Shell Petroleum Development Company, SPDC, Nigeria, has made its stand known concerning militants operating and vandalising its pipelines in the Niger Delta, saying the group should be treated as criminals. The company’s view was aired by its Managing Director and Country Chair, Osagie Okunbor during a chat with Business Times over the weekend.
While describing the havoc already wreaked by militants on the company’s pipelines and his perception about the group, Okunbor said the federal government does not need to dialogue with the militants, describing them as “criminals who should be dealt with”. “Militants should be singled out as criminals and should be dealt with as criminals.
The government needs not dialogue with them because they are determined to wreck this country. The FG should take necessary steps against these people if they want to sustain the oil business in Nigeria. Of course, we don’t totally rule out dialogue here but not with militants. The government can dialogue with the peaceful people of the region,” he said.
Reacting to the news of whether or not there was any truth in analysts claim that Shell companies in Nigeria would be among those affected by the Beurden revelation, Okubor said he was sure Shell is not exiting the country. “Our presence in Nigeria is substantial. Yes, we have problems with the militants and low oil price yet, we have other companies offshore, we have the deep waters, shallow waters.
Despite our challenges, we still produce. So, I’m pretty sure exiting Nigeria is not on the cards for Shell,” he said. Speaking on Shell’s contribution to developing human capital in the country, Okunbor said it spent some $0.9 billion on local contracting and procurement. “Ownership of key assets such as rigs, helicopters and marine vessels was a key focus of these efforts to support Nigerian and community contractors,” he added.
Meanwhile, Ijaws in the diaspora have joined the conversation on how to engender sustainable development in the Niger Delta through the process of dialogue being proposed by the Federal Government.
The group described the proposed dialogue as a means to an end and not an end in itself, denouncing the use of violence by militants to settle scores.
The Diaspora Ijaw community in the United States disclosed this in a statement issued over the weekend at the end of consultations among various diaspora Ijaw groups and made available to journalists in Warri, Delta State.
In a statement signed by its coordinator, Dr David Ugula, the group stated that the country had gone through the dialogue process before and that government, at this stage, should be sincere and avoid the missteps of the past.
It stressed that the Niger Delta struggle is centred on the people who had been crushed physically, economically and psychologically by past governments and its leaders.
The group thanked President Muhammadu Buhari on the proposed dialogue, saying good governance and accountability in the Niger Delta must be the crux of the dialogue process.
According to the group, only good governance and public accountability could lift the people of the Niger Delta out of their miserable living conditions and set a stage for sustainable development.
It therefore listed infrastructural development, provision of basic amenities such as employment opportunities, healthcare services, quality education and the sanctity and protection of lives and property in the region as some of the burning issues to be addressed.
The group also urged the FG to kick off and fund the Nigerian Maritime University at Okerenkoko, Delta State, funding for the Federal University of Technology at Otuoke in Bayelsa State as well as complete the East-West road, among others, in order to engender enduring peace and stability in the region.
