Lagos — The African Network for Environment and Economic Justice (ANEEJ) is a non-profit, non-political, and non-governmental organisation based in Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria.

The Reverend David Ugolor founded ANEEJ while a student at the Edo State University in 1995, and the organisation was constituted in 1998. For over 10 years, ANEEJ has been working in Benin City, Edo State, and the Niger-Delta region and has managed activities across the six geo-political zones of Nigeria.

Working with local communities, civil society organisations, the private sector and state and national governments, the focus is sustainable development, the alleviation of poverty, and economic empowerment.

ANEEJ has covered a number of issues during this time, including Debts and Structural Adjustments, monitoring International Financial Institutions, Public Expenditure Management, Revenue Transparency, Budget Monitoring & Tracking, and Environmental Issues including Water & Sanitation.

This has led to activities such as the Public Eye on Oil Revenue, a public advocacy campaign, as well as initiating and developing the secretariat for the Publish What You Pay campaign, the publication, Oil of Poverty in the Niger-Delta and the formation of the Niger-Delta Budget Monitoring and Transparency Network and the Secretariat for the Nigerian Water and Sanitation Network.

ANEEJ advocates the importance of supporting the Nigerian national government and state governments in delivering equitable economic development for the Nigerian people. ANEEJ is currently working with state governments in the Niger-Delta region to support building the capacity of state Oil Commissions in the delivery of their work.

In this interview with our Energy Correspondent, Luka Binniyat, in Abuja recently, Ugolor says that the bane of the region is lack of capacity development for citizens of the Niger-Delta and even the mass media to understand oil revenue earnings and budgetary issues so they can monitor its expenditure and act as whistle blowers. He then unveils how ANEEJ is planning to reduce the problem. Excerpts:

What can you propose to help enhance development in the Niger-Delta?

We are working on the issue of oil revenue transparency and budget tracking. We have been deeply involved in environmental work and we also host the Publish What You Pay (PWYP) campaign in Nigeria.

We are also involved in the monitoring of government's commitment to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) process in Nigeria. We also host the National Water and Sanitation Network in Nigeria and are involved in the campaign for the monitoring of the use of the seized loot of the late Gen. Sani Abacha with the World Bank and in Nigeria government coffers.

What else do you do?

We were also deeply involved in the debt campaign that led to the debt cancellation. We have been involved of recent, in capacity building campaign and budget tracking monitoring within the Niger-Delta Region.

Having been working in the Niger-Delta as a civil society group in the past six years, we have to realise that there is a capacity issue and there is need to bridge this gap. And recently, we have come up with a project that will be focusing on Niger-Delta capacity building programme for both the government, civil society and media.

And we hope that when an alliance is built to demand for participatory budgeting process, the whole essence of democratising the region will be achieved particularly in ensuring good governance and transparency in the region. You know that of recent, there has been a lot of conflicts and crises in the region and one particular reason this was happening is because of the huge resources flowing into the region monthly.

There is also widespread poverty before and now. And today, the Niger-Delta has become the foster child for the resource curse phenomenon. The only way to reduce this and guarantee sustainable development in the region is to look into how to resolve the conflicts and crises.

How do you intend to do that?

One particular way we think, in our organisation, is to look into the question of transparency and accountability within the region. This becomes very urgent because most politicians who had become governors, made political commitments to the issue of transparency and accountability. But beyond those statements, we want to see how practically this can become a framework of governance within the region. That is why we recently issued a statement applauding the Bayelsa State Government for deciding to localise the NEITI process in Bayelsa State.

For us, it is a commendable effort. We are taking advantage of this opportunity to deepen our engagement with the Bayelsa State Government. And what we have done as preparation to the three- year strategic programme we are going to embark on in the Niger-Delta is, that we are going to focus on few states that are committed (at the governors' level), to the issue of transparency and accountability and willing to put in place laws to back up the process. We are glad to identify some key Bills some of the governors presented to their Houses of Assembly, particularly in Delta State where Gov. Emmanuel Uduaghan submitted three Bills to the House.

One of them is Delta State Integrated Development Agency, Child Rights Bill and the Fiscal Responsibility Bill. These three bills are very important in terms of ensuring transparency and accountability in how public funds are being used within the state.

What about the other states?

In Bayelsa State, the government officials held a retreat where they made a commitment on transparency and accountability. Following that retreat, the governor made a political commitment to localising NEITI at the state level. In Rivers State, the governor was a member of the National Stakeholders Working Group of NEITI. I'm sure that the knowledge he got, he will implement at the state level. He has submitted two important Bills to the state assembly.

The bills include the Reserve Bill, which means that every month, the state government will put in reserve N1bn as savings for the rainy day and that is really very important. The governor thought it wise that since the oil price is high and it could easily fall and when that happens, it could affect public expenditure profile, he had to device this means.

It is sensible for governors to think in that way to guarantee the future. The only thing we want to see in this Bill is transparency and accountability. How the resources will be used. We could take as a model the Norwegian Trust Fund on how to manage oil trust fund, realising that a lot of corruption takes place in government procurement.

They have also presented a procurement bill. When signed into law, that will want to follow the best practice in procurement.

Put this side by side the governors from Ondo, Edo, Imo, Delta and Abia who have decided to set up a legal framework to use the 13 per cent derivation revenue which accrues to oil-producing states.

In real practice, beyond the huge resources that these Niger-Delta states are receiving, which makes them different from the non-oil producing states, there is really no human development difference. If you look at the UNDP report on the Niger-Delta, you will see that there is no difference in terms of the impact that the 13 per cent is having on the states.

These states have decided to set up a framework similar to the NDDC to use 40 per cent of the 13 per cent specifically for the oil-producing areas.