During his time as Special Assistant to Rivers State Commissioner for Water Resources, Fubara Willie-Pepple worked assiduously with other technical experts to develop a functional framework for water resource development and reticulation for the State. As Leader of the Bonny Youths Federation (BYF), he contributed immensely and strategically to finetuning the framework of engagement between the multinationals and the youths of Bonny Kingdom. He is currently into financial services delivery to corporate entities helping them achieve a firm grasp of their financial profile and investment trajectory.

Willie-Pepple, son of a former Chief of the Willie-Pepple Chieftaincy House of Bonny Kingdom, spoke to the Publisher/Editor-in-Chief of Kristina Reports, Godswill Jumbo, on issues associated with the Train 7 project of the Nigeria LNG in Bonny such as local content, community inclusion, among others. It makes an interesting read.  

Recently, the Managing Director of the Nigeria LNG, Tony Attah said at a meeting in Government House that the prefabrication jobs for the Train 7 project will be done at Saipem yard at Rumuolumeni in Port Harcourt while the logistics will be handled at Abam in Okrika. What’s your take on this development in terms of how the project benefits the primary host community, which is Bonny LGA?

Thank you very much. First of all, I want to appreciate your platform, Kristina Reports, you are doing great in bringing important information to Bonny people both in Nigeria and the Diaspora. However, on this issues, let us state the point that Bonny has been good to NLNG. Bonny Community has been very, very good and we have maintained an atmosphere of peace within the Kingdom and provided cooperation for the company. So, it is expected that when a company wants to plan its project they should consider the host community that bears the major brunt of the entire project. Now, going back to your question, let us look at it. By saying that the entire fabrication component of the NLNG train 7 project will be done outside Bonny soil, I think NLNG has really not been fair to Bonny. One is not against a portion of the fabrication being done in other communities but Bonny being a direct host community that feels the brunt of the gas flare and other associated hazards should be given its due percentage of the fabrication scope to be done on Bonny soil.

See, that fabrication yard at Rumuolumeni did not fall from heaven, it was built. So, if they want a project like this they should make sure a fabrication yard be build within Bonny Island which will also serve future maintenance purposes for the project. So, I think NLNG is trying to be too wise and even exhibiting selfishness by saying that a huge component like fabrication will not have reasonable percentage of it in Bonny Island. I must say the MD has not really thought through it well. And by this I don’t think the MD and NLNG really have any local development plan for Bonny.

Now, talking about setting up a fabrication yard in Bonny some stakeholders have expressed worry over the implicative costs attached to that, in lieu of the Train 7 project or any other project. And the issue has been as to who should bear that cost, should it be the NLNG or should it be the Bonny people? Have you considered this aspect of the issue under review?

Ab initio, this critical consideration would have been made and established in the project cost plan.  If they have Bonny in mind or the local community, the primary host community in mind, they would have included that part of it somewhere. Historically, let me tell you, when the NLNG started we had a base project, we did not hear about trains 4, 5, 6 and now 7, meaning that tomorrow there might be train 8, 9, and even 10 and other projects that can come around NLNG. So, it starts with a date. And do you know the effect of a fabrication yard in Bonny Island? The futuristic development of the island: we have a road coming, and by God’s grace, the deep seaport coming. A fabrication yard will even streamline and lead to other things that are coming to the island. So, if the cost of the fabrication yard was factored in what we will be talking about now will be what percentage of the fabrication would be done in Port Harcourt and what percentage will be done in Bonny. As I have always said, it can become a maintenance yard for the future. So, NLNG would have considered Bonny community which has been very good to them. That issue of the cost of putting a yard in Bonny is supposed to be an advantage to NLNG in Bonny because tomorrow you would have an additional train. So if additional trains come in future and where will the fabrication yard be? The same thing outside? No na. So using cost is just a smart way of justifying their actions.

Also consider what he said that the prefabrication would be done at Rumuolumeni while logistics will be handled at Abam. Now, for those who know, Rumuolumeni is on one axis of Port Harcourt while Abam is on the other end, several kilometers apart. If you say you are moving the prefabricated materials from Rumuolumeni using the Choba River and connecting to Bonny River and then to Bonny Island that is a whole lot of logistics cost on its own. But now they are saying that Daewoo will handle the logistics from Abam in Okrika LGA to move prefabricated components from Rumuolumeni in Obio/Akpor LGA to Bonny Island. Imagine the humongous cost involved. Imagine what is involved in all of that. Wouldn’t it make more economic sense that a fabrication yard is sited in Bonny and the jobs done there and moved a few metres to the installation location, which is the project site, than these one they are saying? Isn’t it obvious that it is more cost-effective having a fabrication yard in Bonny than in Port Harcourt and then moving fabrication materials from one end of the state to another end before moving them to the project site in Bonny?

