Chief Edwin Clark, an elder statesman, on Wednesday called on the Federal Government to pay more attention to tackling environmental pollution and development in the Niger Delta.
Clark made the call in Abuja while presenting a paper titled: “The PIB and the Oil Producing Areas Equation’’ at the opening ceremony of the 2nd Upstream and Downstream Oil and Gas Conference.
Clark, who decried the lack of development and environmental degradation in the region, expressed optimism that the drafted Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) would go a long way in addressing some of the challenges when passed by the National Assembly.
He said that although the provisions in the bill were not perfect, it would serve as a good start to addressing the myriad of challenges in the region.
He enumerated some of the major challenges in the region to include lack of social amenities, environmental pollution as a result of oil spills, gas flaring, pipeline vandalism, lack of empowerment and lack of federal presence.
Clark stressed the need to bring about better transparency and accountability in the operations of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and international oil companies operating in the country.
“We need to make the process of awarding licences for oil blocks, lifting of crude oil and so on, more transparent so as to know the exact revenue accruable to government.
“As of today, we do not know the exact number of barrels of crude we produce daily and this is not acceptable,’’ he said.
He called for a quota-system that would ensure that indigenes of Niger Delta are employed in all oil companies and oil related government agencies such as the NNPC and Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs.
Clark, who was represented by his son, Mr Ibrahim Clark called on all stakeholders in the sector to build greater synergy in tackling the challenges in the region.
Earlier, Mr Kingsley Kuku, the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta in his remarks, said that the successful implementation of the amnesty programme had led to an increase in the nation’s daily crude production and reserve.
He called on oil companies and relevant government agencies to absorb the trained ex-militants as the mandate of the amnesty office did not include the provision of jobs for them.
Kuku, who was represented by Mr Larry Pepple, said that the amnesty office would continue to train and empower the ex-militants to contribute to the development of the Niger Delta and the nation at large.
The conference, holding from Oct. 10 to 12, has participants from the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS) and some NGOs were in attendance.
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