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Lawrence Pepple, technical assistant to presidential adviser on Niger Delta amnesty programme, has alerted to a potentially deadly wave of militancy lurking its head in the area. It will be spearheaded by the large army of professionally-trained ex-militants currently without jobs

|  By Maureen Chigbo  |  Apr. 15, 2013 @ 01:00 GMT

THE hall was filled to the brim with mostly men in dark and grey suits sprinkled with a few women who were equally formally dressed. The audience came from different background and different countries but they all had one thing in common – their interest in the oil and gas industry in Nigeria. They came to the conference expecting to hear cheery news about what the federal government will do to strengthen the sector and make business worth their while in the next five years. Contrary to the imagination of the participants, the Nigeria Oil and Gas conference which took place in February, also provided a forum to ferry a message of a more potentially deadly new wave of militancy in the South South which could once again stall oil exploration and exploitation in the region.

That was exactly what happened when discussion on local content took place. What the audience heard at the panel session on the Nigerian content in Abuja must have been a source of worry to them and their billions of dollars investment in the Niger Delta albeit Nigeria as a whole. They were not expecting the bombshell which Lawrence Pepple, technical assistant to Kingsley Kuku, special adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan on Amnesty programme for the Niger Delta militants, delivered.

Pepple had ever so subtly rammed it into the consciousness of the audience what the next phase of the militancy in the Niger Delta will be like. According to him, the new wave of uprising in the region will be “a militancy of skill and intellect.” Although Pepple said that he was not saying it to upset people, but he painted a gloomy picture of the havoc which the militants, who now have skills, could do if they are not gainfully employed in the industry.

From what he said, it was obvious that the next wave of militancy in the Niger Delta will be more lethal than what we witnessed between 2003 and 2007 when oil production in the entire region was almost brought to a halt. Consequently, the country was producing barely about 1.3 million barrels daily as against the 2.4 million barrels it is now producing, thanks to the amnesty programme which the administration of late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua introduced. Pepple painted a graphic picture of what militants who now have sufficient skills to even climb sky crappers with just a rope can do. Some of the militants have also been trained as pilots in various countries in the world – a highly professional skill which they did not have before.

The message he was sending to the audience is – do whatever you can to accommodate the repentant militants who have been trained and have acquired skills in different areas and could fill vacancies in fields they had been skillfully equipped. Sadly, these militants who have been trained some as pilots, fabrication experts among others are not being given opportunities to work in the oil and gas sector. The reason is that employers in the oil and gas industry still discriminate against the ex-militants. “Militancy of the intellect and skill is the next phase of agitation. Ask the GbaramatuKingdom before employing expatriates for a job which the militants have been trained for. Since 2010, we have been training the militants and they have acquired skills in different areas from different countries,” Pepple said.

He, however, lamented that the problem they are facing is that when they come back, they do not have a place to practice what they have learnt. “We have done the analysis of the gap that exists in the industry since 2010. Now, I am being asked by those who have acquired various skills after undergoing some training: Oga after the training, what next? If I am unable to  answer that question, even myself, I will pack my bag and leave Nigeria. This is not a threat but I am painting a picture of a potential reality,” Pepple said. He explained that the amnesty programme had helped to train 9000 graduates in fields that are related to the oil and gas sector. Some of them had been trained in Sri lanka.

“You must test them and employ them based on merit. If 26,358 people call you every morning to enquire about the prospects of getting a job, you can imagine what we go through. So, before employing, please ask us if we have people with requisite skills to forestall a total breakdown of law and order in the Niger Delta region” he said. According to him, “We are not asking you to employ what you don’t need. All we are saying is that you employ them based on merit. You cannot have peace and security if you have skilled men with no jobs.”

This was not particularly the kind of cheery news the international oil companies wanted to hear. But scary as it is, the chilly picture the assistant to Kingsley Kuku, presidential adviser on amnesty programme, painted about the next phase of militancy in the Niger Delta must have left the international oil companies with a bad taste in the mouth. Pepple’s grim picture of the next phase of militancy in the Niger Delta came up as a result of a paper presented on local content by  J.D. Waverley. He stressed on how all the stakeholders should partner to build a viable oil and gas sector local content.

Waverley, who is chairman of Kazamunaigas, Kazakhstan’s national oil company, is entrusted with the responsibility to unify the local content development endeavours of the oil and gas operators together with partners that include Shell, Chevron, Total and Exxonmobil. According to Waverly, in reality, he achieved success by being seen as an honest broker; an independent with support of all the key partners to the process.  “Employment creates an environment for stability, which in turn enhances the confidence that protects the very investments that are necessary for the development of national assets. The underlying challenge is to contribute to the strengthening of professional skills and industrial base by furthering he objectives of maximising opportunities for the companies and citizens to benefit directly from oil and gas projects; and this is part of a strategy to develop an indigenous capability in the sector,” he said.

