Opinion
Reviewing Nigerian Content Policy
The local content policy came into effect in Nigeria with the signing into law, on April 22, 2010, of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act to enable greater, indigenous contributions in the Nigerian oil and gas industry, and thus boost national benefits from that sector of the economy. Perceived foreign dominance and dependency in the sector prompted agitations by Nigerians who claimed that greater local participation in the petroleum industry business would trap financial benefits homeward, as well as create industrial capacity-building for wider developments. The argument was strong, with less than 5 per cent in-country service contribution to the petroleum industry businesses as at 1990, with claim that Nigeria was experiencing capital flights to the tune of over $380 billion, coupled with an estimated loss of over two million jobs to countries where services were out-sourced. In 1990, as if to kick-start a response to these agitations, the then Minister of Petroleum Resources, Prof. Jibril Aminu, enabled the first award of oil blocks to 11 Nigerian companies. Prof Aminu was obviously convinced that Nigerians having worked for decades under the tutelage of International oil companies (IOCs), had acquired enough requisite experience and skills to run indigenous outfits.
Though that decision created some portfolio companies, it gave birth to indigenous companies like Atlas Petroleum and Cavendish Petroleum, who nurtured their Oil Prospecting Leases to points where they now operate Oil Mining Leases. Later awards and acquisitions from 1999 saw new generations of indigenous oil companies like Famfa Oil Ltd, Seplat Petroleum, Oando Energy Resources, Monipulo Energy, Emerald Energy Resources, Belema Oil, Sahara Energy Exploration, and so many others, becoming players in the oil and gas fields. As at year ending 2012, a total number of 109 Oil Mining Licenses (OMLs) and 92 Oil Prospecting Licenses (OPLs) had been granted indigenous operators. While these oil blocks are marginal fields, the figures represented just 11 per cent of the total leases with about 88 per cent still operated by the IOCs. To also empower local capacity in the oil services sector which is dominated by multinationals like Schlumberger, Haliburton and Baker Hughes, the federal government in 2003 enacted the Coastal and Inland Shipping (Cabotage) Act. The act, in principle, restricted the use of foreign vessels in domestic, coastal services and was aimed at promoting the development of indigenous vessel services along and within the Nigerian coastal channels.
The climax so far in the litany of reforms came last year with the signing of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA). But, of all the introduced acts the NOGICD, signed in 2010, promised to be more far reaching and for the grass-roots, in terms of skills development, jobs creation and business capacity building.13 years after signing the NOGICD Act in furtherance of previous initiatives to protect ‘national interests’, how has the industry fared? How do we compare the economy, skills acquisition, remunerations for the few jobs still available, working conditions, job security, environmental standards and safety, as well as the general security? The current poor oil production data compared with previous records, and the ominous invest decisions by IOCs that resulted in divestments from almost all onshore assets, are clear testimonies of an industry in retrogression. The federal government should be more circumspect in drafting policies in ways that do not draw bad sentiments and backlashes from international partners. One wonders why the current economic malaise and rapidly depreciating naira should mirrow those of the 1970s. Prior to 1972 when the federal government signed the Nigerian Enterprises Promotion Decree (NEPD) a.k.a Indigenisation Decree, the US Dollar paired 1:1 with the Naira.
In less than a decade after NEPD, the Naira crashed to between N99 – N105 per Dollar. A flip to the present times shows that, while in 2010 when the NOGICD act was signed with similar ‘indigenisation’ reforms that culminated in the PIA of 2022, the Naira was N122.26 per Dollar, but has crashed to more than N1,000 per Dollar. A look at Nigeria’s oil production landscape might help our reflections. Of the 2.48 million barrels per day (mbpd) produced in 2012 during the years of high oil production records, 900,800 barrels per day (bpd) came from offshore, deepwater productions, representing 36.32 per cent of total production, while 1.5 mbpd came from the onshore and shallower water terrains. Of that 1.5 mbpd, local companies contributed only 276,000 bpd. It is obvious that the bulk of Nigeria’s oil production comes from onshore platforms, yet these are where the IOCs have divested from, and wherein local operators are supposedly waxing strong. What changed in the operations climate and why have production records not been sustained? While the production capacities of indigenous operators looked hopeful as at 2012, the expected revolution has not materialised to at least sustain the 2.48 mbpd of 2012. Meanwhile offshore production remains progressive.
