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13 July, 2005ICEM News release No. 31/1999
Nigerian oilworkers may pull out of the country's oil-producing region unless steps are taken immediately to ensure their safety.
That is the warning from oilworkers' union PENGASSAN, which at the global level is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions.
The union gave Nigeria's brand-new democratically elected government one month to tackle the root causes of violence in the oil-producing areas. Otherwise, oilworkers may stop work and move to other parts of the country.
Communities in the oil-rich Niger Delta say they have borne the negative effects of oil extraction, such as the pollution of fishing grounds, without reaping any of the benefits. Dissent in these areas was severely repressed by Nigeria's military dictatorship. The frustrations that this has produced, added to ethnic tensions, have fuelled violence in which oilworkers are frequently targeted.
PENGASSAN's National Executive Committee was meeting today in Warri, at the heart of the troubled oil-producing region, to decide further action.
The union's President Shina Luwoye emphasised that PENGASSAN will not leave the area for as long as its members continue working there. However, he warned that oilworkers would no longer put up with being the targets of violence.
"Apparently, the safety of our members can no longer be guaranteed, as continued cases of arson, tribal killings, hijacks and hostages have threatened both the safety and the security of jobs, personnel and families," Luwoye said. "In the last three months, for example, operations in Shell, Chevron, Mobil and Agip were most times below 50 per cent of available capacity."
He said Mobil workers had been reportedly locked out and abducted by community protesters this May, and that seven Chevron staff may have been killed in Warri earlier this year. Two Shell staff had "sustained gun wounds from a shoot-out between soldiers and aggrieved youths in the Western division of the company." There had also been "cases of arson against facilities and community assistance projects of Chevron, Elf and [national oil utility] SPDC."
Luwoye said the new government should give high priority to a "legislative and economic framework for the permanent solution of the Niger Delta crisis." It should also implement "feasible economic and social development initiatives and projects for the Niger Delta", including "integrated and sustainable agricultural development." Consideration should be given to establishing a university in Bayelsa state.
Meanwhile, Luwoye insisted, the new government should "immediately set up dialogue and arbitration processes to resolve all conflicts and guarantee immediate restoration of law and order in the Niger Delta." In the longer term, "the importance of true federalism" for Nigeria "can never be overstressed," Luwoye said.
That is the warning from oilworkers' union PENGASSAN, which at the global level is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions.
The union gave Nigeria's brand-new democratically elected government one month to tackle the root causes of violence in the oil-producing areas. Otherwise, oilworkers may stop work and move to other parts of the country.
Communities in the oil-rich Niger Delta say they have borne the negative effects of oil extraction, such as the pollution of fishing grounds, without reaping any of the benefits. Dissent in these areas was severely repressed by Nigeria's military dictatorship. The frustrations that this has produced, added to ethnic tensions, have fuelled violence in which oilworkers are frequently targeted.
PENGASSAN's National Executive Committee was meeting today in Warri, at the heart of the troubled oil-producing region, to decide further action.
The union's President Shina Luwoye emphasised that PENGASSAN will not leave the area for as long as its members continue working there. However, he warned that oilworkers would no longer put up with being the targets of violence.
"Apparently, the safety of our members can no longer be guaranteed, as continued cases of arson, tribal killings, hijacks and hostages have threatened both the safety and the security of jobs, personnel and families," Luwoye said. "In the last three months, for example, operations in Shell, Chevron, Mobil and Agip were most times below 50 per cent of available capacity."
He said Mobil workers had been reportedly locked out and abducted by community protesters this May, and that seven Chevron staff may have been killed in Warri earlier this year. Two Shell staff had "sustained gun wounds from a shoot-out between soldiers and aggrieved youths in the Western division of the company." There had also been "cases of arson against facilities and community assistance projects of Chevron, Elf and [national oil utility] SPDC."
Luwoye said the new government should give high priority to a "legislative and economic framework for the permanent solution of the Niger Delta crisis." It should also implement "feasible economic and social development initiatives and projects for the Niger Delta", including "integrated and sustainable agricultural development." Consideration should be given to establishing a university in Bayelsa state.
Meanwhile, Luwoye insisted, the new government should "immediately set up dialogue and arbitration processes to resolve all conflicts and guarantee immediate restoration of law and order in the Niger Delta." In the longer term, "the importance of true federalism" for Nigeria "can never be overstressed," Luwoye said.