These, however, should include creating an appropriate environment and attracting cooperation agreements for technology transfer by companies in the global oil and gas supply chain; to support the implementation of concrete foreign investment projects in services and fabrication of equipment and goods, in addition to considering current challenges and forthcoming opportunities for the creation of new jobs. This will enable the establishment of a vibrant indigenous oil and gas supply-chain sector, taking advantage of the opportunities of national and continental markets.

Waverley recounted how he set about uniting the fragmented approach of the operators and their partners, and so by extension, with government to create and implement practical innovative mechanisms to achieve result. It included recognising the complex nature of the delivery of local content strategy that requires close cooperation and alignment between all sides in the industry – operators, investors, suppliers, and central and local government departments, and reaching a declaration of joint actions that contain a task force membership drawn from operator signatories and investor companies.

According to him, the operator task force founding members, using volunteer principles, were drawn from the lead operators, together with initial investor members, most particularly Shell, Total, ExxonMobil and others. It will become a model for an open and supportive environment of understanding and common purpose engaging industry and government stakeholders to create strategies to accelerate sustainable local content progress and achievement, and improving coordination and consistency of local content programmes, based on shared understanding of challenges and vision of a strong and vibrant future for the oil and gas industry.

“Whilst current individual local content programmes continue to make progress and with the full recognition of the rights of operators and investors to develop their own strategies and programmes, Waverley said, “the Industry task force enables a greater sharing of knowledge and a better coordination of effort, to avoid duplication, and  to  accelerate outcomes toward a common goal.” It will help to grow a domestic, or a regional plan in the case of the Gulf of Guinea supply chain and contribute to long term sustainable employment that will make substantive contribution to both recipient countries and hydrocarbon delivery globally. The task force had to agree on a strategy and the content of a forward engagement plan with ministries, regulatory authorities, and industry bodies concerned with local content development and delivery.

Ernest Nwapa, executive secretary of the Nigeria Content Development and Monitoring Board, NCDMB, amplified on Waverley’s thesis, when he listed what his board was doing to integrate the Niger Delta ex-militants who have acquired various skills needed in the oil and gas sector. According to him, what we are doing is to help integrate the ex-militants into the sector to avoiding a situation where the militants will be tagged. “We are not tagging the militants and we are not putting them together when they come back from training. We inject them into companies without tagging them.”

What Nwapa is doing is backed up by the provisions of the Nigerian Content Act, which provided that any facility established in the country to service the industry would be patronised to ensure return on investment. According to Nwapa, the implementation of the Act is not to drive out foreigners from the Nigerian oil and gas industry, rather, with the specified domiciliation targets, it will increase participation of indigenes and the quantum of industry expenditure retained in Nigeria.

One of the strategies for pursuing government’s job creation agenda is to bring Nigerian jobs back home by progressively reducing the volume of Nigerian goods and services being procured from abroad.  By encouraging the establishment of yards and facilities in Nigeria, the implementation of the Act will create employment for Nigerians, link the industry with the wider Nigerian economy, increase the nation’s gross domestic product and create continued access to the oil fields especially when indigenes of the oil producing areas are integrated into industry mainstream.

The Nigerian Content Act, which was signed into law by President Goodluck Jonathan on April 22, 2010, represents the last opportunity to correct the past mistakes of oil industry operations in the country. The implementation of the Nigerian Content policy guidelines initiated by the federal government in 2004 led to the development of in-country capacity to perform work scopes and patronage of the local service industry from a dismal five per cent in 2004 to 35 per cent in 2010. The limited capacity of the local service industry had, however, restricted further growth and patronage, hence more than 65 per cent of industry work scope has continued to be done abroad. As Nwapa said:  “The Board is working to reverse this trend by collaborating with operators and other stakeholders to set up heavy industries, pipe mills, equipment manufacturing facilities and develop dockyards and increase the utilisation of existing shipyards for maintaining marine vessels.

Other initiatives of the Board include the transformation of ownership profile of marine vessels, setting up of research and development institutes and management of expatriate quota system in the industry. The Board leverages on the Nigerian Content Development Fund to support genuine investors interested in  developing capabilities, acquiring equipment, installing facilities and infrastructure required to bridge critical capacity gaps in the industry to ensure the domiciliation of work and expenditure. The implementation of the Nigerian Content Act covers all operations in the Nigerian Oil and Gas industry. However, there is often greater focus on international oil companies because they control more than 80 per cent of the oil and gas business in Nigeria and usually outsource about 70 per cent of their operations to multinational service companies.

Nwapa believes that getting the IOCs and multinational service companies to comply with provisions of the Act will go a long way in realising the aspirations of the federal government.  As Waverley put it: “I am under no false illusion as to the technical, commercial, and socio-economic challenges. It will take time, investment, focus, discipline and commitment to develop the Gulf of Guinea regional work-force. There are huge challenges ahead but these priorities can be delivered within existing contractual arrangements and international treaties with foresight, willingness, respect and innovation. I relish the challenge ahead towards developing this local content strategy. Solutions will replace impediments, success will come with teamwork.”

One can only hope that government officials, international oil companies and their indigenous counterparts are listening to this advice before the new wave of militancy in the Niger Delta becomes a reality.

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