Nigeria Content Online

While
the Dutch parliament yesterday held a public hearing on Shell
activities in Nigeria, the company denied allegations by human rights
and environmental groups.

On
Tuesday, Amnesty International and Friends of the Earth International
said that it will file an official complaint against the company for
breaches of basic standards for responsible business set out by the
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

The
groups alleged that Shell’s use of discredited and misleading
information to blame the majority of oil pollution on saboteurs in its
Niger Delta operations has breached the OECD Guidelines for
Multinational Enterprises. The complaint was filed with UK and
Netherlands government contact points for the OECD.

However,
Shell, in a statement signed by Precious Okolobo, a spokesperson in
Lagos, denied the groups’ claims. It said it has reported oil spill
data since 1996, a move which it claims exhibits “a degree of
transparency unmatched by any other operator in Nigeria.”

“We
have stepped up the level of transparency this year with weekly updates
of oil spill status that includes publishing Joint Investigation Visit
reports and photographic evidence,” Mr. Okolobo said.

Shell
added that every oil spill is independently investigated by a joint
inspection team comprising SPDC, the Department of Petroleum Resources
(DPR), the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA),
and community members whose scope includes the cause and volume.

More explanation

“The
discrepancy between the originally reported figure for 2008 and the
updated one was explained at length in our reporting exercise in early
2009 involving publication of the facts in briefing notes and on the
web. We also deliberately drew attention to the change in face-to-face
meetings with a number of interested organisations including Amnesty
International and Friends of the Earth at the time to ensure
transparency,” he further said.

“The
spill in question was 44,000 barrels. It was not included originally
because it had not been certified in time by the independent joint
inspection team. This is normal practice and every year there are a
number of spills where the investigation process has not been completed
by the reporting deadline and adjustments have to be made later. Where
they are significant, we ensure that we draw attention to them as we
did in this case,” he added.

The
company further claimed that more than 70 per cent by volume and number
of incidents over the past five years is due to sabotage; including
militant action and oil theft.

“This
figure was 98 per cent for 2009. We stand by these figures and publish
them annually because we can back them up if necessary,” Mr. Okolobo
said.

But
Geert Ritsema, Milieudefensie/Friends of the Earth Netherlands
campaigner, and one of the speakers in Dutch parliament yesterday,
said, “It was clear that a lot of members of parliament were
unsatisfied by Shell’s answers.”

Mr. Ritsema added that “Shell would never act this way in Holland.
We hope this will mean the beginning of a political process to create a
frame of laws that will force Shell and other companies to act
responsibly in other countries as well.”

The decision to
focus more attention on domestic sources to raise funds for its
services, rather than relying on external sources is responsible for
Nigeria’s burgeoning debt profile, the Debt Management Office said.

Abraham Nwankwo, the director general, said in Abuja on Tuesday, in an interview with journalists.

“A strategic
decision was taken in the course of debt management situation, it was
better to use the opportunity of borrowing domestically to develop the
domestic debt markets, not just for government, but for the economy in
the immediate to long term,” Mr. Nwankwo said.

“It was deliberate
for government to depend more on domestic sources, rather than
external, so that we develop this other aspects of our economy,
including the bond market, the habit of long time savings and
investment, as well as developing the skills by our local
entrepreneurs. Nigeria now has the capability to manage various bond
markets,” he stated.

He added that as a
developing country, Nigeria cannot depend solely on what it earns,
pointing out that for her to be able to stimulate growth and
development, she has to depend on some external borrowing that would be
tied to specific projects that would improve the quality of life of the
people.

“Borrowing in
itself is not a bad thing, but the important thing is for one to
develop the capacity to effectively manage what one has borrowed, such
that one would be able to service the debt and have surplus value in
the end,” he explained.

Legacy projects

He justified
government’s recent decision to raise a $500 million Eurobond issue,
arguing that some of the projects that government is borrowing to
execute are legacy projects that will last between 50 and 100 years and
will not generate direct immediate commercial returns. He said what
should bother Nigerians should be whether government will utilise the
resources effectively.

