Category: Energy

In one of Ogoni folktales, we are told that an old woman went to the forest to fetch firewood and almost used a snake as a rope. The story says after the old woman had gathered loose sticks; she needed to bind them together into a bunch.

She looked for any kind of string to tie her harvest and in the process mistakenly picked a snake. The reptile with a swift wriggled itself from the old woman and positioned itself for an attack.

The old woman was quick to appeal to the snake that she had thought it was a rope which could be used to tie firewood. The snake accepted the woman’s explanation but it went and told its peers that they should never be gentle to the extent any old woman use them to bind firewood.

The morale of this story is that there was an era in which the Ogoni were so docile in Rivers state and Nigeria. But their neighbors misconstrued their gentility. Their inclination to serenity was seen as timidity.

The Ogonis were once taken as a lot destined to operate only at the periphery of the socio-economic and political spheres of Nigeria. Theirs rights were trampled upon, their dues were denied, their dignity undermined, their opinions ignored and, their aspirations disrespected.

It is against this backdrop that Ken Saro-Wiwa under the auspices of the Movement for the Survival for the Ogoni People (MOSOP) championed their cause. The Ogonis adopted the nonviolent approach in their struggle because they believe in negotiation.

They wanted to use intellectual and superior arguments to persuade the authorities. Ogonis wanted other Nigerians to know that contrary to the perception of them; they possess the capacity to reason logically, coordinate their affairs and present their case.

Ken Saro-Wiwa, the spokesperson of MOSOP possessed an ebullient persona, charismatic, articulate and persuasive in writing and speech. His personality and works made him an ideologue for the struggle of the Ogoni people.

He was their hero, his voice; writings, speeches and activities carved a pattern and path for Ogoni to follow. Unfortunately, Nigeria refused to accede to the intellectual approach and nonviolent activism advanced by Ogonis.

Violence was the only reply that Ogonis got. Firstly, the Ogoni 4 were killed in circumstances that remain mysterious to this day, yet, their murder was used as the alibi to hang the Ogoni 9.

The manner in which the government and Shell reacted to the Ogoni agitation pushed them to the wall. The people are angry and frustrated. When they look across the border of their land they see that the same Nigeria which responded with violence and killed Ogoni leaders is busy negotiating with militia groups.

There is tacit glorification of arms for the same cause which the Ogoni people advanced intellectually. When Ogonis travel to Port Harcourt, Warri, Yenegoa or Uyo; they are asked what has been the benefit of nonviolence.

The seeming preference of armed struggle is tempting for younger people who lack the capacity to stay true to ideological persuasion and commitment. The narrative amongst the younger generation seems driven by influences and appeal for violence.

Their own approach is propelled an undercurrent diametrically opposite to the approach of yesterday. The younger generation seems to have taken the decision never to be outdone and taken for a ride anymore.

We are witnessing a situation whereby the consciousness which MOSOP inspired in Ogoni being rechanneled into a negative energy. Ogoni is undergoing a sociological warfare. This type of war is not conventional; the weaponry is mainly the infusion of dynamics that mutate the core element of social cohesion, collective direction and societal development.

Sociological warfare is fought on three main fronts, namely; subtle incapacitation, strategic silencing and psychological demobilization.

Will there be war in Ogoni?

Recent events in Ogoniland are not the products of mere coincidence. That the apex organisation for Ogoni struggle is fractioned and factionalized into three units calls for concern. It equally forces one to raise eye brow that the KAGOTE, an umbrella structure for politicians from Ogoni is splintered into two.

While people are still talking about the imbroglio of MOSOP and KAGOTE; the people has informed that there is new organization. Gbo Kabaari has some notable names and faces; who instead of repairing existing groups, they are working very strongly to merge the objectives of both MOSOP and KAGOTE.

In the same way, people are confused over the neck deep involvement in partisan activities by the Nigerian Coordinators of Ogoni Solidarity Forum (OSF). On the sideline is an Ogoni Youth Advancement Network that is in court to force the HYPREP to account for some $10m so far released to them for the clean-up exercise.

Besides all of these known groups, there are other translucent, undefined, sectional, foxy and nocturnal groups that also believe they must have their say in the affairs of Ogoni. There is a palpable tension across the land as different groups engage in mudslinging.

It appears the contestation is either about who takes the lead in deciding the resumption of oil production, or, how best to oppose any group that wants to take the shine from others.

Wherever you turn in Ogoni are rumors, fears and crises. There are abundance of different versions of stories of closed-doors meetings being held or planned to be held with the leadership of different communities and kingdoms. The latest talk in town is that any community or kingdom that consent to oil production would receive special protection and support.

The insinuation is that that collective bargaining would be destroyed. People are beginning to talk in hush voices that the government will negotiate with Tai Kingdom, Eleme Kingdom, Gokhana Kingdom and/or Kpean Community individually and differently.

While these rumors are spiraling Ogoni communities are experiencing chains of violent attacks almost on a daily basis. The people of Luawii lost 8 persons to gang attack one day after them; Zaakpon followed with almost a dozen killed.

