BY OIKONOMIA WITH LEKAN SOTE
So the management of Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (now Company Limited) had been lying to their employers, the downtrodden masses of Nigeria who have been paying them fabulous remunerations?
The poor Nigerians have also been indulging the perennial inability of the management to effectively run the “daku daji,” (epileptic) three-and-one-half petroleum refineries with huge sums of money for Turnaround Maintenances that seems were never carried out.
Last year the Federal Government, headed by the President, Muhammadu Buhari, approved a $1.65 billion for an umpteenth TAM that no one has yet confirmed has been carried out. And no production has yet been reported after the TAM.
It appears that those who work in NNPC are in cahoots with the metropolitan powers not to run the refineries in a way to be productive, which makes one think that maybe everyone in NNPC should be regarded and treated as economic saboteurs.
How can well-trained high caliber technical and managerial personnel report for duty and register nil production every day? It’s simply unconscionable, unacceptable and unforgivable.
Nigerians have proved to be just a bunch of sado-masochists, who willingly allow heartless bureaucrats to take them for a ride, just because they are unwilling to wield the big stick of discipline for unpardonable errors of omission and commission.
The Management of NNPC had been giving Nigerians the impression that it was importing petroleum products by itself, and had put a stop to handing petroleum import licences to members of the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria and some unknown Independents.
Until the recent situation was fouled up by the gross negligence of importing adulterated petrol that has continued to knock the engines of automobiles, NNPC kept sealed lips about the identities of the importers of the petrol.
The question that right-thinking Nigerians should have hitherto been asking is who got paid the subsidy or under-recoveries of cost of importation of petroleum products if NNPC was directly importing the product?
Now the wind has blown open the derriere of the hen. Everyone now knows that some faceless individuals, who some guess, used to be denizens of NNPC, are the beneficiaries of the import licences and the subsidy that had been paid all along.
“Shouldn’t the Minister of State, Sylva, who was once a State Governor and Kyari have resigned by now? By their joint omission or commission, they embarrassed the President who thought they were up to the task he delegated to them”
Another question that some people would like to ask is if the Honourable Minister of Petroleum Resources, who happens to be President and Commander-in-Chief Muhammadu Buhari, was aware of this deceit all along or not?
Either way, he is not appearing too good at all: If he knew about the deceit all along and condoned it then he is not the mai gaskiya that he gave Nigerians that impression he was. And if he didn’t know, then he was not paying judicious notice of the schedule he voluntarily undertook.
That leads to the old argument that he shouldn’t have awarded himself the portfolio of the Minister Petroleum Resources. In the first place, because his intention of reviving the economy, battling corruption and overcoming insecurity, is too onerous and would not allow him to pay full attention to the petroleum resources portfolio.
It also drags out the monster of an argument that Minister of Information and Culture Lai Mohammed should only be considered a propagandist and not a liar, like the NNPC crew.
Surely, Mr. Lai will not agree that he is in the company of those with the moral issue of lying to unprotected, unwary citizens of this great country that Lord Frederick Lugard’s concubine, Flora Shaw, chose to christen Nigeria because it is in the area of the Niger River.
Yoruba culture wouldn’t allow an octogenarian to be regarded as a member of Lie Hall of Shame, even if he is a member of the triumvirate of czars of the Petroleum Resources Ministry that deliberately sold a dummy to Nigerians.
See how Minister of Petroleum Resources Buhari and his subordinate Minister of State for Petroleum Resources Timipre Sylva have allowed Mele Kyari, PhD, to mess them up with his fumbling and unnecessary begging which he thinks is an accelerating excuse.
Shouldn’t the Minister of State, Sylva, who was once a State Governor and Kyari have resigned by now? By their joint omission or commission, they embarrassed the President who thought they were up to the task he delegated to them.
See how NNPC management blurted out the names of the culprits that imported the adulterated petrol, to avoid blame, and announced that NNPC would incur N201 billion good money to “wash” the adulterated fuel. This should be the responsibility of the importers.
Kyari was looking pitiful as he went about the unpleasant business of confessing his sin of lying to Nigerians and justifiably taking the flak for the fault of his “contractors.”
Following is the unimpressive story he was reported to have spun: “(NNPC is) a law-abiding company. There is no way we could have known about the methanol presence.
“The only way we could have known about it is if our suppliers, in good faith, made the disclosure to us. In this particular instance, the discovery was made by our inspection agents who noticed the emulsification at the filling stations and brought it to our attention.” Was there a pre-shipment inspection?
It is regrettable that despite the boasts of fewer petrol shortages under the tenure of President Buhari (a point which no one can really argue with), Nigeria does not have a strategic reserve to cushion the scarcity caused by the adulterated petrol.
An unconfirmed report indicates that the Federal Government spent N3 trillion to import subsidized petrol and spent another N69 billion to pay idle workers of the government-owned refineries in the last 15 years.
Daily Times newspaper edition of Tuesday, 7th June 1976, has a screaming headline, “Fuel Crisis May Be Over Next Year,” meaning that it would take another year before petrol is permanently available in Nigeria. Colonel Muhammadu Buhari was Minister of Petroleum Resources at that time.
Alas, 45 long years after, with the same Buhari, now a retired Major General, as Minister of Petroleum Resources, and President of the Federation, the truth is that it is not yet Uhuru.
Nigerians are made to unnecessarily suffer petrol scarcity and the plague of buying adulterated petrol that knocks the engine of their automobiles and their “I-Better-Pass-My’ Neighbour electricity generators.
Lasisi Olagunju, Nigerian Tribune Columnist, is of the opinion that “We can only help ourselves, going forward, by restructuring the country and rebuilding its decrepit vital institutions for stricter monitoring and better accountability.”
This suggests that the problems of Nigeria are systemic and institutional and can only be corrected by mending the system. You remember the sociological argument that structure determines the function of an entity.
Well, a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation during the military days once told Nigeria Television Authority interviewers that the government was mere propaganda that is not actually expected to do much for the citizens.
It is increasingly appearing to be confirmed as the empirical evidence that is available shows. It looks as if the DNA of the government in Nigeria has been skewed to punish the citizens with nil governance.
This kind of mentality or worldview informs the belief, attitude and conduct of Nigeria’s state actors. And it doesn’t look as if it will end soon.
