The
member of the House of Representatives for Vandeikya/Konshisha Federal
Constituency of Benue State, Rt. Hon Mrs Dorothy Mato was in Dubai, the
United Arab Emirates on December 7, 2017 for an oversight on Oil and Gas
of House Committee on Petroleum (Upstream) at Emirates Concord Hotel
& Residence, Deira, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
The meeting
was to explore various ways of making the Nigerian Oil and Gas sector to
be robust through impact-driven legislation and reforms that will not
only create more jobs for Nigerian youths but will lead to effective
productivity.
She says the most serious economic problem in
Nigeria is homegrown corruption. But the problem is certainly
exacerbated by the economic imperialism of multinational corporations
looking to exploit the weak economic regulation and the vast abundance
of resources for taking in Nigeria. If Nigerians want to have access to
those resources, they will have to stand up for themselves, and soon.
“The
people who benefit from Nigeria’s vast oil reserves are the Swiss
bankers, American and European stockholders of Shell, Mobil, Chevron,
Agip, Total and a handful of other multinational oil companies operating
in Nigeria. There are as well the shareholders of the petrochemical
firms that use that oil, some rulers of Nigeria are essentially being
bribed to give the multinational oil companies a free hand, and the
handful of Nigerians and expatriates who have relatively good jobs
working in Nigeroa in the oil field.
“The people who benefit the
least are those whose oil this is, the people of Akwa Ibom, Rivers,
Bayelsa and Delta States, who live daily with the disruption, the noise,
the pollution, and the corruption that the oil industry has spawned.
They see little of the money. It goes elsewhere.
“The solution
has to come from Abuja. And the only way that will happen is if all the
Nigerian people demand it in a way the leaders cannot ignore. There must
be a proper accounting of the monies the oil extraction industry
generates, and it must be spent where it is needed, not just in the home
regions of the leaders”. She said.
By Terfa Naswem