By Tina Amanda
Civil society organizations have called on communities to demand openness and transparency and actively participate in the selection process and needs assessment in the implementation of the 3% allocation of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).
In light of these challenges, the Kebetkache Foundation, in collaboration with Oxfam, organized a one-day capacity training workshop for Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and community members in Imo and Delta states. The event focused on framing advocacy around the host communities as it pertains to the PIA.
In his keynote presentation; on “Framing Advocacy Around the Host Community Component of the Dr. Tubodenyefa Zibima, a lecturer and the Deputy Director of the Institute of Niger Delta Studies (INDS), highlighted the political complexities surrounding the implementation of the PIA. He noted that many community members are unaware of the established components due to the highly politicized nature of their composition.
The expert pointed out that the PIA, as written, complicates efforts for transparency and accountability due to external interferences in the selection process, which excludes community participation.
“The law mandates that committee members be community members, but the selection process lacks transparency, leading to difficulties in ensuring the committees operate openly.
“One significant challenge remains the implementation of the 3% allocation to host communities and the establishment of indigenous trust funds.
“We can see that every community has its own specific experience regarding how these components have been established. Many people do not even know these components exist in their communities, which speaks to the highly politicized nature of the process.
“The level of politics involved is driven by the significant funds attached to the operation of these mechanisms. Regarding the implementation of the host community component of the PIA, the issue of accountability and transparency is crucial. These are everyday terms, but in the context of the Niger Delta, they take on significant importance.
“The PIA’s provisions complicate efforts to achieve transparency and accountability. The selection process for the board of trustees, the management committee, and the advisory committee are subject to external interference, excluding community participation.
“Communities often have no idea how these individuals were selected, and even when they do, there is no community input. The bill states that committee members must be from the community, but the transparency of the selection process is marred by secrecy, making it difficult for these committees to operate transparently.”
The expert expressed concerns about the act’s provisions, which are silent on specific steps communities can take to institute changes in these committees. He however encouraged communities to enforce transparency and actively participate in the selection process and needs assessment.
Speaking on women’s inclusion in the committee setup, Dr. Zibima, said the act did not specify any gender balance, leaving the composition subject to the political and conceptual factors of each community at the time of committee formation.
“The PIA’s host community component was also criticized for its silence on gender composition within the committees. That is also another shortcoming of the provisions in the PIA, especially the host community component.
“it only states clearly the composition of these committees and that it’s subject to the number of communities, the membership of the committee is subject to the number of the communities in any community cluster, so if you have 20 oil producing in a cluster then you have at least 20 members in that management committee but the act is silent on the gender composition of the committee so it could be all women, it could be all men.
“it does not provide any process or criteria that says 30% women 70% men or 5% women, 5% men, the bill is silent on that so whatever the case may be in terms of gender balancing with regards to the composition of the communities that will depend on the conceptual and political factors in anyone community as of the time of composing the committees”.
Chilos Godsent, Executive Director
Center for Leadership and Development (CLD), said so many communities is yet to implement the 3% since it was signed into a bill, stressing that communities have not formed their host community trust fund.
“The workshop was in regard to the implementation of the funds 3% from the IOC’S to the communities regarding through host committee trust fund and the workshop was meant to enhance the capacity of the community people in demanding for the fund and also in mapping community development projects.
“So the workshop was meant to enhance the people’s capacity to understand how to map community developmental projects and also to access the 3% fund for community development through the host community trust fund.
“You already know the set laws which are the companies determine predominately members of the committee, so it has been very difficult for many committees of the host community establish a board of trustees and trust fund because the board of trustees members can also come from either side.
“so there are a whole lot of challenges/ lacuna within the PIA and the workshop was meant to enhance the capacity of the community people to understand the challenges and how to tackle some of those challenges through advocacy”.
The workshop highlighted the need for clear mechanisms to ensure the unbiased implementation of the PIA and encouraged communities to demand transparency and accountability in the selection and operation of these committees.
Participants left the event with a deeper understanding of the political and operational challenges and a stronger resolve to advocate for their communities’ interests.