Despite total production records dropping progressively to as low as 800,000 bpd last year, the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), claims Nigeria has attained 42 per cent total Nigeria content in the oil and gas industry with a 70 per cent target by 2027. Oil production is currently at 1.2 million barrels per day, a far cry from the 2.48 mbpd records of 2012, and Nigerians have lost jobs beyond 2010 levels even with rising population of youths. Apart from NCDMB’s Nigerian Content Development Fund assistance to part-finance onshore Floating Production Storage Offloading (FPSO) vessel integration facility, at the Lagos Deep Offshore Logistics Base (LADOL) which contributed to the EGINA FPSO construction, and the magnificent headquarters it built for itself at Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, the NCDMB has not initiated much transformations within the Niger Delta apart from a couple of training workshops and seminars. The NCDMB should roll out ambitious skills development programmes to create capacities that empower indigenous industries to create innovations and jobs. It should also investigate why the expected revolutions in the oil and gas industry which was to overspill into other industries, has not yet materialised, and instead there is retrogression occasioned by low oil production and job losses. The Trans-Amadi Industrial Layout, a former bee-hive of oil and gas activities, has become a ghost layout.
While the initiatives to enable indigenous participation in the oil and gas industry is in the right direction, the environment should be made conducive for technologically advanced IOCs to operate as skills reference peers who create hard and soft skills transfer. The successes of Asian nations were attained by giving international technologies free hand to employ local labour and resources to make profits, while developing the nations in the process. The capacity to ensure security of personnel, production facilities and products, as well as the ethical skills strength to maintain transparent, accurate records, should be NCDMB’s focus as an aspect of content input to reverse the onshore losses, rather than eulogising itself in a time the entire economy is drowning due to unpresidented levels of corruption within its area of supervision. The wings of the NCDMB appears clipped however in the new PIA, which makes the minister of state for petroleum head of board, the latter being a direct errand boy to Nigerian presidents who have become penchant for doubling as petroleum ministers. For former President Muhammadu Buhari and his minister of state to have handled that portfolio amidst eight straight years of poor performance without a solution, is enough reason for introspection.
Opinion
The Rantings Of Rivers ALGON
For the first time in the last eight years , one can observe a moribund and toothless, Association of Local Government of Nigeria, Rivers State Chapter trying to lull the people of Rivers State in believing that it exists, that it is versed and abreast with the provisions of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended), knowledgeable about subsisting judicial pronouncements on the Local government administration matters by courts of competent jurisdiction, and it has workers and. the people’s welfare at heart.
These wrong impressions can be deduced from the text of the Press Conference delivered by the Association last week.
Despite the window dressing and cosmetic posture that the Association of Local Government of Nigeria, Rivers Sttate chapter wants to impress on the people and residents of Rivers State, it is crystal clear that workers at the Third Tier of Government have not fared well in the last eight years of the repressive and workers unfriendly immediate past administration in the State.
While workers at the State were fortunate to have a controversial minimum wage paid to them, local Government workers did not benefit from the N30,000 Minimum Wage which became a legal instrument about six years until March 2024, following a directive by the Executive Governor, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, to Local Government chairmen in the State to immediately implement the minimum wage, wage award and promote workers.
Where was.the Legal Adviser of the Association of Local Government of Nigeria, whose statutory responsibility it was to advise the former Rivers State. Governor that it is an affront on the sensibilities of workers and fragrant.breach of extant law to not pay minimum wage to workers at.the 23 Local Government councils.
Civil servants at the State and Local Government councils were not promoted and did not benefit from the annual incremental credit for about ten years. The incremental credit is a paltry and very insignificant amount compared to the inputs of workers to drive implementation of government policies and programmes and what elective office holders take home within the comparable period.
I had expected a “concerned and workers-friendly ‘ Association of Local Government in the State to midwife the promotion of workers, implementation of Minimum wage and fulfill their statutory obligations to the workers and the people at the local government areas whose resources they hold in trust and on whose behest they are in power.
It therefore beats my imagination that Local Government Chairmen of ALGON, who are products of the ballot and not appointees of the former governor lost their “Executive” status and played the second fiddle role. Even when there was unconfirmed tampering of local government funds, they could not protest or raise an eye brow.
How the people who were cowardly and timid before the former administration in the State suddenly cultivated and imbibed the effrontry and temerity to hold a Press Conference attempting to disparage the performing and conscientious Sir Siminalayi Fubara-led administration leaves much to be desired and a bad taste in the mouth of all patriotic and truthful Rivers people.
