FG And Recalcitrant IOCs

Six months after the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, in his acting capacity as the President of Nigeria, issued a presidential directive to all International Oil Companies (IOCs) operating in the Niger Delta region, to relocate their headquarters to the region, the multinational oil and gas firms are yet to comply with the order.
Osinbajo’s directive was a fallout of his several interactive sessions with leaders and stakeholders of the region who re-echoed their age-long grievances against the multi-nationals for locating their headquarters in Lagos and Abuja, outside the region in which they explore and exploit oil and gas.
The Niger Delta people told the then Acting President that most of the restiveness and agitations from youth and oil bearing communities in the region emanate from the oil-giants’ insensitivity to the developmental imperatives of the region. They argued that these companies shy away from their corporate social responsibilities, just because their headquarters are far away from the host communities.
Against this backdrop, Prof. Osinbajo directed the oil-giants to immediately relocate their operational and administrative headquarters to the region in order to be in direct touch with the communities in which they do business.
Sadly, these multi-nationals-Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC), Chevron, Mobil, TotalfinaElf, Saipem and other subsidiaries and service firms still refuse to relocate their headquarters to the region. In essence, the peace and confidence building mission of the Vice President is threatened.
Except Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), with its headquarters in Port Harcourt, all other IOCs still operate either from Lagos or Abuja and appear not ready to comply with the presidential order.
We recall that Osinbajo said in his tour of the Niger Delta States that there was no justification for these companies to continue to operate outside the region and promised that the Federal Government will do the needful by providing the enabling environment for peace, security and orderliness within the region.
Similarly, the leaders and stakeholders, including the restive youth committed themselves to abiding by the resolutions reached. This understanding, indeed, led to a drastic reduction in the rate of sabotage and vandalism of oil and gas installations and facilities in the region.
The Tide can authoritatively confirm that most if not all these companies have increased their daily production of crude oil quota. We, therefore, see no justification  in the claim by the multi-nationals that security concerns informed their refusal to relocate their headquarters to the region.
We think that the mutli-national companies have an agenda  which the Federal Government and the people of Niger Delta region are yet to know.
The utter disregard to the feelings of the oil-bearing communities and outright disobedience to the presidential directive are obvious pointers to the insensitivity and criminal neglect of the people from whose communities they milk crude oil and gas.
We further recall that about a decade ago, former President Olusegun Obasanjo issued similar directive to these recalcitrant multinationals, yet, they still retained their headquarters outside the region. The flimsy excuse of insecurity, is no longer tenable.
Just last week, worried by the slow-pace of development in the South-South and South-East geo-political zones, where over 95 per cent of the nation’s oil reserve is domiciled, the governors of the zones, rising from their meeting in Port Harcourt, re-affirmed the inevitability of the firms relocating their headquarters in order to accelerate the economic and infrastructural development of the area in which they do business.
In a communiqué issued at the end of the meeting, the governors said such relocation will definitely enhance critical intra-regional development and stimulate integration which will impact positively on oil and gas bearing communities.
We cannot agree less. We therefore implore these companies to without further delay, mobilise manpower and facilities for easy transition of their headquarters to the region as directed by the then Acting President.
We believe that such relocation will surely enhance harmonious relationship between oil companies and host communities. We, therefore, urge the  President Muhammadu Buhari-led government to issue a timeline of December 31, 2017 for these firms to relocate their headquarters to the region or face severe sanctions including quitting the region.
This is the way forward. Anything short of this will be perceived by Niger Delta people as  insensitivity to their plight and conspiracy by the government to further marginalize them.