Some Niger Delta leaders have called on President Bola Tinubu not to allow the award of pipeline contracts escalate tension in the oil-rich region.
They insist that decentralising such contracts to capture the interest of various communities and ethnicities in the region will be seen as justice and fairness rather than a single-operator surveillance model which they say has deprived most people of their rights as members of oil-bearing communities which has led to some internal crisis being managed by leaders of the region.
Secretary-General of the Niger-Delta Stakeholders Forum, Dr. Alaye Theophilus, who read the communique after a closed:door meeting at the palace of King Ateke Tom in Okochiri, Okrika Local Government Area of Rivers State, South-South Nigeria said the current arrangement carries significant political risks given the region’s history of agitation, armed struggle and diverse ethnic composition which has historically fueled tensions whenever local grievances were ignored or dismissed.
He advised that maintaining a centralised contract for a narrow group of operators does not only weaken operational effectiveness but introduces a critical strategic vulnerability., which he said, limits transparency, accountability and enables the very losses it seeks to prevent.
Dr. Theophilus described the call for decentralisation as a move that would enhance production, restore stakeholders confidence and strengthen political cohesion.
(Editor: Terverr Tyav)
