By: Ifeanyi Izeze
Thedifference in meaning between the two words finish and complete is
mosttimes confusing but can be made clearer using the current Nigerian
Presidency.Thus, when a country is ruled by a president who trumpets his
impeccableintegrity as unmatched but at the same time turns blind eyes to
the glaringmisdemeanour of his appointees in conducts that depict
undeniable corruption,that country is finished. Worse still, when the Mr
integrity pretends not toeven be aware of the level of sleaze by his men,
the country is thencompletely finished.
The first step to findingsolutions to any problem is to first agree that
indeed there is a problem.Living in denial will only complicate the
situation and thats exactly what wehave in our hands today in this fuel
subsidy scam. Ofcourse, thisis what you get when a president is not aware
of a single thing in hisgovernment even in his presidency.
How do you explain that the MohammaduBuhari-led government that came
telling us it has stopped all forms of subsidypayments on petroleum
products has been secretly doling out over N1.4 trillionannually as
subsidy on petrol alone to oil contractors and their cronies in theNNPC
and the Presidency? Interestingly,they have given the scam a new English
name- Under-recovery. Its longer fuelsubsidy. Up Naija!
It is very clearthat President Buhari will not rid his government of the
scourge of corruptionuntil he actually understands what is going on
especially the harm beinginflicted on our commonwealth. Do we need anyone
to say before we agree that The Buhari Presidency istolerating and
enabling dictatorial kleptocracy in the nations apex oilconcern where his
Chief of Staff also serves as a commanding board member ofcourse as ogas
eyes in the business?
Lastweek Thursday, April 5 2018, The Minister of State for Petroleum
Resources, IbeKachikwu, while speaking at a Liquefied Petroleum Gas
workshop organised by theFederal Ministry of Petroleum Resources in Abuja
said the NNPC was spendingenormous resources subsidising petrol to the
tune of over N1.4 trillionannually up from the very few hundred billions
as at 2015 when this governmentcame into office.
Interestingly,the government stated that the NNPC had been shouldering the
huge financial under-recoveryburden, because the state oil firm is the
countrys supplier of last resortwhen it comes to the provision of
petroleum products. The minister was quickhowever, to add that the
under-recovery is being addressed at very highlevels whatever that
means.
Themonies funding this scam, where does NNPC get it from? What has stopped
ourrepresentatives at the National Assembly from asking the
NNPC/Presidency toexplain the sources of this over N1.4 trillion annual
dole as such monies werenever provided either in the NNPC budgets or even
the National Budgets? How canwe continue like this as a country?
They have told us differentthings at different times as concerns the
pricing governance from partial tototal deregulation and now to the
current jargon of price modulationwhatever that means. If the government
as they told us had moved from a fullysubsidy-based sector to a partially
liberalised sector, why is the subsidy billskyrocketing instead of coming
down? How do you explain the astronomicalincrease from few hundreds of
billions as at 2015 to over N1.4 trillion as we have it today?
The summary of the ministersdisclosure is that the federal government is
still subsidizing petrol and haslicensed the NNPC to become the oil
industry monopoly in the corruption calledfuel import subsidy. Otherwise,
what does he mean by the NNPC books are absorbingsome of the cost
implications?
TheGroup Managing Director of NNPC, Maikanti Baru, was outrightly naive in
saying thatthe huge under-recovery was due to the proliferation of
filling stations incommunities with international land and coastal borders
across the country.This is the only way they can justify the mind-boggling
increase in ourdomestic consumption figures from 35 million litres to over
60 million litresevery day.
Accordingto him, a detailed study conducted by the NNPC indicated strong
correlationbetween the presence of the frontier stations and the
activities of fuelsmuggling syndicates.
Themultiplication of filling stations had energised unprecedented
cross-bordersmuggling of petrol to neighbouring countries, making it
difficult to sanitisethe fuel supply and distribution matrix in Nigeria.
The activities of thesmugglers led to the recent abnormal surge in the
evacuation of petrol fromless than 35 million litres per day to more than
60 million litres per day,which was in sharp contrast to the established
national consumption pattern.
As hesaid, because of the obvious differential in petrol prices between
Nigeria andother neighbouring countries, it had become lucrative for
smugglers to use thefrontier stations as a veritable conduit for the
smuggling of products acrossthe borders. This had resulted in a thriving
market for Nigerian petrol inNiger Republic, Benin Republic, Cameroon,
Chad and Togo, as well as Ghana,which has no direct borders with Nigeria.
TheNNPC boss is talking as if its my responsibility to safeguard our
borders withneighbouring countries? Is it not the same governments
agencies andparastatals? Nigerians thought the President brought the
Customs boss, AngelHammid Ali to checkmate cross-border smugglings, is
that still not the case?
Thereal truth is that nosingle person in the entire NNPC system, DPR, and
the Office of the Minister ofPetroleum can authouritatively say the exact
daily volume of petrol we consumedomestically? All we have are projections
based on faulty and dubiousassumptions. Figures ranging from 35 to 50
million litres and now over 60million litres have been thrown at us at
various times as our daily petrolconsumption.
If the NNPC doesnt know what weconsume daily, how are they going to plan
for it? How can they ascertain theexact volume loss as leakage to the so
called cross-border smugglers? Uninformedextrapolations in this matter
only breeds opportunities for corruption and thishas been the case since
we started this near 100 percent reliance onimportation. Those who know
would agree that the gap between 35 million litresand over 60 million
litres is wide enough to accommodate all the NNPC andPresidencys wuru
wuru in secret subsidy and equalisation payments. Howlong can we continue
like this as a country?
Is it not clear why the nationsthree and half refineries are not working
and would never work to any decentlevel to serve the country?
Our president isnot aware of the $25 billion NNPC secret contract sealed
by the NNPC boss onthe orders of the presidents Chief of Staff. He is not
aware that the NNPC hasbeen paying over N1.4 trillion as subsidy or rather
under-recovery since hecame into office. The President is not aware that
Nigerians now consumes over 60million litres of imported petrol everyday
up from the 35 million litres peak thisgovernment met when they took over
power in 2015. The President is not awarethat Kaduna refinery has never
worked since he came into office because ofcrude feedstock and ingrained
technical issues. The president is not aware thatfuel sells for between
170-300 Naira per litre in the country depending onwhere you are buying
despite the hundreds of billions of naira he releasesevery month as
subsidy and equalisation payments. No, he does not know but heis still the
Petroleum Minister. Shege DanIska!