I expected the self serving chairmen under the aegis of the Association of Local Government of Nigeria to brace up to the challenges of seeming derecognition and denial of their right of expression as elected chairmen by the former administration in the State.
While the ALGON has the legitimacy to contest violation of, or infringement on their interests, such protest should not be seen as selective. Between 1999 and 2003, the Association of Local Government of.Nigeria in Rivers State was vociferous and so alive to its onus that they rejected allocations that did not reflect the true figures of what the local government councils deserved from the Joint Account Allocation Committee (JAAC). That was when ALGON was keen and committed to the essence of its formation. That was a real workers-friendly ALGON.
However, with the advent of crude and uncivilised godfatherism that circumvented real democratic processes for manipulative and coercive selection that ultimately produced unpopular candidates of the godfather, chairmen were reduced to puppets, playing subservient roles for their benefactors instead of protecting the interest and welfare of workers and the people of their local government areas, who they ought to represent.
Having therefore failed to speak up for workers and defend the welfare of the people of their local government areas, at a time they were oppressed, the association in my candid opinion does not have the moral justification to cry fowl against the present administration in Rivers State whose policies and programmes so far, reveal that the governor understands that the legitimacy of his administration is derived from the people, so he is accountable to them by putting in place infrastructure that will give fresh breath to a people who are recuperating from the suffocation of repressive and coercive governance.
Sir Siminalayi Fubara is today a messiah to workers in Rivers State. Local government. workers are .being paid minimum wage, promoted and duly placed at their appropriate levels after 10 years of no promotion.
Civil servants in the State are sure of receiving their pensions immediately after retirement from service which was a marked. departure from previous administration.
Rather than vilifying or demonising the present administration in the State, the Association of Local Government of.Nigeria, Rivers State should thank the Governor, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, for doing in less than one year what their grand master could not do for them and workers in eight years.
Remember, everyone will stand in the court of history and posterity to account for their actions and inactions in office.
Igbiki Benibo
Opinion
Kidnapping: Need For Govt To Address The Monster
Kidnapping, a heinous crime, cannot be condoned in any circumstances. The situation in Nigeria, characterised by various security challenges, including the presence of militant groups and criminal organisations, requires a multifaceted approach to address its root causes.
A report by the Beacon Security and Intelligence Limited, a security risk management and intelligence company based in Abuja, stated that at least 2,583 people were killed and 2,164 kidnapped in the first quarter of this year.
The record carries the number of killings and abductions across the country from January to March, indicating that 80 percent of the killings and 94 percent of the abductions occurred in the Northern part of Nigeria.
This report, however, varied with the position by the National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu, who said that the casualty figures were going down, the consulting firm’s report showed that an average of 28 persons were killed and 24 kidnapped.
The Nigerian government, through the Minister of Defence, Muhammad Badaru Abubakar, during the maiden edition of the annual lecture series organised by the Nigerian Army Resource Centre in Abuja, said the security situation was under control.
The casualty figures in zones, according to the data from the Beacon Security and Intelligence Limited, revealed that out of the people killed during the period, 793 were from the North-West, 681 from the North-East and 596 from the North-Central. The casualties were recorded from bandits’ attacks, farmers/herders’ conflicts and communal clashes.
The South-West recorded 194 killings, the South-South, 161 people; and South-East, 158. The five states with the highest number of killings were Borno, 517; Benue, 313; Katsina, 252; Zamfara, 212 and Kaduna, 206. The data showed that out of the 2,164 persons abducted within the period, 1,297 were kidnapped in the North-West, 421 in the North-East, 330 in the North-Central, 30 in the South-West, 66 in the South-South and 20 in the South-East.
Kaduna State recorded the highest number of abductees with 546; Zamfara, 447; Borno, 340; Katsina, 252 and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), 102. Experts hope that the present government under President Bola Tinubu will do the needful.
Firstly, addressing the socioeconomic factors that contribute to kidnapping is crucial. High unemployment rates, poverty, and lack of economic opportunities push individuals towards criminal activities. Investing in education, job creation programmes, and infrastructure development can help alleviate these issues and provide alternatives to crime.
Secondly, strengthening law enforcement and judicial systems is essential. Improving police training, equipping them with necessary resources, and enhancing collaboration between security agencies can help in apprehending criminals and ensuring justice for victims. Additionally, enhancing the efficiency of the judicial process and holding perpetrators accountable through swift and fair trials can deter future criminal activities.
