When government announced the transfer of operatorship of Shell’s assets in Ogoni land, in view of the crises which saw the killing of prominent Ogoni men during the Gen. Sani Abacha’s regime, the community thought they would have a say in whom the new operator is.

This way, they can work in harmony with the new owner, especially in determining the award of some contracts like the cleaning up of the oil spill in the region, which they thought would be awarded to indigent contractors.

However, unknown to the Ogoni people, government, even two years ago had decided to hand the Shell assets to NNPC to reduce communal control on the operator for smooth oil and gas operations, which had been shut down for over 15 years when Shell abandoned the area after Ken Saro_Wiwa’s death.

Government went ahead to engage the services of the United Nations Environmental Protection Agency, UNEP, to clean up the oil spill. But even the agency has been accused by the Ogoni people of doing a substandard job.

The accusation is suspected to have been connected with UNEP’s warning and alert of high level oil bunkering in the area, which is contributing to its environmental degradation.

Asset takeover
It was envisaged that with government’s involvement, the people of Ogoni land can no longer interfere with oil and gas operations, as they would if the operator were handed over to another private company.

Ogoni land hosts one of the highest oil reserves in the oil rich Niger Delta, and government has lost enormous wealth on account of the shutdown of operations in the region.