The call by Rivers State Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, that International Oil Companies, IOCs, operating in the Niger Delta region should relocate their headquarters to the states from where they produce oil or gas should be immediately heeded, in the interest of both the people of the region and the OICs.

If the companies refuse to heed this well-intentioned call, the Federal Government should intervene to compel them to do so, if need be, through an Act of Parliament.

Governor Amaechi, who was speaking at a Stakeholders' Roundtable Discussion on the Niger Delta, organised by the Embassy of The Netherlands, stressed that locating their headquarters in their host states would create employment and development opportunities in those states.

The argument of the Governor is unassailable, especially against the background that 60 to 80 per cent of these companies have their Nigerian headquarters located outside the states where they produce oil or gas, paying taxes to the states where these offices are located, directly or indirectly contributing to the development of these states and employing more of their indigenes than those whose environments are daily being polluted through, among others, oil spillage, gas flaring, acid rain and gas fires.

These companies may easily plead security concerns or unavailability of modern infrastructure in the states where they produce as part of reasons why they prefer the cities where their headquarters are presently located, but the fact remains that these, indeed, are very important reasons why they should relocate to those states.

Apart from the fact that the IOCs would engage youths during the construction of the edifices that would serve as their new headquarters, they would, when they move in, employ all levels of staff and, consciously or unconsciously, much more of the people of their host states would be engaged than is presently the case. As a result, poverty would be reduced, the standard of living of the people would be enhanced and the crime rate would be reduced.

Besides, their taxes would go a long way in assisting the governments of these states to provide more modern infrastructure.

There would be better roads and bridges, including multi-lane roads and fly-overs, there would be safer water transportation modes, modern railway systems, better schools, potable water for all, standard health care, sufficient power, new cities, cleaner environment and tighter security.

Indeed, their presence in these states would go a long way in transforming the states from their current states to the point where they would become the havens that they ought to be, the havens that most other oil and gas producing areas of the world are.

Currently, the IOCs seem to see the states where they produce as mere outposts, jungles, where they do the dirty work among "primitive" peoples and get out to the "civilized" world of the major cities of the country and their home nations to relax and enjoy their profits.

This explains why they maintain highly fortified and very comfortable oases in the midst of squalor, dereliction, frustration, poverty and crime, which, if they carefully calculate, they would discover that it has not been the best for all concerned.

For instance, if they consider what they have lost in terms of destroyed equipment, sabotage of their installations, or kidnapped or killed staff, or if they consider what they have invested in security for their staff and installations, they would realize that it would have paid them better if they had lived among the people of the states where they operate and helped to make life more bearable for them.

The core question of insecurity has, largely, been answered by the sudden peace that came upon the region following the Amnesty Programme of the current administration.

The promise of amnesty, basic training in skills and professionals and employment opportunities transformed what was literally a war zone to a place of relative peace, an indication that conditions in the area could become better, if the IOCs decide to move their headquarters into the region and invest more of their profits in the people of the oil producing states of the country.

Governor Amaechi has given them a good opportunity to embrace this option and they should not let the opportunity slip through their fingers. The Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas Company (NLNG) has done so without any adverse consequences and the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, NCDMB, has been located in Bayelsa state since its establishment without problems.

Why then would the OICs that are not based where they operate continue to do so? This, indeed, is their opportunity to do the right thing. And they should do so without further hesitation.