|
|
| |
| Shell Petroleum Development Company's Poverty Alleviation Programmes and the Restiveness in Bonny Rivers State, Nigeria |
Virgilus I. Nwokeke & Frank-Collins N. Okafor PhD
|
Abstract:
The restiveness in Bonny Local Government Area of Rivers State has become worrisome. This is due to the inability of Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) to render satisfactory Corporate Social Responsibility in the area, through the provision of Poverty Alleviation Initiatives like Skills Acquisition Centres and other economic empowerment programmes after destroying their means of livelihood of farming and fishing through oil exploration activities. The study examined SPDC's Corporate Social Responsibility in terms of poverty alleviation and the Spate of restiveness in Bonny. To generate credible data for proper interrogation of the problem, primary and secondary sources were adopted. Thus, an accessible population of ten communities in Bonny was randomly selected and studied. The data were analysed using mean values to answer the research questions while the hypotheses were tested using the Pearson's Product Moment Correlation Coefficient at 0.05 level of significance. The study observed that the oil exploration of SPDC caused untold hardship to the means of livelihoods of Bonny people including their farming and fishing occupations, and this led to the poverty state of the people especially when SPDC never put any contingencies programmes to cushion the poverty effects of their oil activities on the people. This led to the restiveness of the youths, hence, there were cases of Kidnapping, hostage taking, and pipeline vandalisation and so on in Bonny. The study has recommended that SPDC should improve on its welfare packages to the people of Bonny by ensuring the employment of the indigenes, putting in place poverty alleviation initiatives like skills acquisition and other empowerment programs to avoid kidnapping, hostage taking, pipeline vandalisation etc. in Bonny.
|
|
|
| | |