Date Published: 02/16/10

The Big Conspiracy By Oluti Ajibola

The antics of our rulers would never cease to amuse me. When they take unpopular action, they justify it in term of national interest. Even when we are aware of whose interest their action is to serve, they keep telling us it in our collective interest. The planned removal of petroleum subsidy is a case in point.

When the god of Ota removed the subsidy on D.P.K (kerosene) and A.G.O (diesel) some years back, we pretended as if nothing happened because we erroneously believed the removal would not affect us directly.  We were wrong. We use kerosene to cook; at least most of us do. Our industries because of the inefficiency of our almighty NEPA (I would not dignify them by calling them any other name) depend exclusively on diesel for the day-to-day running of their businesses. This resulted in increase in prices of all their products.

Our I-don’t-care attitude emboldened the government. They now want to remove the subsidy on the remaining product- P.M.S. Because of our inability as a pigmy of Africa to refine our own petroleum products, the cost of our petroleum products is tied to the international price of crude oil. Is it not funny that one of the largest producers of crude oil in the world (no.5?) cannot refine for their domestic consumption? While some of the OPEC countries now export refined crude, we continue to import these products. I am ashamed to be a Nigerian.

The so-called subsidy is the equalization fund set up to enable petroleum product sell at the same price irrespective of the point of production or import to the point of delivery. When the major marketers were in full control, they had railway coaches, which they used to move these products from one point to the other. No sooner the Muritala government compulsorily acquired controlling shares in these companies than things started to fall apart.

The first casualty of their warped indigenization decree was the dearth of the coaches. Trailers whose controlling ownership is from a section of the country took over.

The government introduced the bridging claim, which they pay to the transporters of these products. The amount paid for a litre of fuel is determined by the distance to the delivery point from the point of lifting. This sometimes runs into thousands of Naira for a truckload of 33,000 litres. Transporting petroleum products became big business for the Chachangi of this world. The transporters presents this claim to the marketers who in turn present a thoroughly padded account to the P.P.M.C for payment. It is non-payment of this claim by the PPMC to the marketers they told us was responsible for the recent face off between the two.

This is a lie. Even though the central bank queried the rational behind the 75 billion the marketers claimed the P.E.F (a section under the PPMC) owes them, and the major marketers vowing not to import a drop of oil until they were paid, the reason behind the recent scarcity is far from this. All these theatrics is for the benefit of the gullible Nigerian masses.

The government is eager to remove the subsidy on petrol, which runs into billions of Naira every year. The marketers agreed with the government because they will be able to fix the price of the product.  Forget the lie the N.N.P.C is peddling that removal of subsidy on petrol will bring down the price. The price of petrol will go as high as N200 within a month after deregulation.

 What the government did was to tell the marketers to stop importing. N.N.P.C also reduced what they were importing. This was why the queue in the filling stations refused to disappear until recently. Their reasoning is simple. Nigerians would be so frustrated that they would prefer deregulation to scarcity. Has anyone ever wondered why every filling station was selling at N80? Did I hear someone saying NNPC stations sells at N65? Only those who were not in hurry to get somewhere were buying from NNPC stations. People said government should do whatever they want to do and let them get on with their lives.

The absence of Yar’adua as some people were speculating has nothing to do with the resent crises in the petroleum industry. It was artificially induced. The current reversal to the status quo has nothing to do with the recent ascendancy of Goodluck to the state house either. Very soon the deregulation drum will start beating again; the scarcity will come back in full force. The power cabal has decided deregulation is the only way to impoverish us further and so it must be. They would tell the new man that governance would come to a halt if the down stream sector is not deregulated. He would have no choice but to agree because he is a product of the party that has nothing good to offer this country.

I am in total support of deregulation but government has to put some things in place first. Deregulating now without fixing the refineries and building new ones will lead to intolerable hardship for the masses. The price of petrol in Nigeria should not be more than N30-40 if NNPC sell to local refineries at a cost a little higher than the cost of producing a barrel of crude oil.  I should know because I worked for more than 30 years in the petroleum industry. Our marketers prefer to import these products because they’ll invest little and made more money that way. They own most of the overseas refineries anyway.

 Because we import these products, our rulers toying with deregulation now is like holding a tiger by its tail. There is clear and present anger in the land which our see no evil; hear no evil rulers are missing. This new policy will consume them when they finally put it in place. Why has no single refinery been build years after Onasanjo regime issued out more than fifty licences? It is because some of our so-called leaders own most of the oversea refineries where they refine these products. Until we dispense with many of these parasites in our society, this country will continue to wobble and fumble even after 2020.

What is the way out of this quagmire?  Our leaders knows the only way to solve the present problem is to deregulate. They are eager to do this but they are not ready to put in place what will not make deregulation a nightmare for the masses. As long as they are not ready to do what the NLC demanded, their deregulation when implemented would become their nemesis.

These demands are the necessities we should not even be discussing after 50 years of independence. What is the big deal about asking the government to provide at least 18 hours of uninterrupted power supply when Ghana is already enjoying 24 hours? What is wrong in demanding the government stop importation of petroleum products by fixing our refineries and building new one or asking for N55, 000 minimum wages? The minimum take-home-pay of our lawbreakers in Abuja minus the Ghana-must-go I read somewhere is at least N100 million Naira a year!

Our government can fix our electricity problem under one year if they are willing to lay politics aside as advised by Ghanaian Energy Minister recently when he came here for a symposium. All they need do is allow each state that can do so generate their own electricity. When the Tinubu government mooted the idea, Obasanjo and his PDP frustrated it. See what I mean?  Government should withdraw licences given out to build new refineries from anyone who has not started utilizing the licences by now. The beneficiaries of the present petroleum import dependence will never rock the boat. Government should issue new licences to interested state government and individuals that are not major importer of petroleum products.  Simple isnt it?