Amby Uneze
29 October 2008
Owerri — Speaker, Imo State House of Assembly, Goodluck Nanah Opiah, has blamed multi-national oil companies, especially Shell Petroleum and Agip Oil, for crises in the Niger Delta region.
Speaking at a one-day "First Interactive Forum/Oil Summit," organised by Imo State government in conjunction with Ezelukwu Ventures, Opiah lamented the absence of major oil companies at the all important summit and submitted that until they do their statutory social responsibilities to the communities, peace would remain a mirage in the region.
"We cannot continue to have peace when oil companies do not reciprocate, when there are no good roads, when there are no functional infrastructure, when hunger and deprivation is everywhere in the region, and when job opportunities and skills acquisition are not created for people of the oil producing areas," he said.
"I was not surprised that Shell and Agip are not present in this forum. Those two multi-national oil companies are the cause of problems in the Niger Delta region today. They have continually refused to cater for the people and reciprocate the gestures of oil producing communities.
"Opiah urged other majors oil companies like Addax Petroleum Development Com-pany and Chevron Nigeria Limited to ensure they do not emulate Shell and Agip, and keep on building bridges between them and the oil producing communities.
Declaring the summit open, Governor Ikedi Ohakim said the summit was as a result of determination of his administration to find solution to the lingering crises in the Niger Delta region, adding that his government recognises the need to address the problems through participatory approach.
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Mr. Opiah does not think that we should play well our own part first before we can accuse foreign firms for not playing their role to improve the oil producing communities. Our resources are mismanaged from the top to the bottom. The President and his subordinates, the Governors and their subordinates, the House and Senate both at federal and state levels share the oil wealth among themselves and tell us long stories. How the hell do we expect the foreign companies to perform when they know that we are not doing anything with our own wealth. They know very well how the game is played in this country. They also know that Nigeria is rich enough to have good roads, bridges, good schools, constant power supply, running water, good telecommunication services and the list goes on.So if we are undermining ourselves, who says the the oil companies cannot do the same? Which is worse, the evil we did to ourselves or the one somebody else did to us? I urge Mr. Opiah and his governor to visit Dubai and tell me the difference. Both countries produce oil. Nigeria produces much more oil than Dubai but you can see the result of their oil wealth. Anybody who visits Nigeria would not realize that we produce a drop of oil.So please Mr. Opiah, stop playing the blame game. We know that you are getting your own share of the national cake.