The Executive Director of Kebetkache Women Development and Resource Centre, Emen Okon, has canvassed for more women and community people in the oil business in Nigeria.
Okon dropped the hint in a one-day strategy meeting on the implantation of natural resource governance charter in Port Harcourt recently.
The Executive Director maintained that the theory of change will increase the way people engage knowledge base on natural resource charter and the community content guildeline and the participation of women in the oil industry.
She explained that contract transparency and accountabilities should be vital in the communities where oil businesses take place and should be a concern for all noting that people must be proactive at all levels to engage the stakeholders in the oil industry.
The soft spoken activist tasked women to continue to advocate and campaign for women’s participation in the natural resource.
Earlier, stakeholders had called on the federal government and the oil companies to deliberately include women, youths and community people in all aspects of the oil industry so as to reduce tension in the Niger Delta.
Participants observed that communities where oil is being drilled are excluded from participation in that natural resource governance especially the women, while calling on the relevant stakeholders to make plans to include community people as a matter of compulsion.
They further tasked oil and gas companies operating in the region to strictly use the principle and the laws provided by the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) which give a lot of concession to the local or host communities, such as employment opportunities, contract, siting of head office of the oil firm among others.
In their various presentations at the event, Comrade Jaye Gaskia spoke on natural resource government charter, Engr. Henry Eferegbo on Community Content Guidelines, while the representative of FOSTER talked on contract transparency in the oil and gas industry.
Recall that the Nigerian Constitution has explained that government would make sure the wealth of the country is not concentrated in the hands of the few.
