Lawyer, community leader, royalty and Chairman of the Bonny Kingdom Local Content Compliance Committee (BKLCCC), Opuada Willie-Pepple comes across as a suave, urbane and versatile technocrat. Though reticent and, typically, a silent achiever, his name pops up every time a discourse on the development of Bonny Kingdom in Bonny Local Government Area of Rivers State is trending.

In this interview with Kristina Reports publisher/editor-in-chief, Godswill Jumbo, the erudite BKLCCC Chairman outlined the ongoing preparations, negotiations and collaborations aimed at positioning Bonny Kingdom to maximize the opportunities that would come with the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) train 7 project, and eloquently highlighted how community members can benefit from the imminent project.       

We have following activities around the local content committee…can you enlighten on what the local content committee is all about?

The Bonny Kingdom Local Content Compliance Committee was set up by His Majesty, the King of Bonny, King Edward Asimini William Dappa Pepple III, Perekule XI, in conjunction with his chiefs. The idea of setting up this committee is to interface with any of the companies that succeeds in its bid to work on the train 7 project and to maximise the benefits of that project in Bonny Island for Bonny people. If you recall, you know that there is a Nigerian Local Content Act which creates provisions for the local content act as it has to do with the Nigerian State. This does not create space for the local communities where these projects are being carried out. It is based on that that His Majesty, in his wisdom, decided that we have to have a local content committee that will interface with NLNG and the competing bidders in the train 7 to ensure that this time around against what it was the past 23 years when the base project comprising trains 1 to 6 were built. This time around the people of Bonny, the indigenous persons of Bonny have a lot to benefit by way of employment, contracts, training, and capacity (building) that even after train 7 that Bonny Kingdom and its indigenes will have something to do unlike this situation that after train 6 everybody is back to zero. We want to be engaged in the project as it is been built and we want to be engaged after the project when it comes to permanent employment in the company itself. So, this body was set up and today (June 7) and we had our first seminar with our people particularly the Bonny Community; the (chieftaincy) house were represented, artisans and other associations and the kingdom were also represented. For us to tell them what we are all about and to hear from them what their challenges have been and how best we can both work together to make sure that this time around it is not business as usual as it was over 23 years ago. But this time our people can benefit maximally from the fact that by God’s divine grace the project is sited on Bonny Island. That is the essence of setting up this committee.

One of the things we noticed the involvement of the Bonny Chamber of Commerce. Why this partnership?

Well, the Bonny Chamber of Commerce, as you know, is the body that has to do with business being controlled, trained; persons being trained in different businesses. It has a global outreach and most of these companies coming to Bonny, where they come from they have their regard and respect for the chamber of commerce which is like the umbrella under which businesses come and interface with the different operators in their own countries. So, a couple of months ago, His Majesty again had cause to organize a workshop of the Bonny Chamber of Commerce and it was a very successful outing. Now, with us partnering with and them giving us their own perspective of what we have or what companies in Bonny have to gain by registering with and being part of them it will help us to achieve what we want to achieve for our people in the areas of training, competence, award of contracts and even in employment, thereafter.

Now, a challenge that has been found to have hampered the development of Bonny Kingdom over time has always been ulterior motives and personal interests. Is your committee looking at patronizing these interests viz-a-viz patronizing the general interest which you have expressed now?   

Well, you in my welcome address, amongst others, I told that look we must all realise that by the grace of God Bonny is favoured in the sight of God that even before Nigeria came into being Bonny existed and has always existed as a commercial hub of the Niger Delta. From the era of slaves to the era of palm oil to the era of crude oil sales to now oil and gas. So, we are favoured; and I said that if we are favoured as we are, an island on our own, and we as a people do not work together, do not jettison things that have to do with greed or trying to undercut each other or creating a situation where those who are not appreciative of the fact that things have been placed in Bonny, we run the risk of such coming in to take the benefits of things that have been placed here for us to benefit from. And so, the best we can do there is to work on the psyche of our people, make them realise that there is a ….for everybody. All you have to do is speak in one voice. Talk to yourselves. Be your brother’s keeper. Don’t undermine your brother or sister. We’ll get it right. If we work together the companies coming to operate here will realise that it is not business as usual. In other climes, like in Bayelsa and some other Niger Delta areas, you cannot operate there as somebody that is not an indigene of that place without clearance from their own equivalent of a local content committee, their own indigenes there. In other words, those areas even if you are given a contract to supply sand, that sand you are supplying is tagged to an indigene. You have to interface with the people to partner with you for you to get that job. We are more of a liberal community but you see when you are a little too liberal people tend to take advantage of your kindheartedness. But this time around we are not saying that other persons in the country are not entitled to work in Bonny but let the NLNG, let the Nigeria local content board, let the company handling the contract tell us the scope of work that has been laid out for the indigenes of Bonny. And if it is not enough we tell them what more we can do if we have the competence to do it we expect them to give it to us.

