The Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) and the National Youth Council of Ogoni People (NYCOP) have protested their exclusion from the public hearing on pipeline surveillance contracts held by the joint Senate and House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum (Downstream) on Saturday. Dr Theophilus Alaye, President of the IYC, stated that the absence of host community representatives undermined transparency and accountability in the management of petroleum resources. The groups described the omission as a continuation of systemic marginalisation of communities most affected by oil exploration activities. They insisted that any investigation into pipeline surveillance contracts must include voices from impacted regions, particularly in the Niger Delta. The joint legislative committee had convened the hearing to scrutinise contracts awarded under the National Pipeline Monitoring and Surveillance System. Alaye stressed that host communities bear the environmental and security consequences of pipeline vandalism and oil theft but are routinely left out of oversight processes. The IYC, NYCOP, and allied stakeholders demanded immediate inclusion in subsequent sessions of the probe.
Dr Theophilus Alaye's public rebuke of the legislative committee's exclusion of host communities cuts to the core of a long-standing imbalance in Nigeria's oil governance—those most affected by pipeline operations have the least say in how they are monitored or managed. The fact that the Ijaw Youth Council and the National Youth Council of Ogoni People were absent from a hearing on surveillance contracts—despite living with the fallout of pipeline vandalism daily—exposes a performative approach to inclusion in resource politics.
This is not merely about access to a hearing; it reflects a deeper pattern where policy decisions on Niger Delta infrastructure are made without engaging the very people who face the brunt of environmental degradation, military crackdowns, and economic neglect. The joint committee's oversight of the National Pipeline Monitoring and Surveillance System cannot be credible if it ignores the communities where these pipelines run underground and where surveillance footage originates.
For residents of Ogoni and Ijaw communities, this exclusion means continued vulnerability without recourse. Their livelihoods depend on land and water systems routinely damaged by oil spills, yet they remain outside discussions on tools meant to protect those same systems. This incident fits a broader trend: technical interventions in the Niger Delta are designed in Abuja or Port Harcourt, far from the realities of the creeks and villages they are meant to serve.
