The Port Harcourt Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, PHCCIMA has taken a swipe at the Management of Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Company for allegedly excluding the names of Bonny and Rivers indigenes in the recent, NLNG 2012 Technicians Training and Employment Programme.
This was the reaction of the PHCCIMA President, Dr Vincent Furo while speaking to newsmen on arrival from his USA trip abroad at the Port Harcourt airport. Furo expressed disappointment that an international company like NLNG can employ as much as 33 persons into its 2012 Technicians Training and Employment Programme without making provision for the host community.
He lashed out at the company insisting that the management must go back and ensure that the good people of Bonny (the host community) and Rivers state are accommodated so as to reflect local content and catchments area arrangement.
“We are talking about a community that has sacrificed the health of its people on the platter of dangerous emission of gas.. A community where life expectancy is constantly threatened while corrosion, acid rain and environmental degradation are now a way of life, but however when it comes to accommodating the people in gainful training programmes and employment, they are grossly denied”, Furo was quoted as saying.
He explained that the likes of NLNG and other multinational companies have been told to support current efforts of the federal government to end youth restiveness in the Niger Delta region by offering training and employment opportunities to youths of the region, however the deliberate exclusion of individuals from Bonny by NLNG is not only wicked and a big contrast to that federal government call, but also the height of insensitivity.
Furo stressed that companies must be compelled by relevant laws to comply to catchments area laws to help address their excesses. He pointed out that the federal government alone cannot shoulder every responsibility in its quest to address the issues of the region, adding that companies owe it as Corporate Social Responsibility to host communities and state where they carry out their operations.
He cautioned that NLNG must not be seen as employing the divide and rule tactics to incite problems in the community. According to him the company has the capacity to comfortably train and employ those that need to acquire skills and to also provide logistics for their empowerment if they are truly sincere.
The PHCCIMA boss further reminded the company that Niger Delta has long been neglected and deprived – in the face of this, Bonny as a community has however been very accommodating and peace loving to all and sundry and this gesture should not be taken for granted or as a sign of weakness.
NLNG according to him must do the needful, and not do anything capable of upsetting the peaceful environment where they carry out their business.
Further tasking the gas company, he said in the interest of peace a special concession should be given to the host community (Bonny) and Rivers state to sustain the peaceful relationship that have been existing between previous management and the host community
Dr Vincent Furo who is also a titled citizen of Ancient Grand Bonny kingdom used the opportunity to call on well-meaning citizens of Bonny kingdom to rise to the occasion and ensure that justice is done at all level on the present matter to avert such cases in future.
