By
Chris Paul Otaigbe
The ongoing construction of the Dangote Refinery is proposed to relieve Nigeria of the perennial issue of Fuel scarcity and Fuel subsidy. It is, therefore, supposed to be a thing of joy to the country at large and the surrounding community of its proposed operations.
The Nigerian economy has endured tough times. Realizing the level of suffering Nigerians have gone through due to the instability in the Downstream sector of the Oil and Gas industry in Nigeria, Aliko Dangote decided to fill the gap to give respite to Nigerians.
In an interview he granted to a Publication (June 20, 2017), Dangote said the key thing for the group is to interact with the government to develop policies that allow the economy to grow. He believes If that happens, the business will grow as well.
Dangote doesn’t expect events such as Brexit to hurt the group. According to him, the over $7 bn and 650kbpd refinery and petrochemical plant is designed to export within West Africa and Central Africa.
The Refinery will through the gas from its pipeline augment the natural domestic gas supply while an estimated 12,000MW of power generation would be added to the national grid from the gas. The refinery is building the largest sub-sea pipeline infrastructure in any country. Furthermore, it would save Nigeria over $7.5bn in import of Petro-Products.
No doubt the Refinery holds so much benefits to the country and the West African sub-region when it finally comes onstream. For these reasons, the much-celebrated Project should get Nigerian government and its citizens excited.
However, the reverse is the case. This because the Host communities where the Refinery is being built are going through agonizing times in the hands of the Project Handlers, as they claim they are being deprived of and forcefully ejected off their Lands. Some of them are being thrown in detention just to make way for the Project.
On September 10, 2018, Mr. Babatunde Enoch Samuel and his two sons along with some other Villagers in the Idasho community, at Ibeju Lekki, were whisked away in Black Maria, by a Task Force, the Villagers claimed were sent by the Lagos State Government, on behalf of the Dangote Refinery, to a detention facility in the State.
One of his children, who spoke to ENB said Armed Men of the Taskforce came into his Father’s House damaged some properties, in the House, including his car among other items before taking him away. “They came in and started beating everybody around, shooting in the air and destroying my father’s properties. They said they were sent by the Governor of Lagos State because the State has interest in the Land.’ According to him, his father and the others who were arrested were taken to the Taskforce Office at Oshodi.
Trouble began when a directive came from Dangote that the surrounding shops and building close to the Refinery site should be demolished. The Villagers claimed the order was executed without due notice to the Owners and Land Owners. One of the Sources, who is among the Land Owners (but who pleads anonymity for fear of being targeted by the security groups working for the Project Handlers) said when the demolition began, some of the aggrieved Shop Owners set the Caterpillar ablaze. ‘so, we went to call Mr. Samuel who is the Elder in the community. When he got there, he reprimanded the people demolishing the Shops for not informing the Owners of the Shop before destroying their Properties…”
So, he returned home to eat. According to the Source, he was eating, when the Security Agencies came to arrest him. Two of his children, Seun and Sunday, decided to join him in detention “because the children said they must follow their father to the station or wherever they are going to detain him. If the security Agencies want to kill him, they had better kill all of them together. Eight people were arrested so far.
They were taking to Ashade Court in Agege, Ogba and charged to Court on the 3rd of October.
The other reason for the detention of the Village Leader is connected with the Canal being develop to Link the Refinery with the Lekki Free Trade Zone. According to another Source, who is also a Land Owner in the community, one of the Village Shrines situated along the path was brought down despite pleas by the Villagers for the Project Managers to give them time to evacuate.
“That is one of the major reasons they took Baba (i.e. Mr. Samuel) away because they believe that once they remove him from the scene, they can do whatever they want to do as there would be no one else to challenge them.” He said.
That is the story. But here is my take…
The evolving Dangote Refinery-Idasho Community story is reminiscent of the ever-burning ongoing International Oil Companies (IOCs)-Host Communities hostilities saga. The scenarios are virtually similar in their unfolding plots.
An IOC comes into a community to drill for Oil and so forth. They meet with government to deal with people in the community of their operation. Those Nigerians who are, predominantly Politicians (in Civilian attires or Military Uniforms as the case may be) empower a couple of ‘influential’ indigenes in the community who pledge allegiance to their administration, to suppress the people.
They begin by seizing and subsequently driving the Villagers from their Land. Soon, the Owners are detained as some would die or murdered in detention.
Aggrieved and frustrated, the natives begin to engage in some subterfuge to sabotage the operations of the Oil company. And so, the conflict continues to assume higher proportions and dimensions as the children of the deprived takes the battle from where their fathers left off. As we are witnessing in the case of the Niger Delta, Militancy and insurgency begin to breed and feed on the injustice that would have been corrected from the outset.
When I took up the story for the media House where I work, I was more interested in the Community and Public Relations aspects of the Project as that has a lot to do with the life of the Project.
My first port of call on the day, I went to the Refinery, was naturally to see if I could gain entry, into the Facility, with my television Crew. But we politely rebuffed by the Army Officer manning the Gate that leads into the Refinery site. I believed this was a flaw as the Project Handlers should have had a PR Unit on the site to speak with the Media anytime they come calling, unannounced.
So, we decided to go for the people in the surrounding communities. They were of course willing to speak with us because as they claimed, the Project Managers using Government machinery have virtually shut them out and stifled their voices. We were received by Mr. Enoch Babatunde Samuel, the Village Elder and Leader. He is a retired Police Officer who is an Indigene of Idasho and also a Land Owner. According to him, one of his fond memories on the Dangote Refinery site is the fact that he used to have a Kolanut Farm which he sold to pay for his school fees as a kid growing up.
He spoke so much and passionately about how Dangote has deprived them of their Land and the oppression they have been subjected to in the hands of the government through the Security Agencies who are severally unleashed on the Villagers to make life miserable for them.
For the Youths in the Village, they see Dangote Refinery as the Project that has destroyed their Fathers’ Land and deprived them of their means of Livelihoods as Farmers and Fishermen. 14 villages are alleged to have been buried under the refinery which include: Foseje, Pakere, Borode, Kajola, Omisode, Ajegunle, Idagbolu, Lo’Ore among others.
When I asked some of them if they had approached the Project Managers for a job on the site, they said they would never beg them for a job on their Land. Some threatened that even if they succeed in driving them of their Ancestral Land, the Refinery would never know PEACE!
Here lies the crux of the matter. The over seven-billion-dollar investment is now being put in danger of an aggrieved Youth of its Host Community who feel oppressed and disposed of their Land.
As a Journalist, with a heart for community development, I met Mr. Anthony Echiejina, the Dangote Official, I was asked to relate with regarding the story and I appealed to him to let us come with innovations that would solve the problem to the mutual benefit of all parties.
I even proposed to come up with ideas that would cost the Project Owners little or nothing to develop the community or compensate them one way or another. Like a politician, he promised to look into it. I never heard from him again till I decided to visit the village to do a follow up a story and discovered that since my first visit, the Dangote Refinery management using the Lagos State government has moved against them as reported in the story above. From fillers I am receiving, my life may be at risk writing this story because as one of the Villagers informed me, no Nigerian media can say anything bad about the Refinery.
I do not think muscling the helpless Villagers now would solve the problem. Rather a genuine and sincere dialogue with the indigenes is the only solution that would bring the PEACE the Refinery would require to operate and succeed in the implementation of the goals it has set for itself and the nation at large. Except and until then, a Niger Delta type of Militancy may just be brewing under the nose of the Refinery and if not managed peacefully in a robust dialogue, it is the kind of insurgence that is capable of destabilizing the economic capital of Nigeria.
Energy Network 