Deconstructing the contractor personnel protests against Seplat Energy at Sapele

By Dan Aibangbe

The media (the Tribune inclusive) on Friday, May 19 2023 carried the story about protesters under the aegis of Okpe Oil and Gas Forum, who attempted to shut down operations at the Seplat Energy flow stations across Sapele Local Government Area of Delta.

According to the report, the grouse of the group centered on their expectations for better remuneration and conditions of service for the contractor employees, who are mostly indigenous persons engaged specifically to make the local communities benefit from the extraction of natural resources within their localities.

Fortunately, the nature of the protest was peaceful and focused more on remediation than combat. The report made it clear that the people of Okpe consider themselves peaceful by nature. They are mainly interested in better opportunities and better compensation.

Regardless of the benign nature of the protests, a number of issues require urgent attention by both parties. The protesters must be systematically educated to realise that when you work in a corporate environment and you are remunerated, then that is not slavery! Slavery is forced labour and without remuneration. Furthermore, compensation in the corporate environment is value-based. You are rewarded according to your contribution to the achievement of corporate objectives. This, in turn, is also based upon your skill set, education, experience and other corporate values often clearly stated.

Bearing this in mind, it behooves upon the individual or group that seeks ascension up the corporate ladder to deliberately embark on systematic self-development. No human being is ever satisfied to remain at the same level, year-in-year-out, but we must necessarily wean ourselves from the rent-seeking mentality.

The Tribune report mentioned that officials of Seplat could not be reached for comments. I took it upon myself to dig up the contact of the newly appointed Director, External Affairs and Sustainability, Chioma Y. Afe. She is quite aware of the situation, and reiterated that workers had not utilised internal channels to escalate their grievances available to all Seplat employees and contractor personnel, who are treated as members of the same family. She also clarified the on-boarding process and already lined up a programme for improved sustained engagement with host communities and contractor personnel in line with the already established Seplat Corporate Governance System.

Afe assured that Seplat Energy continuously strives to ensure best practice in the management of personnel provided by even third-party service providers, including regular engagements on their grievances. These service providers will continue to engage their personnel and amicably address the concerns raised by them.

She went on to appreciate the enduring support from Seplat host community leaders and the government security agencies working together with Seplat Energy to efficiently manage such situations, prevent any HSE incident and promptly restore normal operations. She stated that as part of the company’s continuous improvement initiatives, they are maintaining an open line of communication with all concerned parties and in the coming weeks, will complete a post-incident report and extract critical lessons-learned to strengthen Seplat operations and prevent any recurrence.

In view of the above, I will also encourage Seplat to bend over backwards and start an early-life recruitment programme (such as management trainee) to find, train and inject indigenes of the local community into higher cadres of employment within its operation and management ranks. It is also important to engage community leaders on the limitations of the career path available to under-schooled indigenes and encourage them to strive for better quality, so that their careers can prosper within and outside Seplat.

In conclusion, I must state that the clear choice before us is to nurture this budding oak called Seplat and all such indigenous companies that are striving to champion the new lift in actualisng the lofty objectives of the Nigerian Petroleum Industries Act. Rome, they say, was not built in a day!