The 4th Oilwatch General Assembly held in the city of Quito in Ecuador on the 23rd and 24th of July, 2011. The conference comprised delegates from Africa, Asia and Soutn America. The epochal assembly followed the heels of a well attended international conference titled "New Global Hegemonies - Same Old Problem?". The conference was co-hosted by Rosa Luxemburg Foundation and Oilwatch.
The assembly affirmed that the network is expressly opposed to the continuation of the mode of civilisation driven by the use of fossil fuels. The network is undertaking a detailed study of the roots and consequences of the oil/fossil fuels civilisation. We are also looking at the idea of concrete alternatives.

The fourth Oilwatch General Assembly gathered in Quito on the 23^rd and 24 ^rd of July, 2011:  

Recognizing:

That we are living in a planetary crisis without precedent in the history of humanity, that in many ways it is already a catastrophic situation that demands global actions and commitments;

That this crisis is not just a financial or environmental crisis, it is an industrial, climatic, social and political crisis, and that therefore the solutions cannot be restricted to just one sphere;

Throughout Africa, oil has correlated with imperial subjugation, local authoritarianism and flagrant human rights abuses. It is now no longer in doubt that there are absolutely no guarantees that extractive activities are safe. One accident could jeopardise an entire ecosystem. It has been common knowledge in many oil bearing communities in Africa that the discovery of oil in a local community is akin to a declaration of full-fledged war on such a community.

“The energy and climate crisis cannot be solved unless grassroots movements are able to abolish the current economic, political and social order and build non-capitalist, egalitarian and participatory societies. We cannot expect governments to do this.... We can build our own energy systems—for the common good, not for private profit. We have the tools and the experience. It
can be done. It depends on us.”—from the Introduction

The Nigerian oil sector must be one of the sectors that tolerates blatant disregard for transparency in the land. Being a mono-product economy and depending so much on foreign expertise, technology and dictates opens the sector to peculiar challenges than should be the case.
A reading of the 2005 Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative's (NEITI) audit report reveals three interesting things. One of them is that the Niger Delta Development Commission (NNDC) claimed to have received more money than it was given. There must be more miracles lurking in the accounting books of the NNDC. Remember that in their 2010 budget, they had a chicken-change sum of N90m for staff marriages and bereavements! The commission defended the outrageous budgetary allocation on the grounds that it was dictated by emotional intelligence. Peculiar intelligence, one would say.