READ ALSO: Soldier, two NSCDC personnel killed in Ogoni by cultists, illegal oil bunkerers

Zaakpon is still a ghost town for close to two months now. Gwara was next with another 4 persons killed in a string of attacks. In Bane and Bere, three prominent persons were beheaded, a chief, a retired policeman and a politician. The story is not better in Sogho and Kono-Boue where 20 and 32 persons respectively; were mowed down in single attacks.

This article was already being concluded when social media platform started releasing images of another invasion of Bori, B-Dere and k-Dere communities. The story is that there latest round of violence is on account of a disagreement and clash between a gang that engages in oil bunkering and the patrol team stationed in Kira junction.

One cannot deny that some Ogoni youths have also added the notorious activities of crude oil theft and, if one adds this to the mix; Ogoni is cocktail of highly inflammable elements.

The attacks had been explained as cultists and politically related. If that is the truth, it is not wisdom for the government of President Muhammadu Buhari to add an issue that will further aggravate an already tense territory.

The political higgledy-piggledy plus the litany of intractable and inexplicable arm violence, which has all elements of organised attacks; are landmines that can explode with the slightest ignition.

The government should borrow a leaf from the book of South Sudan where friends and allies who fought against the northern oppression have turned bitter rivals because of crude oil. Ogoni people are not necessarily unreasonable.

The 26- year resistance of oil production in their land is not aim at sabotaging the government. To the Ogoni people, non-resumption of oil drilling since 1993 is a “conciliatory trophy”. It is probably a token, but, it has both psychological and sociological value.

Let the government approach their desire to resume oil operation in Ogoniland in a manner that provides a healing balm to the collective injuries inflicted on the psych of the Ogoni ethnic nationality.

Barry Wuganaale is based in Cape Town, South Africa. He is Sustainable Development Consultant, a writer, the Senior Pastor of Altar of Liberation, Coordinator of Hands of Nehemiah International, CEO of Sirabari Investment Pty Limited, CEO Nigerian Transformation Movement, he is also an activists and Expert in Developmental Theology.

Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) and Geoscape are partnering to train young graduates to boost their skills and capacity.

Geoscape Head of Contracts and Assets Morenike Jupi-Igbeka told The Nation at an event in Lagos that the training is mandatory.

She said Geoscape is mandated by the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act (NOGICD) Act to ensure that oil and gas operators are giving back to the economy by developing the economy, capacity and technology, which will combine to retain substantial value of contracts in-country.

She said: “The trainees are graduates of engineering, geology, and physics – applied sciences generally. They are being trained so that they can fit into the oil and gas industry. The essence of the training is to reduce the number of expatriates that come into Nigeria to take up jobs from our locals.

“According to NCDMB, any company that is doing a contract of certain threshold in the industry must set aside minimum of about two per cent of the contract sum for training to develop capacity. That is what we are doing because we have a contract we are doing for Chevron. Geoscape won a contract and we are mandated by the law and by Chevron who owns the project to set aside some proceeds of the contract to train some youths.

“We were given a list of about 60 people. They wrote a test and we selected 22 to train for a year – six months for classroom and six months for hands-on-the-job.  According to the NOGICD law, they will be trained along the lines of what the project is about and to ensure that they get international certifications. We are not mandated to employ them if we don’t have space, but we have given them good training so they can choose to be entrepreneurs or work for anyone else at the end of their training. They will be well-equipped to do so.

“Oftentimes, the excuse for bringing in expatriates is that Nigeria doesn’t have experts to do some jobs. This training will sharpen the trainees’ skills and enable them get the requisite certifications and practical knowledge to work in any part of the world.

“This training is not just ordinary corporate social responsibility, it comes with a stipend. We give them (trainees) stipends of N120,000 per month and N1000 per day for lunch as well as tools to work with such as a brand new laptop. They will be trained in project management, safe handling of chemicals, health and safety management, entrepreneurial development, quality management, freight forwarding, Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS) certification and ICT certification, among others. We have about 12  training areas, such as quality management.

‘’This is the first time we are doing this kind of training with NCDMB but before now we have been training our staff exposing them to our technical partners and sending them abroad for training. We are oil and gas Service Company; we also do procurement and logistics services, engineering services, asset integrity and maintenance services.

NCDMB Head of Capacity Development, Mrs Angela Okoro, represented the Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Simbi Wabote. Kehinde Adebowale of the Nigerian Content Department of Chevron Nigeria Limited represented her company.

Nigeria, Ghana and other countries globally are recording abysmal performance in mining and allied areas, PricewaterCoopers has said.

In a report dated 2019 and made available to The Nation, the consulting firm chided Nigeria and other countries for churning out  poor performance in the mining sector in recent times.

The report said 40 biggest mining companies declared a dividend of $43 billion in 2018.

It said forecast indicated weaker prices for coal and copper, while Iron ore and others showed less than average prices.

