I spent a day in Okobe, a small Ekpeye community, situated before Engene, along the boundary of rivers state. Oil bunkering, illegal refining machines (referred to as ovens), and the role of security operatives in the trade thrilled, it was captivating and most revealing! I was not warned not to take photographs, I knew I should not make such attempts. At some point, I have to put my phone on silent. In this article, I choose not to mention names for security reasons.
There is a value chain of actors in the process. On the demand side – owners of ovens who produce on-demand and determine the quality requirements. On the supply side – those who buy from the oven managers, sell to aggregators, while aggregators sell to the truck at night. For supporting functions – those who use old Camry cars popularly referred to as orobo, those who bag in 20 liters polythene, those who load and offload polythene of diesel.
To avoid confrontations, there are also formal and informal rules – uniform service personnel (USP) and its agents forbid the ovens area. USPs vacate the roads for tankers to start to troop in from 8 pm for loading under the direct supervision of the armed community boys. The armed boys are criminal agents, they operate under cult groups. The armed community boys maintain a direct link with arm agents who supply consumables, charms, arms, and service providers for arm repairs, storage, and lease. The armed community boys are key players during an election, political campaigns, and communal clashes. Their sponsors are politicians, truck owners, and oil cartels.
Businesses are emerging in Okobe, entertainment and relaxation business is booming. Merchants of waterproof used in packaging, alcohol, marijuana, energy drinks, monkey tail, washing, and setting were all selling fast. 5-star gold hotel with imported sisters from Port Harcourt and Owerri is a big business in the area.
Hausa and Ibo tribes operate mini-supermarkets in the area. Any commodity that you can’t get from igwe’s shop (a popular grocery store in the community) will be hard to get around, one may need to visit yenegoa – the capital of Bayelsa state, Nigeria if it’s most desired. I later choose to be generous, I sat beside an aboki (men from hausa tribe are mostly referred to as aboki in Okobe) shop where they sell flavored local gin in varieties, I ordered some beer and fried meat. There, I relaxed with my friends who volunteered to give me the gist of how they operate within the context of my subject.
I was shocked when my host revealed that they don’t make much in the business, they just struggle to make ends meet. That was also evidenced by the quality of life of the CEO of the refineries. Their houses are not standard – not well-planned, no approvals as you can tell from the look of the structures. They all drink sachet water and everyone complained that it’s too expensive at 10 NGN (about $0.025) for an estimated 20ml, some CEOs do not have personal cars.
It was revealed that the Police from Ahoda town, Operation Sting – a special police squad, IGP police unit squad, state task force team, Nigerian Navy team, Nigerian Army team, civil defense team, and special anti-robbery squad (SARS) come around daily to collect their share from the proceeds of illegal refining and bunkering. I witnessed the collection of “shares” by Operation Sting. They were all furious, the CEO and his boys engaged the police in arguments. The CEO boys have not slept all night, they took some mixtures of hemp and local gin as they wait for the police guys. The police guys too were shouting at the top of their voices. I was informed that the boys are armed and that they all have odeshi – charms that prevent injuries from gunshot and machete cuts. Some police personnel appreciates the importance of odeshi. After a while, there seems to be a compromise. They left the argument scene and proceed to a small joint where a CEO offered branded bitters, flavored with local gin, they had one each as their truck drove to the main road away.
The majority of the boys from the community earn their living from the business, they are involved in one way or the other. For instance, offloading from the car and pouring a polythene bag of diesel into a plastic drum cost NGN10. Work resumes at the oven by 6 pm and closes by 5 am. Oven workers earn NGN10, 000 (about $24.50) daily. I was told that they operate daily without clothes – a safety measure adopted to avoid going to the sites with flammable objects.
I was informed by my cohort, that the destruction of some ovens a few months ago was responsible for the shortage in the supply of diesel to major cities – Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Owerri, Imo State, and Yenegoa, Bayelsa state to mention a few. In my opinion, this is hard to attribute. But the fact is that they have a space in the supply market – they supply a good chunk of diesel to the ever-growing market in the cities. It is worthy to note that SMEs generate alternative power for daily operations from diesel-powered combustive engines.
The smell from the product is not healthy, but the entire community is all about diesel. Port Harcourt and Yenegoa have poor air quality indexes. This among others is an outcome result of illegal refineries and the burning of diesel for power generation by SMEs. The workers around have it all over their bodies, same with the transporters from the oven to the communities. The process of refining as I was told, requires a high temperature that comes from fire, which in turn emits carbon into the atmosphere, polluting the natural air. These have devastating effects on wildlife, plants, aquatics, and human. The oven explorers and associated actors are most at risk.
The business has eaten deep into the fabric of the community structure. Clergies, traditional clans, retired heads of schools, policymakers, and civil servants from the communities do not see illegalities in the operation of unlicensed modular refineries, operations such have lasted for over 3 decades. Elites perceived it as a means of survival where governance systems and structures have failed the electorates. These are some of the social-cultural factors that strongly mitigate the termination of bunkering, and illegal and harmful oil exploration ventures in communities in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.
A systemic approach is required to holistically replace these refining processes in rural communities in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria. Each player requires a similar role in ventures that has a relatively fair productivity rate, dignifying, sustainable and profitable. This will require rigorous brainstorming by experts and key stakeholders. It will also require a long-term intervention. The grant required to trigger the desired behavioral change is monumental.
josuntokun@gmail.com
JFO, June 2021