The Chief’ Executive Officer of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), Engr. Gbenga Komolafe has described a book to be unveiled on Monday 14th November as “highly innovative and an essential manual for stakeholders in the Nigerian oil and gas industry”.
Komolafe spoke glowingly about No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: The Contentious Search for Peace in the Niger Delta, co-authored by three retired employees of Chevron Nigeria Limited — Jide Ajide, John Ashima and Oluwole Agunbiade.
The event will take place at at the Ebony Life Emporium, Victoria Island, Lagos.
In the foreword to the book, the NUPRC helmsman noted that the book is innovative for many reasons, among which is its “pioneering effort at firsthand narrative of the peculiarities of the Niger Delta situation from an informed upstream oil and gas perspective.
“In specific terms, the book depicts the contentious relations in the Niger Delta by citing real-life case studies and, interviews conducted by the authors with scores of stakeholders, among them government officials, community leaders, women representatives, environmentalists, civil right activists. oil industry operators and representatives of non-governmental agencies. Through these interviews and case studies, the authors documented opportunities for lasting peace, while also highlighting potential areas of discontent, agitation and restiveness. These contradictions, the book shows, are home out of high expectations and sinking despair among community persons”.
According a statement by the Jijowo Publishers, the authors have a 95-year cumulative experience in the petroleum industry, with 36 of those spent managing the often stormy, but occasionally cordial relationships among stakeholders in the oil rich Niger Delta.
Over 13 chapters, including an introductory section, the book details the genesis of oil production operations in Nigeria exploring different epochs of social interaction among stakeholders.
Essentially, No Good Deed Goes Unpunished shows how the Nigerian oil and gas industry transited literally from the age of innocence, through a period of restrained dissent, then into full-blown militancy, and finally to the current era of renewed hope amid foreboding anxiety.
The book ends with the analysis of the Petroleum Industry Act, described as a reset of the clock of Niger Delta’s stakeholders’ relations.
In their review of the book, Prof. Fonkem Achakeng of the University of Wisconsin, United States; Professor Olajumoke Yacob-Haliso of Babcock University, llishan, Nigeria; and the Publisher of the authoritative Africa Oil+Gas Report, Mr Toyin Akinosho described the book as a treasure trove for potential and current investors in the Nigerian energy sector, policy makers desirous of making the difference, researchers into the Niger Delta crisis, and generally those seeking knowledge about the complexity of the motives and concatenation of forces which make Niger Delta peace both elusive and essential.
The public presentation of the book, which starts by 2 pm, will have in attendance executives of multi-national oil companies, independent petroleum producers as well as academics drawn from universities offering courses in Mass Communications and Journalism.