The report said: ‘’ Investors are not impressed by the records of the 40 biggest mining firms in the world, due to the poor showing of the sector in 2018. Though the total market capitalisation of the mining sector rose sharply in the first quarter of 2018, the sector recorded eight per cent in 2019. In spite of the strong operating performance of the world’s top miners, there is still more room for improvement for mining countries’’

The report added: ‘’ Investors and other stakeholders have concerns about the mining industry’s ability to respond to the risk and uncertainties of a changing world. The concerns are in the areas of emission of resources and investments in mining technology, among others. However, the mining sector has opportunities to adapt to the growing and changing expectations of stakeholders.

In 2018 the top 40 paid down $15.5 billion in net borrowings, resulting in the gearing position dropping below the 10-year average.

All liquidity and solvency ratios improved during the year, leaving the world’s largest miners with strong balance sheets and cash flows.

In line with expectations, capital expenditures started to rise again, albeit from historically low levels. The 13 percent increase over the previous year to $57 billion, suggests that miners are  proceeding cautiously; approximately half of the capital expenditure in 2018 was for ongoing projects.

Capital expenditure on coal was consistent, year-on-year, and we expect miners will maintain current production levels while the coal price remains high.

An 11per cent lift in operating cash flows has allowed the top 40 to increase shareholder distributions in 2018 to a record $43 billion. Dividend yield for the year was 5.5 per cent.

There was a notable jump in share buybacks to $15 billion, up from $4 billion in 2017. Rio Tinto and BHP accounted for 70 per cent of the total activity, returning proceeds of non-core disposals to shareholders.

In 2018, the share of value distributed to governments in the form of direct taxes and royalties increased from 19 percent to 21percent. Employees received 22 percent of the total value distribution from the top 40.

Andries Rossouw, added “Mining along with oil & gas, distributes a greater share of its value to governments than almost any other sector.

“A number of countries have also implemented carbon taxes and/or emissions trading schemes.”

Of  25 countries in which the top 40 operate, 13 countries have already implemented these taxes/schemes and nine countries are actively considering implementation.

After several years of sluggish activity, M&A picked up significantly in 2018. The value of announced transactions rose 137 percent to $30 billion, driven by a flurry of activities in the gold sector, the on-going push by miners to optimise their portfolios, and momentum to acquire energy metals projects.

Rossouw comments further: “This renewed appetite for large transactions looks as though it will continue throughout 2019, with the deal value announced  30 April 30, 2019 already surpassing the value of all the announced deals in 2017.

The gold sector is experiencing a renewed round of consolidation, driven by a shrinking pipeline of projects, fewer new high-grade discoveries and a lack of funding for junior developments.

Gold deals increased from eight percent of total top 40 deal value in 2017 to 25 percent in 2018, and this year are tracking at close to 95percent of deals as at the end of April.

“Gold mining companies need to be rigorous and disciplined with prospective deals. With substantially all the value generated by mergers and acquisitions between 2005 and 2012 now lost, investors are still reeling from past transactions where purchasers overpaid for assets,” Kotzé comments.

Residents of Odi-Olowo, Ogutuga, Ososa and Oke-Ola areas of Ijebu Ode have alleged threats to their lives over perennial blackout that have lasted over 10 weeks.

They are, therefore, urging the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) Plc to come to their rescue by urgently repairing the only transformer servicing the area.

The appeal was contained in a petition dated April 26, 2019 and sent to the IBEDC Managing Director, Mr. John Donnachie.

The petition was signed on behalf of the residents by the Oloritun, Ikanigbo Mararun Community, Otunba Abdul-Fatai Sarumi.

“Our lives, health, work and security of our lives and property are all under threat now due to this sustained power outage in our area.

“Water which sustains life has become scarce. Our source of water is from boreholes powered by electricity in our homes and some commercial water vendors in the community. Many of these boreholes have been damaged as a result of heavy dependence of generators leading to inadequate water supply.

Read Also: Ode to my Ijebu-Ode

“Our artisans whose jobs depend on power are out of business. The peace of our community is threatened. Water crisis looms, unemployment crisis looms, security crisis looms”, they lamented.

The community said when the problem started about three months ago, they promptly informed the IBEDC office in Ijebu Ode about the development but that nothing was done to get the transformer working again.

They said they decided to cry out because the residents could not muster enough fund to buy a new generator.

“We are using this medium to crave for your quick intervention to end the hardship which lack of power has brought upon our lives and for you to end our misery and avert looming epidemic that may arise due to absence of portable drinking water and associated crisis”, the petition stated.

IBEDC’s spokesman, Mrs Angela Adekunle, however, said transformer serving the Ita-marun communities was tested and confirmed bad on April 25, 2019 by our engineers. The report was thereafter forwarded to the headquarters for replacement.

The community wrote to report the faulty transformer and requested for replacement on the 29th of April, 2019. The team that brought the letter was addressed to be patient as the matter has been reported to the headquarters.

IBEDC has backlogs of request for transformers which is being treated on a first come first served basis. The faulty transformer of the community is noted by the company and will be replaced as soon as the consignment order for the request arrives.

We, however, apologise for all inconveniences this might cause our esteemed customers in this community with the assurance of power restoration immediately we get delivery of the transformers.