In what appears to be an entrenchment of a culture of failed promises, the people of Finima Community in Bonny Local Government Area of Rivers State says that, 44 years after subjecting them to an involuntary resettlement from their ancestral homeland, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPC) and its oversighted gas firm, the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (NLNG), were yet to fulfil the promises made to them in lieu of that resettlement plan.

In a letter addressed to the then Chief and Head of the Buoye Omuso Brown House (BOBH) of Finima in Bonny Kingdom, Chief Idamieibi Brown, and signed by NNPC’s Manager, gas and Petrochemicals, S. M. Akpe on March 3, 1978, which Kristina Reports has in its possession, the NNPC made 10 promises as compensatory benefits to the Finima Community.

Specifically, the letter stated that there will be:

1. Compensation at reasonable commercial value for parcels of land acquired for the project.
2. Provision of helicopter for representatives of Finima Community to locate a site of their choice for resettlement.  
3. Bulldozing and general layout of the new site for construction purposes.
4. Movement of historical graves and important sites of the Finima people to the new site at the company’s cost.
5. Design and construction of bungalows/houses for displaced families/residents of Finima;
6. Provision of borehole for domestic water supply.  
7. Electric power supply for Finima Community.
8. Employment opportunities for skilled and non-skilled residents of Finima.
9. Placement of children of Finima residents in the NLNG RA staff school.
10. Access to medical facilities in the NLNG RA Clinic to residents of Finima.

Similar correspondences were also made to Tobin and Attoni Houses alongside several meetings where these conditions precedent to the relocation were discussed between officials of the NNPC who represented the Federal Government of Nigeria, the then Secretary to the Military Government, Rivers State, Albert Badey, and the Rivers State Commissioner for Lands and Survey, now demised Capt. Elechi Amadi, and representatives of the Brown, Tobin and Attoni Houses.

International best practices on involuntary resettlement of a people for development of commercial projects, as contained in the International Finance Corporation (IFC) Handbook for Preparing a Resettlement Action Plan require that involuntary resettlement be predicated on the following principles:

■ Involuntary resettlement should be avoided.

■ Where involuntary resettlement is unavoidable, all people affected by it should be compensated fully and fairly for lost assets.

■ Involuntary resettlement should be conceived as an opportunity for improving the livelihoods of the affected people and undertaken accordingly.

■ All people affected by involuntary resettlement should be consulted and involved in resettlement planning to ensure that the mitigation of adverse effects as well as the benefits of resettlement are appropriate and sustainable.

Speaking with Kristina Reports in Finima on Tuesday, February 17, 2022, the Chief and Head of the Buoye Omuso Brown House (BOBH), Aseme Alabo Dagogo Lambert Brown, Kongo XVII, lamented that these promises were largely unfulfilled more than two decades after they were made, thus shortchanging the Finima Community.

“We were promised that Finima would be linked directly to the NLNG power grid but that has not happened. We were promised that our children would be attending the NLNG RA School but that also did not happen. Check the houses that were built for us and the ones in the NLNG Residential Area; is this fair?”

“We are not allowed access to the (NLNG) RA Clinic as promised before we were relocated, and mind you, it was an involuntary resettlement. As for jobs, we were paired together with our brothers in Bonny where even the 40 percent agreed is not being implemented. This is unfair to us as a people.”

He called on President Muhammadu Buhari to wade into the matter and compel the NNPC and the NLNG to fulfil the documented promises made to the Finima Community as conditions precedent to their relocation, and also implement other globally recognized imperatives for involuntary resettlement of peoples and communities.

Efforts to get the reaction of the NNPC through its Group Managing Director, Mele Kyari, and Group General Manager (GGM), Group Public Affairs Division (GPAD), Garba Muhammad; and the NLNG through its Managing Director, Dr Philip Mshelbila, were yet unsuccessful as at the time of this report as none of them has yet responded to enquiries sent to them by Kristina Reports.