Stakeholder Seeks Housing Scheme For Host Communities

A stakeholder in the
Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, Dr Godwin Obono, has urged multinational oil companies and government intervention agencies to provide affordable housing and other development projects to oil producing communities.
Obono made this known to journalists in Port Harcourt, while reacting to the plight of oil producing communities in Niger Delta in relation to the operations of multinational companies. He said that these companies need to take the development of host communities seriously.
According to him, records have shown that these companies have not given back to those communities what they have been benefiting from them, adding that these rural dwellers live in substandard homes which is against the MDG’s standard, as government has not done enough in the area of intervention.
Obono, who is an estate surveyor and valuer by training said, “The oil bearing communities should have all the necessary amenities like good houses considering the wealth they are generating to the companies and the nation.
He observed that the oil bearing communities were lagging behind in terms of development and were subjected to poor living houses whereas the multinational companies feed fat and live big from their resources.
The Niger Delta stakeholder therefore called for a change of method by the multinational oil companies in terms of re-investing their gains to their host communities by providing such social housing schemes for their host communities to make their living better.

 
Corlins Walter