Richards Adeniyi
NOT quite long ago, the Federal Government directed the oil majors in Nigeria to relocate their centre of operations to the Niger Delta, but ironically the order is yet to be obeyed as most of the companies still have their headquarters in Abuja and Lagos.
The Acting President gave the directive to the International Oil Companies (IOC) operating in the Niger Delta region to relocate their headquarters to states of operation to mitigate tension in host communities.
National Daily gathered that Osinbajo directive was given at a Town Hall meeting in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State capital during the continuation of his visit to the region to dialogue with stakeholders.
Although it is interesting to observe that the Shell Petroleum Development Company Limited (SPDC) relocate its centres even before the directive, other oil majors like Exxon Mobil and Chevron are yet to do so thus fueling concerns that they may never adhere to the Acting President’s directive.
It will be observed that before the militant agitations took feverish dimension, all the oil majors had full administrative presence in the Niger Delta.
It will be recalled that in pursuance of the peace process, one of the demands the Niger Delta stakeholders made to the federal government was that it should ask all oil companies to relocate their headquarters to the Niger Delta region.
Months after the Osinbajo’s directive, efforts to get these oil majors to set a timeline to their relocation has proved abortive as they have remained evasive; Honestly, I think that it is now time for the federal government to enforce this directive to avoid another collision with the Niger Delta youths and thus keep the Ijaw Youths Congress (IYC) and other mitigate in the region to relocate as directed by the Acting President.
Many Nigerians believed that the Presidential directive answers one of the cardinal demands of petroleum host communities over the last half century. The Minister of State for Petroleum should therefore, initiate actions and endeavor to hid the directive of the acting President before Nigerians will witness another upheaval rearing its head among the restless youths of the Niger Delta