The 2015 presidential candidate of National Conscience Party, Martin Onovo, who is also Head, Policy Positions, Movement for Fundamental Change, in this interview with AUGUSTINE AVWODE, condemns the recent Petroleum Industry Act, describing it as sectional and wasteful. He also blames the underperforming energy sector in the country on corruption and inefficiency. He asserts that to get stable power supply, Nigeria must tackle corruption, mediocrity and inefficiency. Excerpts:
At the risk of over-flogging the PIA, what is your general opinion about it?
The original purpose of the PIA was to have a single body of updated laws for the petroleum industry and to improve government revenue from the industry. This was perverted in the version enacted by the National Assembly which President Muhammadu Buhari has signed into law. It does not meet the expectations of most Nigerians. It is unpatriotic, sectional and wasteful. It has also quietly removed subsidies on petroleum products. This is very corrupt and will lead to macro-economic instability. On the host community fund, the three per cent passed by the Senate/House of Representatives is inadequate and has been rejected by both the Pan Niger Delta Forum and Ijaw National Congress. The 30 per cent of NNPC Ltd’s profit passed as frontier exploration fund is extremely wasteful. Recall that it was President Buhari, who also in 1984–85, wasted a lot of national resources on exploration in the Chad basin area. And in the last six years, he again wasted a lot of resources on the same unproductive venture. Now the PIA has now institutionalised the waste with this his unpatriotic version of the PIB. We reject the Act as passed because it will cause a national crisis, disunity, and waste. It will also subvert productivity in the oil industry.
The host communities in the Niger Delta have continued to kick; do you think the Act was fair to these people who have borne the brunt of oil exploration in the country since 1956?
The Act is clearly unfair to host communities. Justice requires remedy. The pollution, dislocations, disruptions and deprivations in the host communities need to be remedied. The process of developing the PIA was an opportunity to recognize the injustice against host communities and enhance the remedies but the Buhari administration seems to have other priorities and so has wasted this opportunity.
The issue of periodic electricity tariff hikes has been a problem for most consumers. What is your take on this development and what can Nigeria do to get a stable power supply?
Nigeria has become like an Augean stable with multiple layers of corruption and rot in all sectors. Like Hercules diverted the river to clean the stables, Nigeria requires “Fundamental Change.” There are many issues. The privatization of GENCOs (generation companies) and DISCOs (distribution companies), was clearly irregular. Many of the companies that benefitted are SPVs (Special Purpose Vehicles) without relevant technical and financial capacity. There is endemic corruption and inefficiency particularly in the DISCOs. Supply is inadequate and there is electricity theft by some consumers in collusion with corrupt DISCO officials. Supply is inadequate principally because of the limited capacity of our national transmission infrastructure and this is further complicated by DISCOs that reject power and then inflate estimated bills to exploit consumers. Estimated billings as practiced currently with inflated consumption are clearly fraudulent. Macro-economic inflation is also an issue. Inflation and consequent devaluation of the Naira will certainly cause a hike in costs and consequently in tariff. Our Naira that was N197/$ in 2015 is now N530/$. So, costs in Naira must rise. To get stable power supply, we need to control corruption, mediocrity and inefficiency. Then, we must improve generation, transmission and distribution capacities appropriately.
“The Act is clearly unfair to host communities. Justice requires remedy. The pollution, dislocations, disruptions and deprivations in the host communities need to be remedied”
How would you describe the performance of Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission?
Results do not lie. The NERC has not achieved the results it was established to achieve. This may be due to the incompetent and corrupt political leadership. An appropriate comprehensive analysis of the performance of the NERC can identify the root cause of the poor performance of the NERC.
Do you foresee the emergence of a new mega party as the country trudges towards 2023?
Any group of Nigerians has a right in our laws to form a new party. We must always foresee the emergence of new parties. We are aware of some groups that are currently planning to register new parties.
Recently, the Chief Justice of Nigeria had cause to invite six state chief judges over the issuance of ex-parte orders in their jurisdictions. Who should we blame for the embarrassment, the politicians, the lawyers, the litigants or the judges?
Definitely the judges should be blamed as they gave the ex-parte orders. Starting with our judges, we must all take responsibility for our actions. The judges know the law; they know their ‘Code of Conduct’ and they should comply. Judges must hold very high ethical standards and must be disciplined by the judicial system for any violations. We commend the CJN for inviting the six state Chief Judges because, justice is fundamental to peace and progress in any country. A judge should know that. We expect disciplinary actions against any judge that violates any rule. A warning or demotion may be appropriate disciplinary action for minor violations since we do not have enough judges.
What in your opinion should be done to curtail the spate of insecurity in the country?
As suggested by Commodore Kunle Olawunmi (rtd), we must also attack the sponsors of insecurity in Nigeria as we attack their terrorist militia. Security agencies should dig into who could be behind these terrorists and once discovered should be dealt with according to the laws of the land. By attacking both the sponsors and their terrorist militia, we can curtail insecurity and terrorism in Nigeria.