“Government wanted
to raise money to cut the existing deficit. Beyond that, government
wanted to use that opportunity in a structured manner to develop the
markets, which is one of the strengths of this economy, which every
investor is looking forward to. The bond market is not fully matured
yet, but it is rapidly developing, which is a plus for the country.

“Everything
government is doing is guided by the principle that the country must
not relapse into debt unsustainability by producing guideline for the
Federal Government as well as helping states develop the debt
management capacity by facilitating the establishment of debt
management offices in their domains,” Mr. Nwankwo further said.

He said the DMO is
democratising the knowledge of public debt management to enable as many
Nigerians as possible to be aware of the issues involved so that they
can ask the right questions, do independent analysis on why the
government needs to go into certain debts, and establish the values and
worth of such debts, in order to hold governments accountable.

The Dutch
parliament yesterday placed the Royal Dutch Shell before the mirror in
a groundbreaking act of scrutiny over the severe environmental and
social footprint of the oil giant on the Niger Delta.

Shell may be the
only one being grilled but that does not by any means suggest that the
likes of Chevron, Exxon, ENI and Total are not mired in the serial
abuses in the region. The spotlight at The Hague needs to be replicated
in Washington, Rome, Paris, Oslo, and elsewhere.

The Dutch
parliament’s action is very significant and illustrates how lawmakers
should keep their ears open to the cries of the peoples they represent.
It should send a signal to their counterparts in Nigeria who prefer to
keep a blind eye to the destructive extractive practices going on in
the country.

It is widely
acknowledged that Shell’s operations in Nigeria fall far short of
international standards. They do not only spill huge volumes of crude
into the marshlands and creeks of the delta, they have also been
stoking the air with toxins and greenhouse gases for decades with no
sign that this will stop.

It should be noted
that the Dutch parliamentarians are not examining Shell’s actions based
on mere hearsay, some of them had to come to the Niger Delta to see
things for themselves. As has been said, the evidence of the eyes
speaks far more than what is merely told and heard. It is also
significant that these parliamentarians did not merely visit the area
but also spent time with the oil giant, hearing their stories and
probably having helicopter rides over the incredibly ravaged area.

That some of the
parliamentarians came to the Niger Delta must be seen as an indication
of their commitment to seek information that should guide their
decisions and positions in the face of warnings that the region is a
no-go area and should not be visited by foreigners.

Discovery mission

One of such
parliamentarians to come on a fact-finding visit is Ms. Sharon
Gesthuizen, of the Socialist Party. She is also the spokesperson of the
economic committee.

When she visited in
December, we went to Oben, Edo State, with her, community people, and
Sunny Ofehe of the Hope for Niger Delta Campaign (HNDC). Our mission
was to see a typical gas flare. And we did.

The facility was
set up by Shell over 30 years ago and has been noisily belching toxic
elements into the atmosphere all this time. But officers of the Joint
Military Task Force (JTF) would not allow us to leave the location.
They kept us there until almost midnight before letting us off.

The worst part of
this illegal restriction of Nigerians and a foreign parliamentarian was
that the soldiers refused to notify their superior officers of their
actions and instead resorted to a series of threats, literally at
gunpoint. Regrettable as that incident was, it helped to underscore the
insecurity in the region and the serious curtailment of the freedom of
movement of the people.

If there is one
thing that oil companies hate, it is being placed in a situation where
they have to respond to issues relating to their activities in the oil
fields they bestride as conquerors. This is understandable seeing that
the world is so dependent on crude oil and national energy security has
been equated to overall security of nations.

Indeed, the oil
companies hold the ace in international politics and have the ears of
players in state houses and can even chew those ears if and when they
wish. At their behest, wars are fought and at their behest policies are
shaped to ensure that their wishes come through.

The embedded nature
of the companies in the seats of power provides them the audacity to
ride roughshod over environments and local peoples in the most blatant
ways imaginable.

While the Dutch
parliament is examining the situation, Friends of the Earth
International, Milieudefensie (Friends of the Earth Netherlands) and
Amnesty International have filed a complaint against the oil company
before the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
(OECD) over the company’s outrageous claims that oil spills in the
Niger Delta are almost entirely due to acts of the local communities.

