Business

Petroleum ministers, key officials endorse new book on local content

Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri and his Gas counterpart, Rt. Hon Ekperikpe Ekpo, have hailed the dexterity and courage of a management staff of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, NCDMB, Dr Obinna Ezeobi, to write a book chronicling an account of how deft communication initiatives, skillful stakeholders management strategies and effective collaboration among key players in the oil sector played pivotal roles in propagating and advancing Nigeria’s local content policy in the last 15 years.

Also, the Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Engr. Felix Omatsola Ogbe has hailed Ezeobi on the feat, even as he said the board would procure copies of the book.

Ogbe’s predecessor, Engr. Simbi Kesiye Wabote, was also full of excitement as he received copies of the book from the author just as the Special Advisor to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Energy, Mrs. Olu Verheijen, who gave Ezeobi a thumps up for publishing a quality book on a major economic policy of the Federal Government.

Notable personalities in the Nigerian and African energy sector endorsed the book, including the pioneer Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Dr. Ernest Nwapa, who wrote a riveting foreword for the book.

Secretary General of the African Petroleum Producers Organisation (APPO), Dr. Omar Farouk Ibrahim, did not only endorse the book, he also recommended it to policy makers and local content enthusiasts across the continent and beyond.

Chairman of Oildata Group, and former Chairman of the Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria (PETAN), Emeka Ene, auded the work for chronicling some of the local content success stories.

The book entitled Titled “Nigeria’s Local Content: A Journey of Strategic Communication and Economic Transformation” comes at a time that stakeholders in the Nigerian oil and gas industry are getting ready to mark 15 years of the enactment and implementation of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act.

Receiving a copy of the book in Abuja, NCDMB’s Executive Secretary commended the author for his efforts in documenting and projecting the local content story.

He particularly lauded the aesthetics and quality of the book, pledging that the Board would procure copies.

The book has 267 pages, split in five parts, each section focusing on different but related themes such the evolution of oil and gas industry and local content, as well as contemporary issues like impact of oil companies’ divestments and Presidential Directives on local content development.

Some of the unique segments include the case studies on the Nigerian content 10-year strategic roadmap and key Nigerian content initiatives, and how the initiatives were enabled by strategic communication and stakeholder engagement.

The book closes with a treatise on local content compliance and enforcement and findings from an empirical study on the impact of Nigerian content communications on compliance by oil and gas companies.

It bears hallmark of the author’s media background, career at the NCDMB, as well as his doctoral studies in energy communication.

Giving reasons for the writing book, Ezeobi harps that the Nigerian Content Act is one of the most impactful and transformational legislations since Nigeria’s return to democracy in 1999, principally because of how NCDMB and its key partners deployed public communication and stakeholders management initiatives in the implementation process.

He said he was inspired to document and tell the remarkable local content story from the perspective of communication and stakeholder management, having played key roles in conceptualising and implementing the impactful strategies since the agency’s inception in 2010.

The book is targeted at broad target audiences, cutting across oil and gas players, local content actors, communication professionals and scholars, regulatory agencies, development partners, host community members, and historians.

Dayo Ayeyemi