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 Daily Independent Online.
* Monday, August 09, 2004.
Britain eyes Niger Delta for
oil supply
By
Shola Ogunode
Reporter, Lagos
Oil
from the Niger Delta may account for 10 per cent of energy supplies to
the United Kingdom in the next few years, raising further the profile of
the region in Nigeria’s income generation.
“This
explains our special interest in the Niger Delta,” the British High
Commissioner to Nigeria, Richard Gozney, said in an interview at the
weekend.
He
said given the fact that the Delta generates the greater part of
Nigeria’s foreign exchange and that Shell, the largest oil company
operating there, has quite a number of British workers, “it is enough
reason for us to take special interest in Delta. Within the next few
years, as Britain’s own oil under the low seas begins to dry up and reduce,
we may be dependent on Niger Delta oil for up to 10 per cent of our
energy supply”.
Gozney
expressed the hope that the development would be an economic advantage
for Nigeria as, in the years ahead, oil and gas from the region would
become an issue of energy security. “This is the trade people use these
days for economic security with Britain.”
He
linked Nigeria’s image problem to the issues the embassy tackles daily
from dishonest visa applicants.
“About
20 per cent of applicants present fake documents and about another 10 per
cent, in our judgment, are not telling the whole truth. It is terrible
but that’s the truth. Now, if we allow these 30 per cent easy access into
the UK, it will continue to affect the already damaged image of the
country that President Obasanjo is putting in every efforts to salvage,”
he said.
Gozney
said plans are underway to improve living standards in Nigeria’s Northern
region, especially in child literacy, saying: “We haven’t looked to the
North as much as we had liked. We have done considerably more in the
South given the fact that the seat of power was in the Southern part of
the country for a great while”.
He
plans to foster a better relationship between British and Nigerian
Muslims in the North, especially at the professional level.
“We
perhaps want to make use of British Moslems who have become an important
minority of the British population. It might be quite interesting if we
bring a few of them who are parliament members to interact with the local
government councils, lawyers, academics and other professionals,” he
added.
However,
“it is not about being Moslems, but about their professions, about local
government politics”.
He
advised the Federal Government to pursue the repatriation of the �600
million (N150 billion) allegedly stashed in British banks by the late
Head of State, General Sani Abacha.
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