Community relation strategies and sustainable development: a study of Shell Petroleum Development Company Limited (SPDC) and her host communities in Bayelsa State, Nigeria

Abstract

The objective of the study was to investigate and assess the community relations strategies (CRS) and sustainable development (SD) of Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) and their host communities in Bayelsa state. The study adopted the marginality and mattering theory (MMT) proposed by Schlossberg (1989), as theoretical underpinning for understanding community relation strategies and sustainable development particularly marginalized SPDC host communities in Bayelsa state, and applied descriptive survey research design to generate data. It was reinforced by secondary sources.  The study finds that SPDC has not imparted positively to the sustainable development of the host communities in Bayelsa state compared to the negative consequences rising from the exploitation and exploration of oil and gas activities in their host communities, which include: environmental pollution, oil spillage, unemployment, destruction of farmland and other forms of degradation. It also reveals that even the little efforts put towards host community’s development projects such as Scholarships, health centre construction/maintenance, school renovations, link road construction, market construction, portable water and electricity supplies, etc, have not been sustained after at least six months of commissioning. Despite this, SPDC's relationship with her host communities has been tense. Thus recommend that government and SPDC should implement capacity-building programmes, assure full community engagement in need identification, and devise measures to foster peace and harmony within SPDC's host communities’ operation to takes place.