The complaint was
filed with the Dutch National Contact Point to the OECD and brings up
questions on the non-transparent, inconsistent and misleading figures
that Shell has given with regard to the causes of oil leaks in Nigeria.
The complaint pushes the position that Shell’s claims are unjust and
that the figures are random and are not independently verified.

One must say that
this is not the first time that the company has been challenged over
serious statistics. They were challenged in the past over related
spills percentages used in advertisements in the United Kingdom. They
backed down after the challenge and stopped their advertisements that
sought to lay the bulk of the blame on third party actions.

United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP) officials, with regard to their research
work in Ogoni, picked up current figures cooked by their propagandists.
Whereas UNEP thereafter sought to distance itself from the percentages
cooked by Shell, the oil company still insists on referring to UNEP as
having validated their position about the victims being the guilty
ones.

It is hoped that
Shell’s day in the dock of the Dutch parliament will help the world to
see the danger of having corporations continue with impunity on the
ground and then use random figures to attempt to hoodwink the world.

As we watch events
unfold, the question must be asked: when will our lawmakers wake up to
the environmental and human tragedies in our nation?

The Cement
Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (CMAN) says estimated supply of 17
million metric tonnes of local production of cement is achievable in
2011.

The executive
secretary of CMAN, James Salako, said in Lagos that this was part of
the manufacturers’ efforts to guarantee self sufficiency in the local
demand of cement.

He said that new
cement plants with combined capacity of 14 million metric tonnes were
currently under construction, adding that they were expected to come on
the stream at different periods of the year.

“This year, we expect all the new facilities presently under construction to come on stream,” he said.

The decision to
focus more attention on domestic sources to raise funds for its
services, rather than relying on external sources is responsible for
Nigeria’s burgeoning debt profile, the Debt Management Office said.

Abraham Nwankwo, the director general, said in Abuja on Tuesday, in an interview with journalists.

“A strategic
decision was taken in the course of debt management situation, it was
better to use the opportunity of borrowing domestically to develop the
domestic debt markets, not just for government, but for the economy in
the immediate to long term,” Mr. Nwankwo said.

“It was deliberate
for government to depend more on domestic sources, rather than
external, so that we develop this other aspects of our economy,
including the bond market, the habit of long time savings and
investment, as well as developing the skills by our local
entrepreneurs. Nigeria now has the capability to manage various bond
markets,” he stated.

He added that as a
developing country, Nigeria cannot depend solely on what it earns,
pointing out that for her to be able to stimulate growth and
development, she has to depend on some external borrowing that would be
tied to specific projects that would improve the quality of life of the
people.

“Borrowing in
itself is not a bad thing, but the important thing is for one to
develop the capacity to effectively manage what one has borrowed, such
that one would be able to service the debt and have surplus value in
the end,” he explained.

Legacy projects

He justified
government’s recent decision to raise a $500 million Eurobond issue,
arguing that some of the projects that government is borrowing to
execute are legacy projects that will last between 50 and 100 years and
will not generate direct immediate commercial returns. He said what
should bother Nigerians should be whether government will utilise the
resources effectively.

“Government wanted
to raise money to cut the existing deficit. Beyond that, government
wanted to use that opportunity in a structured manner to develop the
markets, which is one of the strengths of this economy, which every
investor is looking forward to. The bond market is not fully matured
yet, but it is rapidly developing, which is a plus for the country.

“Everything
government is doing is guided by the principle that the country must
not relapse into debt unsustainability by producing guideline for the
Federal Government as well as helping states develop the debt
management capacity by facilitating the establishment of debt
management offices in their domains,” Mr. Nwankwo further said.

He said the DMO is
democratising the knowledge of public debt management to enable as many
Nigerians as possible to be aware of the issues involved so that they
can ask the right questions, do independent analysis on why the
government needs to go into certain debts, and establish the values and
worth of such debts, in order to hold governments accountable.

Trade between
Nigeria and India is robust and has continued to grow in favour of
Nigeria, said Mahesh Sachdev, Indian High Commissioner to Nigeria. Mr.
Scahdev said this on Wednesday in Abuja during the 2011 India Republic
Day Celebration.

