Yenagoa, Bayelsa State – In a powerful and uncompromising address that sent shockwaves through Nigeria’s oil and gas industry, Senator Joel-Onowakpo Thomas, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Local Content, declared that the era of superficial adherence to local content laws is over. Speaking at the 14th Annual Practical Nigerian Content (PNC) Forum on Tuesday, the lawmaker warned international oil companies (IOCs), service providers, and even regulatory bodies that the Nigerian Senate is now fully committed to strict, measurable, and verifiable enforcement of the country’s local content legislation.
“The days of paper compliance are gone forever,” Senator Joel-Onowakpo thundered before a packed audience of lawmakers, industry executives, government officials, and international partners. “We have moved into a new dispensation where local content will no longer be treated as a mere suggestion or public-relations exercise. It will be enforced with the full weight of the law.”
Held under the timely theme “Securing Investments, Strengthening Local Content, and Scaling Energy Production,” the four-day forum provided the perfect platform for the Senate to signal its aggressive new posture. Senator Joel-Onowakpo was joined on the high table by Vice Chairman of the Committee Senator Ede Dafinone, as well as committee members Senator Abdul Ningi, Senator Sharafadeen Abiodun Alli, and Senator Victor Umeh. Also present were top officials from the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), and executives from major oil companies.
The senator expressed profound gratitude to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for placing local content at the heart of the Renewed Hope Agenda. He described the administration’s deliberate policy shift toward empowering indigenous companies and workers as the strongest political backing the local content crusade has ever received from the presidency.
Yet beneath the appreciation lay deep frustration. Despite 65 years of commercial oil production and the passage of the landmark Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act in 2010, Nigeria still lags embarrassingly behind countries like Brazil, Norway, and Malaysia in building genuine in-country capacity.
“Sixty-five years after oil was discovered in Oloibiri, we are still importing basic fabrication services, still flying in expatriates for jobs Nigerians are perfectly qualified to do, and still watching billions of dollars leave our economy because operators treat local content as an inconvenience rather than a legal obligation,” Senator Joel-Onowakpo lamented. “This forum must mark a turning point. If we are serious about attracting investment and scaling energy production, we must first fix this systemic failure.”
To that end, he revealed that the Senate Committee has already begun a comprehensive forensic review of all local content plans, compliance reports, waiver applications, and performance records submitted by operators over the past decade. The findings, he hinted, are alarming.
Specific cases of alleged violations were laid bare. Chevron Nigeria Limited came under direct scrutiny for reportedly appointing an expatriate as Director of Procurement – a strategic position previously occupied by a competent Nigerian. Sahara Group was accused of refusing to remit the mandatory 1% Human Capital Development levy, while other operators were alleged to be diverting funds meant for training Nigerians into unrelated or personal ventures.
Perhaps most damning were reports that some companies continue to sideline qualified Nigerians in senior management roles, technical positions, and multi-million-dollar contract awards, in clear breach of the law.
Senator Joel-Onowakpo issued a chilling warning: “Wherever we find negligence, deliberate sabotage, or outright violation of the law, we will act decisively. Companies will be summoned. Regulators who look the other way will be invited to explain themselves. Investigative public hearings will be convened. No one is untouchable.”
He particularly condemned the widespread abuse of the Human Capital Development (HCD) fund, which legally requires operators to dedicate between 1–3% of any project valued above one million dollars to training and empowering Nigerians.
“This money is not decoration,” he stressed. “It is how nations build world-class engineers, fabricators, welders, geologists, and technology experts. Token workshops and a few certificates will no longer be accepted. We want measurable, verifiable capacity that translates into jobs, innovation, and economic sovereignty.”
In a move clearly designed to keep the industry on its toes, the senator announced a new whistleblower framework in partnership with the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC). Companies found undermining local content laws or exploiting Nigerian workers will be publicly named and shamed.
He reminded operators of the three unbreakable pillars of Nigeria’s local content policy: the NOGICD Act of 2010, Presidential Executive Order 5 of 2018, and the Nigeria First Policy introduced in 2025. Together, these instruments mandate the prioritisation of Nigerian companies in contract awards, the rapid Nigerianisation of senior positions (Sections 28–37 of the Act require critical roles to be fully localised within four years), and the compulsory transfer of technology and skills.
To make reporting violations easier, the Committee launched multiple dedicated channels: the website www.senatechairmanlocalcontent.ng, email addresses complaints@senatechairmanlocalcontent.ng and whistleblower@senatechairmanlocalcontent.ng, and hotlines 08050934767 and 08051022462.
Senator Joel-Onowakpo was careful to emphasise that the Senate’s tough stance is not anti-investment. “We want investors to come. We want partnerships to flourish. But those partnerships must be rooted in mutual respect for Nigerian laws and Nigerian people,” he clarified. “A Nigeria where billions are made but our youths remain unemployed is neither sustainable nor acceptable.”
He placed the blame for persistent youth unemployment squarely on operators who flout local content rules, insisting that the federal government cannot be held responsible when legally mandated opportunities are deliberately denied to citizens.
“Never again,” he declared to thunderous applause, “will jobs meant for Nigerians be handed to expatriates while our graduates roam the streets. Never again will contracts that should build Nigerian companies be shipped offshore. Everyone has a role to play, and everyone will be held accountable.”
As the 14th Practical Nigerian Content Forum drew to a close, stakeholders rose in unison to renew their commitment to deeper collaboration, stronger industrial capacity, and the defence of Nigeria’s economic sovereignty. But the unmistakable message from the Senate was clear: the rules have changed, the watchdog is now fully awake, and the consequences for non-compliance will be swift, transparent, and severe.
For an industry long accustomed to bending rules, Senator Joel-Onowakpo’s address marked the beginning of a new, uncompromising chapter in Nigeria’s quest to finally make local content a lived reality rather than an oft-quoted slogan.
