A management staff of Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Dr. Obinna Joseph Ezeobi has made public his book titled “Nigeria’s Local Content: A Journey of Strategic Communication and Economic Transformation”.
The unveiling of the book is coming on the heels of stakeholders in the Nigerian oil and gas industry gearing up to mark 15 years of the enactment and implementation of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act.
Among other things, the new book captures some of the thrills and highlights of the Federal Government local content policy over the years.
It also provides a detailed account of how deft communication initiatives, skillful stakeholders management strategies and effective collaboration among key players in the oil sector played pivotal roles in propagating and advancing Nigeria’s local content policy, making it a national agenda, and influencing several countries across the African continent
Not a few notable personalities in the Nigerian and African energy sector have endorsed the book. They include the pioneer Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Dr. Ernest Nwapa who penned a riveting foreword for the book, the Secretary General of the African Petroleum Producers Organisation (APPO), Dr. Omar Farouk Ibrahim, as well as the Chairman of Oildata Group, and former Chairman of the Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria (PETAN), Engr. Emeka Ene.
They hailed Ezeobi for chronicling some of the local content success stories just as they stressed how advocacy and stakeholder management played important roles in Nigeria’s local content journey.
Apparently drawing from his experience in the media, the book is written in fast-paced and easy to access vocabularies that have attracted it to many readers, especially policy makers and local content enthusiasts across the continent and beyond.
A statement issued by the author and made available to Maritime Bits stated that copies of the book have been received by the Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Engr. Felix Omatsola Ogbe; Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Gas), Right Hon. Ekperikpe Ekpo; and the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Senator Heineken October Lokpobiri.
They commended the author for his efforts in documenting and projecting the local content story just as they lauded the aesthetics and quality of the book.
The book has 267 pages, split in five parts, each section focusing on different but related themes such the evolution of oil and gas industry and local content, as well as contemporary issues like impact of oil companies’ divestments and Presidential Directives on local content development.
Some of the unique segments include the case studies on the Nigerian content 10-year strategic roadmap and key Nigerian content initiatives, and how the initiatives were enabled by strategic communication and stakeholder engagement. The book closes with a treatise on local content compliance and enforcement and findings from an empirical study on the impact of Nigerian content communications on compliance by oil and gas companies.
Apart from his author’s media background, Ezeobi also drew experiences and exposure from his career at the NCDMB, as well as his doctoral studies in Energy Communication.
Giving reasons for the writing book, Ezeobi who is a pioneer staff of NCDMB stated that the Nigerian Content Act is one of the most impactful and transformational legislations since Nigeria’s return to democracy in 1999
He attributed this to how NCDMB and its key partners deployed public communication and stakeholders management initiatives in the implementation process.
Ezeobi, a Deputy Director in the commission, said he was inspired to document and tell the remarkable local content story from the perspective of communication and stakeholder management, having played key roles in conceptualizing and implementing the impactful strategies since the agency’s inception in 2010.
The book is targeted at broad target audiences, cutting across oil and gas players, local content actors, communication professionals and scholars, regulatory agencies, development partners, host community members, and historians. The author hopes the book would help various strata of oil and gas stakeholders to better understand the local content policy, learn how the models are implemented and communicated and replicate them where possible.
According to him, this would ensure as Dr. Omar Farouk Ibrahim indicated in his endorsement of the book that “we derive maximum value from our natural resources, create jobs for our people and develop our economies”. Copies can be obtained in Nigeria from the publishers, Four Point Communications.
It is on record that not too long ago, Ezeobi successfully defended his thesis that earned him a doctorate degree in Communication Studies at the University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
At the external examination conducted by renowned academics, he successfully defended his dissertation titled “Nigerian Oil and Gas Content Communication Campaigns and Selected Oil Companies’ Awareness and Compliance.”
