The Secretary of Enwang Development Union, Chief Joseph Anwana, has commended the Mbo EMOIMEE Host Community Development Trust for its development strides in the Local Government Area.
He said that the Trust was embarking on several life-enhancing programmes and projects such as renovation of health facilities, skills training, across the local government area, enthusing that this was changing the development landscape of the people.
Anwana noted that the people were feeling the positive impact of their God-given petroleum, unlike what obtained before the advent of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), which provides for 3% operational costs of oil companies to be devoted directly to the developmental needs of their host communities.
“You see, before now, funds were made available, but did not get to the oil-producing communities. This time round, the communities are benefiting directly because they generate what they want. It is a good development”, Chief Anwana remarked.
Anwana, who spoke with WatchmanPost at the Primary Health Centre, Enwang, Mbo Local Government Area, yesterday, where the Trust was carrying out a free health care outreach, which began on Monday, said that the programme was open to any patient who showed up regardless of their ethnicity.
He recalled that that was the second time the Trust was embarking on a free health care campaign for patients suffering from various ailments like eye, tooth. WatchmanPost noticed hundreds of patients including children, the elderly, pregnant women, and adult men being attended to by medical doctors and other medics conducting laboratory, oral, and eye tests.
Chief Anwana, a former secretary to Mbo Local Government Council, noted that although EMOIMEE Host Community Development Trust was not the only one in the area, it was “the only one really on ground.”
He explained that the visibility of the body was because it was funded by Seplat Energy, the biggest energy player in the area. “EMOIMEE is the most pronounced because their cash portfolio is larger”, he explained.
But he said more, “The PIA was signed into law since 2021. We are now in 2025, which should mark the end of the budgetary cycle. These other companies cannot say that they don’t have the funds to implement that law.”
The Secretary of Enwang Council of Chiefs then called on the communities to raise the alarm to get the companies sit up and do the needful.
The community leader stated that other oil companies in the area include Moni Pulo, which he said did some work in the community; Savannah, former Addax, Oriental, which also have Development Trusts, but that so far, EMOIMEE was ahead in community engagement and development.
“About last month, EMOIMEE held a stakeholders’ meeting where they briefed the people on their activities, but other oil companies here are yet to do so.
We are yet to hear from Total that is here too”, Anwana observed.
He commended the framers of the Petroleum Industry Act 2021 for making it mandatory for oil companies to relate directly with the host communities, a clear departure from the situation before.
Given the restructuring of school and health structures being undertaken by host community trusts, Chief Anwana called on the communities to take ownership of the facilities and ensure that they were not vandalised.
To the Trusts, he called for constant community engagements to help both parties stay on the same development page to ensure sustainability of the projects and programmes they are funding.