“Bilateral trade
between Nigeria and India according to Indian figures for the year
ended March 31, 2010 is $8.7 billion,” he said. “We are Nigeria’s
second largest trading partner and Nigeria is our largest trading
partner in Africa.”

Reeling out
statistics of trade relations between the two countries, Mr. Sachdev
stated that “Nigeria export is around $7.3 billion and Indian export to
Nigeria is around $1.2 billion so the trade between our two countries
is greatly in Nigeria’s favour and Nigeria enjoys the trade surplus of
$6 billion.”

He said Nigerian
crude oil exports to India was the biggest contributor but that other
contributions are not very significant since about $7.1 billion dollars
worth of oil is exported to India. India’s export to Nigeria includes
Indian petroleum exports, pharmaceuticals, steel, automotive equipment
and miscellaneous items. Mr. Sachdev said the country will intensify
efforts to correct the trade imbalance between the two countries.

“We would like
Nigerians to buy more from India. Deficit of $6 billion is not the
right thing for us to have. We need the Nigerian crude but Nigeria
needs many things they can get from India at affordable cost with
affordable level of technology,” he said.

Pratibha Devisingh
Patil, president of India in her speech read worldwide said: “26th
January is a very significant date in our national calendar, when we
celebrate the establishment of free India as a republic based on
ideology of justice and equality.

“It is a day when
we recall with gratitude the sacrifices of our freedom fighters and the
work of our founding fathers for giving us a country where our dignity
and individual freedoms are guaranteed by an enlightened constitution.”

Mrs. Patil added that Indians are fortunate to have inherited the
ideals and values of one of the world’s oldest civilizations,
bequeathing them with the rich treasure of human experiences and
thought. Optimistic of better economic growth in the coming years, she
said, “It is heartening that our economy is progressing at a stable
pace. Even in the face of difficult circumstances during the global
financial downturn, its performance was appreciable. We are now
returning to the pre-crisis growth pattern and are confident of growing
at over 9 percent next year all sectors of the economy will be
contributors to our growth trajectory.”

Nigeria’s Monetary
Policy Committee raised its benchmark interest rate to 6.5 percent on
Tuesday as it seeks to get inflation in sub-Saharan Africa’s
second-biggest economy down to single digits. The MPC maintained a
corridor of plus/minus 200 basis points around the benchmark rate for
its lending and deposit rates respectively but increased the cash
reserve requirement ratio to 2 percent from 1 percent. Central Bank
Governor Lamido Sanusi said the committee had voted by an 11-1 majority
to raise the benchmark rate by 25 basis points, describing it as a
continuation of the “normalisation of monetary policy” after the
financial crisis.

The Public
Complaints Commission in Anambra received 388 complaints from persons
in private and public organisations on acts of injustice against them
in 2010.

The Director of the Commission, Emeka Onuzulike, gave the figure in
Awka on Tuesday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria.Mr
Onuzulike said that 206 of the cases have been resolved, while the
other complaints will be attended to this year. He revealed that
complaints were lodged against 17 banks following fraud committed
through their Automatic Teller Machines, while other complaints were
made against companies who failed to pay dividends.

Mozambique’s Ports
Development Company (MPDC) said on Tuesday it would increase the
handling capacity of its Maputo port to 12 million tonnes this year
from the 8.7 million of 2010 to take more coal from South Africa.

“We will use Maputo
port as a gateway to the most important world markets,” MPDC chief
executive Dave Rennie told a news conference in the capital, saying the
firm would look to ship coal to markets in India, China, Turkey and
East Africa.

Last year, the southern African nation’s government extended MPDC’s contract to run the Maputo port from 2018 to 2033.

Algeria’s state-run
power utility plans to spend at least 8 billion euros on the
construction of 10 power plants by 2018, the official APS news agency
reported on Tuesday.

By 2015,three of
the 10 power plants are expected to add 5,200 megawatts to the oil- and
gas-exporting nation’s installed power capacity, which presently stands
at 10,900 MW,APS said, quoting Sonelgaz’s top executive, Abdelali
Badache.

Mr Badache did not
give details on the power generation capacity from the remaining plants
but said a tender had been launched for the addition of 2,800 MW
through the upgrade of existing units over the period 2013-2015.