By Chukwudi Nweje
A book, titled: ‘No Good Deed Goes unpunished: the Contentious Search for Peace in the Niger Delta’ would be unveiled to the public at the Ebony Life Emporium, Victoria Island, Lagos on November 14, 2022, at 2pm.
The book depicts the contentious relations in the Niger Delta, and it documents real-life case studies and interviews conducted by the authors with scores of stakeholders, government officials, community leaders, women representatives, environmentalists, civil right activists, oil industry operators and representatives of non-governmental agencies.
It is authored by three retired employees of Chevron Nigeria Limited (CNL), Jide Ajide, John Ashima and Oluwole Agunbiade.
The authors have a 95-year cumulative experience in the petroleum industry, with 36 of the years spent managing the often stormy, but occasionally cordial relationships among stakeholders in the oil-rich Niger Delta.
A statement signed by Oluwole Ogunbiade, for JIJOWO Publishers said the book also documents opportunities for lasting peace while also highlighting potential areas of discontent, agitation and restiveness.
Gbenga Komolafe, the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), who wrote the Foreword, noted that the book is an essential manual for stakeholders in the Nigerian oil and gas industry.
According to him, the book is innovative because it is a pioneering effort at first hand narrative of the peculiarities of the Niger Delta situation from an informed upstream oil and gas perspective.
He stated that the contradictions exposed in the book are borne out of high expectations and sinking despair among members of the oil producing community.
Over 13 chapters, including an introductory section, the book details the genesis of oil production operations in Nigeria, through 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, to the current era of renewed hope amid foreboding anxiety.
The book ends with the analysis of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), described as a reset of the clock of Niger Delta’s stakeholders’ relations.
In their reviews of the book, Professor Fonkem Achakeng of the University of Wisconsin, Unites States of America (USA); Professor Olajumoke Yacob-Haliso of Babcock University, Ilishan, Nigeria and Mr. Toyin Akinosho, Publisher of the authoritative Africa Oil+Gas Report variously describe 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 motives and concatenation of forces which make Niger Delta peace both elusive and essential.
Those expected to attend the public presentation of the book include executives of multinational oil companies, independent petroleum producers as well as academics drawn from universities offering courses in Mass Communications and Journalism.