But should the NLNG and their contracting partners decide to concede to the demands of the Bonny people to site the fabrication yard in Bonny either directly by them or their contractors maybe Saipem or Daewoo or Chiyoda, in terms of the land space, requisite human resource and expertise, do you think Bonny can handle a fabrication yard?

Land is not an Issue. With the proper established process Bonny community can propose land space. Land is not an issue. There is a road coming, the kingdom will give them land. One is for a project. We have always had good understanding with NLNG in everything. The Kingdom can provide land, they build it and the yard remains there as part of the project. The land is there. It is just that it is a fabrication yard for the project and other projects that can be done within this period which I believe NLNG can also use for other projects. So, land is not an issue. It should be scoped into the project but I think Bonny would be favourably disposed to give them land where they can use. And of course, necessary consideration would be done. I believe so.  

Away from fabrication issues, looking at the issue of local content, do you think it is fair to Bonny Kingdom, Bonny LGA, and Bonny people that there is no Bonny person in the reconstituted boards of the Nigeria LNG and the Bonny Gas Transport Limited, and even the NLNG Shipping Management Limited after the exit of Osobonye Longjohn?

For me, I think Bonny deserves a member on those boards. A provision should be made for the host community to send in somebody. We are the primary host and we have been a good host, not just now that they are going for a fresh project. For me, I would use this opportunity to call on the relevant authorities, the minister and others to consider it that this host community should have a member in those boards.

But aside the board there is also concerns that the top management of the Bonny Gas Transport Limited, the NLNG Shipping Management Limited and NLNG itself is bereft of any Bonny component. Now if you juxtapose this with the provisions of the NOGICD Act, do you think that it is a situation that is consistent?    

No, the act clearly states what should be provided for a community like ours. You see that is why we are calling on the stakeholders within this sector – the minister, the NNPC, the governor and the president to consider these issues. We need to be part of this, we want to feel among. We don’t want to be a dumping ground of projects that we are not part of. That gap has been there whereby we don’t have anybody in the managerial cadre. Look at even this construction, this NLNG train 7 coming, within the managerial team we should have Bonny people in them during the construction stage. So, I think it is something that they need to look at. It is still a call. Bonny people are not satisfied and will continue demand what is due us. It is not too much. What Bonny is asking is never too much. I don’t think we should be treated this way.

People have insinuated that maybe because the Bonny  man will prefer to act civilized and not resort to violence, carrying placards, causing confusion and creating security crisis, that may be why some of these multinationals do not take Bonny  seriously even when they are trying to make a case about any issue relating to their interface with these multinationals. Do you agree with this view?    

Well, being a former youth leader and during such a critical time as the militancy and agitations within the island I know and appreciate the Bonny man’s mien of being very respectable but I can assure you that Bonny can also react when pushed to the wall. Meanwhile, the youths of today are fed up on the way they are being treated. The Bonny man of today is not the Bonny man of yesterday. We are even more sophisticated by knowledge and capacity and will use, I repeat, will use all legal and civil means to demand and get our due.  And, of course, you know that Bonny cannot be isolated from the rest of the world.

So, I think the Bonny man is good. The Bonny man will want to do things peacefully and rely on your trust that you should know what to do. But I want to also tell those that are relying on that fact that Bonny is docile that they will be shocked. So, I want to call on them that if they want to rely on the fact that Bonny is just quiet and you can come and do what you like, they should rethink their stand. The Bonny man will not change his nature. You cannot predict the state of mind of the Bonny person today. Everybody has seen that you cannot push people to the wall. I think the Federal Government takes this project really serious and would not give room, especially, for a community that has done well. In fact, for me I say that this project should be like a payoff for the peace and cooperation of the Bonny people with the Federal Government.

If you were to advise the Federal Government, the Nigerian Content Development Monitoring Board, the top echelon of the Nigeria LNG management, in terms of managing the local content of the train 7 project, in terms of the fabrication component, in terms of managing of the train 7 project and reflecting Bonny component in them, what would be your advice?  