As I said in one of the statements I made, you want to buy cable from Cable Metal or one of the major cable companies, you won’t just tell the company that look I want this quantity of cable, bring it to Bonny. When you have identified the outfit that has the quality of cables that you want you will allow a company has the capacity. By the way it doesn’t take any capacity to bring cables or chippings and all that to Bonny Island. You say look we are awarding to this persons, go and get this cable from the specified persons who you know the quality is right. That’s a little markup for you. The act of going to discuss with the cable company is getting experience. The act of moving the quantity of cables to Bonny is another experience. The act of sending in your invoice and all that is another experience. And before you know it you now start gaining interest in what the cable people are doing. And before you know you start growing into somebody who can get the type of cables that they need. Even if you have Julius Berger as your sub-contractor, even you have Daewoo or whoever or whatever as your subcontractor, we should interface with that subcontractor and see what are the things there that you want as a subcontractor to carry out this assignment that our own contractors can do. And apart from that where we don’t have the competence to do what the company or NLNG wants our people can partner with companies outside Bonny that have the competence. But you go into an agreement with them so that you are a beneficiary of all that comes out of what that company is doing. So, in that wise, you are partnering, you are getting experience and you have the capacity of employing Bonny boys who are looking for jobs into that company to assist in doing what they have to do. These are ways in which if our people get it right, if the greed and the backbiting and the divide and rule syndrome does not take hold of them, we can succeed just like communities outside Bonny have succeeded in the past. That’s how companies will just come, just go in there without clearance from those who own the community. That’s how it is done everywhere. That is how areas grew, that is how Dubai grew, that’s how other areas grew. They have a percentage laid out. That is the position of His Majesty.  

As I said, it is a Nigerian content thing but we know that the first casualty in case something happens I this island by virtue of what is being built here, it is we in Bonny. So, we must be seen to benefit maximally from it.

How do you intend to get the multinationals to do your bidding given their general being slippery nature?

23 years ago, for us to get what we have now – Bonny is the only community in Nigeria that has 24 hours light, has pipe borne water – we had cause to take over the NLNG roundabout on the Finima axis which was peaceful. We stood our ground and it led to negotiations that finally brought the MOU between the King and his council with NLNG that brought light, brought water and some other things. Now, we don’t want to go that route, as they say…we don’t want to do that, we want to discuss, negotiate. And that is why this time around we have spoken with companies that are bidding for it. We have written to NLNG and to the Nigerian Local Content Development Board for a meeting at their convenience any time between Monday the 10^th of June and the 21^st of June. Anywhere they want to meet with us we want to meet them. So that we can iron out some of those issues that we have that can create friction. Some of those issues that we garnered from the seminar we had from our people. So, if they are sincere and we meet with them then we will now iron out these issues so that we will now have a seminar on the 27^th with them and our people and it will be seamless. We have not had any response even though these letter went two weeks ago. We believe that having learnt from experience they will see the need to come to a table with us so that we can iron out those grey areas that can create friction. Anybody who wants to work wants to work in an environment that is devoid of chaos. So, I believe that they being a reasonable company would realise that it is better to jaw-jaw than to war-war. Let’s discuss and have a seamless meeting that will spell out and those areas that our community members have a problem with we would have ironed it out and found out if our people are telling the truth or they are the ones telling the truth. Whatever it is we will have a middle of the road or middle course and we will arrive at that. When we arrive at that I think we will be able to achieve what we want to achieve. As I said Bonny can’t do it all but we want to do as much as we can so that before and after the train 7 we can beat our chest that yes, we maximized the benefits of train 7 for our people.

Looking at what His Majesty, the Amanyanabo of Bonny is trying to do with this committee what advice do you have for Bonny people? And we are talking of all strata of society…    

We all know what is coming…it is construction and construction comes with – we are told that we are expecting over seven thousand persons into Bonny; it will impact our facilities, no doubt. As the leadership of our kingdom, the first thing we have to do is to make sure that all the facilities we will interface with in the island are not overstretched by that time so that there won’t be a collapse. This time around the workers camp is being done from where the old workers is to that Bonny-Bodo road area.  Invariably the strain on the strain on the island will be reduced as of that time. Another thing to look at is that our youths and those who are supposed to go for training and all that they should take the advantage of that opportunity to be trained and retrained in the Bonny Vocational Centre. As we speak, both NLNG and the two competing bidders for the job have all agreed that the training and retraining of those for these jobs will be done at the Bonny Vocational Centre which is affiliated with City and Guilds and other certificating bodies and the oil and gas polytechnic. Our youths shouldn’t look at it that it is Bonny and you can just do as you like, you must be prepared for it. The time manna falls from heaven has passed. Now, God gives you an opportunity and it favours you, you have to work towards it and working towards it means preparing for the bigger picture. But if you do not prepare yourself for the bigger picture when that time comes what you will be good for will be either helper or other menial aspects of the job. Yes, you will still get something to run around and enjoy yourself for a while but it won’t be long lasting. So, they have to prepare themselves. We have stated that unskilled labour should be for our community – from gateman and all that – should be from here. The semi-skilled we are choosing but the point is this: we have to be prepared for it, from the political class, the traditional institution, our citizens too, even we, the committee, we are all preparing for it. The long and short of it is that one spirit, working together as a team from the top to the bottom we shall get to where we want to get to. It won’t be easy but it is possible.