Tina Amanda
Nigerian youth have been called on to be involved in the campaign for accountability and transparency in the extractive sector in order to help checkmate and reduce corruption in the Oil and Gas industry.
Program Manager – Tax Justice, Environment and Conservation of Nature, Chinedu Bassey, made the call during a student outreach: on the Transformative Impact of Accountability in the Extractive Sector on Education in Nigeria, at Niger Delta Science School, Elechi Amadi Polytechnic, Rumuola, Port Harcourt.
According to him, it is time to engage the younger generation on issues surrounding Oil and Gas resources and their operations to hold the government and those in the authority of the extractive sector accountable.
He, however, noted that the youth needs to be abreast of the issues of the energy transition as the whole world is moving away from fossil fuels in less than a decade.
“The resources that come from the extractive sector also belong to the youth. We believe in what we call inter-generation equity. From January this year, students of the tertiary institution were all at home not going to school due to strikes, and all these are subject to issues around the management of resources.
“As it stands now, Nigeria’s main source of resources or revenue is from the extractive sector, and that is why we think that it is important the generation coming up know what implications it is to them and how these resources are being used and why they should lend their voices to talk about it, make it their issue and something that concerns them ultimately.
“We are hoping that it will help no parent will ignore the cry of his or her children, and we think that if we go by that logic, we would be able to get the attention of the leaders to respond by the time they see students start uploading some content online requesting for accountability in this sector we think that would draw the attention of the people that are responsible for doing the right thing.
“We are hoping for the best in the Oil and Gas industry, and we will keep working at it is not what we want it to be, before now we were talking about having a law which lingered for about twenty years and today, we have a law. We believe that whatever we are saying about the sector, a system that will work for the people will come.
“Bearing in mind that we do not even have up to a decade because of the energy transition issues as the world is moving away from fossil fuel”.
Also, Deputy Director Niger Delta Science School, Rumuola, Port Harcourt, Chinedu Uzor, said the major cause of the challenges and economic hardship in the country is the lack of transparency in the Oil and Gas sector while noting that the involvement of the younger generation will greatly reshape the industry.
“Concerning the troubles we are facing, I want to attribute a lot of them to the lack of transparency in the extractive industry; for instance, Nigeria is supposed to be producing about two points one (2.1) million barrels of oil per day, but at the end of the day we are producing about seven hundred and fifty barrel or so.
“The question is, where is the rest going? Who is taking the rest? Thank God for the recent development because a lot of pipelines have been found where this oil is being stolen from on a daily basis.
“I want to commend the organisers of this program; if possible, they get funding; aside from talking to students in secondary schools, they go to the universities and talk to older students because they are closer to the work industry. To make them aware and when they enter the industry they will know there is much on their shoulders to contribute to the betterment of society”.