Furthermore, enhancing intelligence gathering and surveillance capabilities can help in preempting kidnapping attempts and dismantling criminal networks. Cooperation between government agencies, intelligence services, and international partners can facilitate information sharing and coordination in combating organised crime.
Moreover, addressing corruption within the government and security forces is imperative. Corruption undermines efforts to combat crime by facilitating criminal activities and eroding public trust in institutions. Implementing anti-corruption measures, promoting transparency, and holding corrupt officials accountable can help in restoring trust and integrity within the system.
Community engagement and empowerment play a vital role in preventing kidnapping and other crimes. Building strong community relationships, fostering trust between residents and law enforcement agencies, and promoting community-based initiatives can help in identifying and addressing security threats at the grassroots level.
Finally, kidnapping in Nigeria is a complex issue that requires a comprehensive and coordinated approach. Addressing socioeconomic factors, strengthening law enforcement and judicial systems, enhancing intelligence capabilities, combating corruption, engaging communities, and promoting international cooperation are all crucial components in combating kidnapping and improving security in the country. However, it is important to remember that any strategy must prioritise human rights, the rule of law, and the protection of innocent lives.
Badamasi Junaidu
Junaidu writes from Abubakar Tatari Ali Polytechnic, Bauchi.
Opinion
Local Government As Agent Of Nation Building
Development is regarded as sequential changes or growths that occur in a society or country over time. It remains a product of good governance, which mostly lies in the hands of those at the helm of affairs at a particular time and process that led to the emergence of such leaders.
The local government is universally found in contemporary societies, both in the developed and developing countries. It is a vital political institution, such that modern politics and administration revolves around it. Today, most countries across the globe have adopted democratic system of government, being the government of the people, by the people and for the people. In these countries, governance is centered on three tiers with constitutional backing to aid rapid development. A country like Nigeria has three tiers of government, Federal, State and Local Governments. Each tier has constitutional roles, aimed at complementing each other. The mother of them, that is, the Federal Government, plays significant roles in nation building, and this is one of the reasons why citizens always look unto the presidency and participate actively during presidential elections conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
It is an established fact that citizens also perform their civic responsibilities as expected during the governorship elections, while there is a lot of apathy during the chairmanship and councillorship elections, forgetting that without a solid foundation, the longevity of structure or building is in doubt.
Citizens’ nonchalant attitude to the process that produces public administrators at the grassroots is quite alarming, and this usually results into having the wrong peg in the right hole.
Findings revealed that voter apathy associated with local government council elections was due to non-performance of some previous elected administrators, lack of security of lives or property and lack of trust in States Independent Electoral Commission (SIECs). Others include introduction of caretaker committees to man the affairs of the councils, do-or-die approach of political soldiers to the council’s polls, interest of the incumbent governors, choice of political godfathers, influence of respected monarchs and many more. The local government is a tier of government that provides essential services to the public, such as health and safety, transportation, sanitation, environmental, and utilities.
Also, it is the tier of government that ensures grading of rural roads, management of basic schools, local markets, among others. Public administrators play a crucial role in the delivery of these services and the management of local government organisations. Some time ago, the governor of Akwa Ibom State, Pastor Umo Eno, at the swearing-in ceremony of chairmen and vice chairmen of Nsit Ibom and Urue–Offong / Oruka Local Governments, compelled chairmen of the local government councils in the state to reside within their areas of jurisdiction for effective delivery on their mandate and development of rural areas.
Also, the ongoing campaign or demand for financial autonomy for local government by relevant stakeholders in the country further attests to how important this tier of government is in building a prosperous and self-sustained nation.
This development led to the conduct of local government council election in the 33 local government council areas of the state in 2021 by the current leadership of the Oyo State Independent Electoral Commission (OYSIEC), headed by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Aare Isiaka Abiola Olagunju. About 30 percent of registered voters took part in the election, a result that further attest to the long-time nonchalant attitude of citizens and residents to local government council elections. According to records, the feat attained by the commission in terms of voter turnout was the highest in recent times.
No doubt, democracy provides opportunity for people to choose their leaders and enables citizens to make their opinions known to those in power, enjoy good governance and interface with the authorities, especially those at the grassroots.
Adegoke writes in from Ibadan, Oyo State.
By: Adedamola Adegoke
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