistance to the North East, Mitee
insisted that such should not be done under compulsion. “It should be done on a
voluntary basis; you do not make it compulsory. The oil companies will adopt it
as part of their operations cost. That is why NEITI can’t trust their reports,
because how will you account for that?”
Mitee, an Ogoni indigene, an oil-rich area where the United Nations (UN)
declared a state of emergency on account of the pollution of the environment
from oil and gas activities, said: “If you look at the whole issue of the
Ogoni, as we speak, nothing you can show for it on the ground. In fact, my
information on the case is that the ministry is sitting on the $10million that
was said to have been contributed a long time ago. Because of issue of
environment degradation, people are dying each day. The United Nations said it
is the largest pollution in the world, and then many years after, nothing is
happening. Each day you will hear, ‘we are putting up structures’, but
nothing.”
Against this backdrop, he urged the government to “review the injustices,
which led to insecurity, agitations in the country.”
Senator Florence Ita-Giwa, an indigene of Bakassi, could not comment on
the issues raised by The Guardian and the situation of the Bakassi IDPs in
Cross River State. After two days of waiting after sending her a written
inquiry with supporting documents on the latest development, she replied in a
one-sentence text message.
“I really do not still understand and will need further clarification.
Otherwise, I am sorry I cannot comment on issues I don’t fully understand,” she
wrote.
But a human rights activist , Ann-Kio Briggs, while expressing sympathy
for the North East IDPs, accused the Federal Government of flagrant
insensitivity to the plight of the Niger Delta people and region in the face of
widespread devastation of the environment.
To her, such preferential treatment for one region reinforces the call
for restructuring. “This demand alone further justifies our call for the total
restructuring of Nigeria, based on a new constitution not in three years or
seven years, but before the 2019 elections.
“I speak on this issue with disbelief. I am not surprised that the
Federal Government continues to show disregard and insensitivity to the Niger
Delta people and region. I am in total sympathy with the plight of the IDP as
they find themselves in this pathetic situation because of a terrorist group.
“Aside from the international intervention funds, the funds already set
up by the Federal Government also comes directly from the Niger Delta people’s
resources. It is unacceptable, and a slap on the face of the Niger Delta
people, if we recall the devastation of our land and the lives of our people
due to oil and gas pollution. There have been attacks on communities such as
Odi, Odioma, Ogoni, Bakassi, the people of Middle Belt, and Igbo nation by
herdsmen who have killed, raped and destroyed farms, homes and communities,”
she said.
According to her, “in Niger Delta, Igbo nation, and the Middle Belt,
hundreds of thousands, if not millions have been killed and made homeless; no
international organisations are helping. My people drink polluted water from
these very oil operators that are being asked to contribute $100 million each,
and yet they won’t to even stop flaring gas, which is illegal.
“As a human rights activist, this is most unfair, and unjust against my
people and region where the money that is expected to be given for the
amenities come from, while we, the owners of the resources have not been
provided similar amenities. I insist it is unfair, and remains unacceptable.”
Briggs accused the Federal Government of paying “lip service to one
Nigeria, through its insistence that the ethnic nationalities should not
negotiate their future in a country that is governed on the demands of a cabal
which will continue to tear Nigeria apart.
“It is important that the Federal Government be reminded that when we
count the revenue derived from oil and gas from the three zones, the 19 states
and 419 local governments of the North of Nigeria contribute 0.00% of the oil
and gas resources, yet the north benefits more, while the South which
contributes 100% from the revenue benefits less.”
Briggs, who spoke passionately, said “this reaction expressed here is the
reaction of the majority of the poor, neglected and offended people of the
Niger Delta.
“It is urgent that the Federal Government knows that the compromised few
Niger Delta people it claims to be negotiating with are not on behalf of the
people and region, as we cannot see what is being negotiated if they cannot
negotiate even what is being given to Northern IDPs from our resources.
“What are they negotiating for the Niger Delta if they can’t negotiate
with the operators to raise $100 million each when they pollute our lands,
waters, rivers, creeks, mangroves, and swamps?
“We don’t want crumbs from our God-given resources. The injustice we
endure goes on and there does not seem to be an end to it. The Niger Delta
Self-Determination Movement demands an end to this injustice,” she concluded.
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