I think we can sum them up together. One, the Federal Government, through the Minister of Petroleum, needs to caution NLNG management and direct them to do the right things always. Taking the issue at hand, a reasonable percentage of the fabrication scope should be done on Bonny soil. The Bonny people – businessmen, workers, internship, wealth transfer, and other categories – will be able to gain. Our people should benefit from the wealth transfer, technical transfer, experience transfer, and infrastructural development within the island for the time being. Now, as a matter of urgency, we need managerial positions for Bonny people in the Nigeria LNG, managerial positions in NLNG train 7 construction and the production phases. A conscious community plan must be there for Bonny. It should be done consciously. Than to wait for Bonny to start agitations. And it will still affect them. So, why should you wait for that time? My advice is that NLNG should do what is right now ahead of time because when the project starts many things will unfold that you will be surprised that why? It will be because you did not take the right steps.

How do you react to alleged claims by NLNG, Shell, Mobil and others that that Bonny does not have the requisite capacity for certain opportunities like contracts, skills sets for certain positions? And this is between 30 and 50 years of their operations in Bonny.           

They have indicted themselves by making such statements because thirty years ago, if you claim that we don’t have capacity, what was your plan? You deliberately don’t want us to have capacity because I know severally, even as a youth leader, agitations have been made on this issue of capacity building in terms of employment because if you employ they will grow in the job. If that is not an excuse, if you had plans to create capacity there are several training and retraining programmes that would have been open to the community with an understanding of the future that these same resource persons will be used or can be employed within the NLNG. Right now, what is that core employment plan for Bonny for direct NLNG employment? So, it is flimsy for any person to say now that we don’t have capacity. Now, we, as Bonny professionals, are challenging them, we are challenging to give us all those positions that you think we don’t have capacity. We will bring capacity. You will see the persons will come out. I challenge them that even if it is contractual project capacity they should tell me. And let me tell you, we are talking about manpower capacity; that is one. I challenge them that we have them both in Nigeria and in the Diaspora. In any sector of the economy we can source them. It is a matter of just telling us. You have not made provision. Now, on the issue of being contractors in the construction there are openings for collaboration. You leverage, leveraging is what everybody is doing today. If you want me to grow, challenge me with that job, I will show that my company will leverage form partnerships and I will get to that level. When you expose us how can you right now in Bonny there are a lot of companies that are doing projects that any Bonny man can handle. But because these companies have been with them in their former companies, they are colleagues somewhere, they call and people will go from everywhere they are, form a company, do partnership with NLNG or they form a company and come in and claim they this or that and they are not from Bonny. They are doing major jobs inside Bonny Island and our contractors are watching them and saying ‘how can they say we don’t have capacity?’ Is it in equipment? With collaboration today, you can get any equipment you need, any equipment. Even the manufacturers are even willing to come and give you the equipment on a plan as long as they have an NLNG job. Some of the companies are even leveraging and saying look we have this equipment. I think the issue with NLNG is that they don’t want to have a conscious plan to develop Bonny in the area of capacity to be part of the management cadre. It is just simple. They challenge us, we are now challenging them and tell us which project we cannot handle.

In all of these what do you think has been the role of the leadership of Bonny Kingdom?

I have to commend the leadership of our kingdom led by His Majesty, King Edward Asimini William Dappa Pepple for providing the functional administrative structures of interface with the multinationals. The establishment of the Bonny Kingdom Local Content Compliance Committee is a major strategy to uniformly secure what is due Bonny hinging on the laws of the land and local conventions.  At least, it is a structure for interface. We know naturally what we should get. So, I want to commend them for even providing us with this structure and other structures that are already on ground. So, NLNG has no excuse for not doing what is right for us. So, we have placed on ground every structure. The local government is there, the kingdom aspect is there and I believe the youths should be ready. At least, there is peace.

NLNG should come show their colour clearly; what are they having for Bonny in this train 7 project? We should end up with a clear understanding, a written MOU that shows the necessary percentages in this project should be provided for Bonny; written, agreed, and we go to bed. And what you do is to deliver it.  We should take it up to managerial level, employment, even in this construction project we should insist on the calibre of persons to be employed from project managers, assistant project managers – we can do assistant project managers, we can. We have the engineers. 

 I want to commend the King, the Amanyanabo of Bonny and the leadership of the kingdom for providing these platforms already fro interface. So, you will see that at the end of the day NLNG will not have any excuse. I believe that God will still guide us as we go on. So, let the NLNG take this as a precaution and as an advice and do what is right.