Participation In Petroleum Development Towards Sustainable Community Development In The Niger Delta

Continued from Friday June 11, 2010.

The book “Participation in Petroleum Development, Towards Sustainable Community Development in the Niger Delta” by Eseme-Alabo Dr. Edward Bristol-Alagbariya is essential for key oil industry experts, administrators, scholars and students who want to gain further insight on how the Niger Delta can benefit from oil exploration and exploitation. The Tide, beginning from this edition, run excerpts of the book. Enjoy it.

10.4 Other Key Findings and Recommendations 

Given that the main hypothesis of the book is that CI in petroleum resources development in the Delta region is mainly consultative rather than truly participatory, there is an attempt here to identify the forms or measures of CI in resources development in Chapters 5 to 7, elaborated on in Chapters 8 and 9 in the context of CSR initiatives. The findings made are that in spite of the existing forms or measures of CI, the crises in the Delta region increasingly persist because decision-makers merely listen to the concerns of communities during community involvements without properly acting on these concerns in the course of the implementation of petroleum development projects in the region. It is in this same manner that governments in the country treat the inputs of the ordinary citizens, affecting their wellbeing, in decision-making processes, contrary to the social contract theory. Consequently, the existing forms or measures of CI do not fulfil the globally identified need and widely accepted principles of PP in environmental decision making discussed in Chapter 3. Improved CI through improved CSR is, therefore, needed as well as GSR embedded in good governance (GG) in the course of the resources development in the Delta region and other oil-producing areas of Nigeria. The fulfilment of the identified need and accepted principles will enable the MNOCs to obtain the free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) of the communities which are directly affected by their operations, to enhance their smooth operations in the communities.

The author recommends that MNOCs should implement their widely published and publicised environmental and social responsibilities discussed in Chapters 1 and 7, in the interest of their host communities. In this regard, Article 27 of the Johannesburg Declaration on SD, 2002, cited in Chapters 1, 2, 7 and 9, enjoins companies, including MNCs, ‘to contribute to the evolution of equitable and sustainable communities and societies’. Regarding EA, it is recommended that the quality of the EIA process of petroleum development projects in Nigeria should be enhanced by improvement in CSR. This will properly demonstrate that PI (of which CI is a part) is a significant pillar of the assessment process aimed at enhancing the quality of the process towards SD, as identified in Chapter 5 and demonstrated in Chapters 8 and 9. There should be life-cycle impact assessments of development projects – enhanced by such sustainability-assessment measures as proper follow-ups built into the Environmental Management Systems of development proponents, so as to strengthen and ensure greater effectiveness of the EA process towards SD. Sustainability assessments, from the design and conception stage, to the decommissioning stage of development proposals, are required in the FRN, to properly implement the federation’s SD principles. These are the Precautionary Principle, Pollution Prevention Pays Principle (3P +), Polluter Pays Principle (PPP), User Pays Principle (UPP), Principle of Inter-generational Equity, Principle of Intra-generational Equity, and the Principle of Participation. These principles, expressed in Nigeria’s Policy on the Environment, demonstrate Nigeria’s appreciation of the interdependent linkages among development processes, environmental factors, and human and natural resources. Formal introduction of SEA is also needed in Nigeria, in compliance with the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) Action Plan on the Environmental Initiative discussed in Chapter 5. These and other internationally-identified environmental protection, preservation and SD measures require proper implementation in the course of all major natural resources development projects in the country.   

Improvement in CSR in the Delta region and other oil-producing areas of Nigeria must be enhanced by GSR. Chapter 7 therefore concludes that the social investment being accomplished by the MNOCs in the communities of the oil-rich Delta region needs to be properly engineered, encouraged and sustained by GSR, towards SD of petroleum resources and environmentally-sound and socially-equitable SCD. The author found in Chapter 7 that there are limitations as regards CSR measures. No matter how well designed or intended, and no matter how well implemented, CSR is not an alternative to GSR embedded in GG, or that CSR is certainly not an alternative to good and responsible government. Development is primarily a domestic responsibility, so it is the role of government to generate citizen-oriented development policies, plans and programmes/projects. Generally, there is a need for governments in Nigeria to place priority on people-centred SD which is knowledge-based (ie, state-of-the art knowledge driven), so as to properly build bridges between theory and practice in ways that are capable of avoiding negative trends in the country. As expressed in Chapters 1 and 7, ‘good governance and sustainable development are indivisible’, as indicated by the UN Secretary General  between January 1, 1997  and December 31, 2006, Kofi Annan, during his inaugural address at the UN ‘International Conference on Governance for Sustainable Growth and Equity’, held in New York, July 28–30, 1997. GG was identified at the WSSD, held at Johannesburg, South Africa, from August 26 to September 4, 2002, as a critical factor for ensuring successful SD. By virtue of the duty of companies (ie, the private sector) expressed in Article 27 of the Johannesburg Declaration on SD, 2002, cited above, business can enhance GSR embedded in GG, by embarking on good practices in the interest of society, especially the public directly affected by business operations, so as to achieve business sustainability. Thus, as expressed in Chapter 7, traditionally ‘soft’ issues such as human rights, the environment and other imperative social and ethical dimensions of business have now become ‘hard’ for business to ignore, manage or get them wrong, in the ongoing efforts designed to enhance and ensure mankind’s and society’s greater wellbeing.

To be continued.