Divesting IOCs abandoning toxic assets for local companies to continue with — ERA, host communities

Divesting International Oil Companies (IOCs) are abandoning toxic assets and complex problematic relationships with communities that the Domestic Oil Companies (DOCs) have inherited and continue to perpetrate.

This is one of several observations made at the end of a community dialogue about the unease and confusion in Niger Delta communities over their exclusion in the ongoing divestment processes of International Oil Companies (IOCs) in the region.

The one day dialogue was organised by the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) with host communities in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital over the weekend.

The host communities include Ikarama Community, Ikebiri Community, Otuagbagi Community, Sangana Community, Nembe Community, Egebekiri Community, Okoroma, Otuogidi Community.

Bayelsa is adjudged the most oil impacted state in Nigeria.

In attendance were representatives of various communities, including traditional rulers, leaders of thought, women, the youth, the academia, government officials and the media, amongst others.

Traditional rulers present were the Chair, Traditional Rulers Council of Bayelsa State, His Royal Majesty, King BubarayeDakolo, His Royal Highnesses, King W.D Amakiri and King Francis T. Dodo of Oruma and Ikebiri Kingdoms respectively.

At the consultation ERA/FoEN Executive Director, Chima Williams briefed participants about the ERA/FoEN engagements on unmasking IOC divestments and the fact that divestment has become a major issue as oil majors flee their toxic onshore facilities and go offshore where they evade monitoring.

Academics in attendance were Professor SofiriJoab-Peterside from Department of Sociology, University of Port Harcourt, and the Vice Chancellor of Federal University of Otuoke, Bayelsa State, Professor Teddy Alias whose intervention weighed heavily on impacts of Shell’s activities in Otuagbagi in Oloibiri Kingdom.

In a communique issued at the end of the meeting it was observed that:

“In the divestment processes the IOCs deliberately ignore Memorandum of Understandings (MOUs) and Global Memorandum of Understandings (GMOUs) agreed with oil-bearing communities.

“There is a complicit silence by the Nigerian state and the regulatory agencies as IOCs dictate the terms of divestments.

“The divestment processes pose grave threats to ongoing court cases instituted by local communities against the divesting companies.

“The divestment processes have largely weakened local struggles for environmental justice. It has equally divided communities.

“Domestic oil companies have inherited and continue the tradition of impunity and lack of accountability to local communities.”

It was also observed that “though all community people of all classes have suffered exclusion in the divestment processes, women and children suffer profoundly because the ongoing processes further aggravate their non-inclusion at all levels of engagement.”

Subsequently, stakeholders at the dialogue agreed that: “There is need for a better understanding and deepened community engagement on the global environment justice community definition of divestments vis-à-vis the model of the IOCs in the Niger Delta.”

Also stakeholders agreed that there “the IOCs decommission their toxic assets and carry out remedial actions monitored by independent bodies and civil society in the communities.”

They asked the Federal Government compel divesting IOCs to honor MOUs, GMOUs and other agreements entered with communities, among other demands.