In the near future, oil companies would be required to commit to participating in the development of communities in which they operate but to ensure the highest standards of accountability and transparency. It is important that critical stakeholders and host communities be bound together to safeguard what is left in the region.
Worse, the region is battered by poverty, dilapidation and gross underdevelopment, despite being blessed with plenty. Its major undoing is environmental degradation, which has affected the people’s agricultural means of livelihood. The effects of oil spills and gas flares have been the death of aquatic life and waste of farm lands. However, the challenges didn’t arise overnight. Since the 1980s, the oil-bearing communities have been protesting against the dangers of oil exploration.
According to a Chatham House research: “Nigerian crude oil is being stolen on an industrial scale. Some of this stolen oil – it is not entirely clear how much – is exported. Proceeds are then laundered through world financial centres and used to buy assets in Nigeria and abroad.”to the Petroleum Industry Act , attempts have been made to address some of these issues, albeit, unsuccessfully.
To address the new challenge, civil society organisations have swung into action in organising ways of educating the community and driving accountability. The most effective of the responses is the approach taken by Connected Development , a CSO on a mission to empower marginalised communities and ensure public funds work for the public good.