Eket Senatorial District Media Professionals (ESDMP), a group that promotes good governance, transparency, and accountability, has raised concerns over brewing discontent against local and international oil companies (IOCs) operating in the Niger Delta region.
This was the resolution of key stakeholders during the just-concluded three-day symposium on how to hold the firms accountable for years of oil exploration and exploitation without commensurate remediation and development which took place in Eket local government area of Akwa Ibom State.
Therefore, participants identified that “effective communication is critical to promoting transparency, accountability, and corporate responsiveness in the oil and gas sector.”
A communique signed by the drafting committee chairman, Comrade Mfon Uyeh, of the Akwa Ibom Broadcasting Corporation (AKBC); secretary, Comrade Paulinus Nta, of Nigerian Observer; the ESDMP chairman, Elder Edet Okpo, and Prof. Herbert Batta, the adviser, identified gaps in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), as the root causes of the persistent underdevelopment and tensions.
The conferees called for oil companies’ engagement to institutionalise participatory communication platforms to reflect local priorities and media inclusion or integration into CSR and corporate governance processes to foster transparency and accountability.
The communique read, “The meeting of media professionals agreed that CSR Projects must shift from short-term, tokenistic gestures to long-term development interventions in education, health, technology, youth development, and environmental protection.
“The regulatory oversight must be strengthened in order to ensure compliance with the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) and global CSR best practices.
“The conference insists that capacity building in digital journalism, cybersecurity, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools is imperative for media practitioners to remain effective in monitoring corporate conduct.
“Government communication strategy for economic diversification should be inclusive and participatory, with the media playing a central mobilisation and sensitisation roles.
Journalists are also mandated to know the provisions of the PIA Act, 2021, which provides a new legal framework that guarantees host communities’ involvement in what they get from oil companies. Such awareness will help media professionals to hold the Host Communities Development Trust (HCDT) and other cadres of leadership at that level accountable.
“On Akwa Ibom economy beyond oil, the meeting called on the state government to continue with the diversification policy initiated by the past administrations to ensure that the state has an alternative source of revenue earnings away from oil.”
