If common senseis the practical ability to do sound judgement, then the
Supreme Court-installed new leadership of the Independent Petroleum
Marketers Association(IPMAN) has glaringly shown that they lack it.
The directive single-handedlyissued in Kano by the new National President
of the oil marketers association,Chinedu Okoronkwo to its members
nationwide to slash N5 off the current priceof petrol as a solidarity with
Gen Mohammadu Buhari in his re-election bidrepresents nothing but the
beginning of a dangerous spiral that will outlivethis electioneering
season and definitely end up as an abattoir to this currentnational
executives of the cartel. Mark my words!
This is thefirst time an IPMAN national president will plunge headlong
into partisanpolitics dragging the name of the association along as if
every member of thecartel belongs to the APC or is an apologist of General
Buhari.
In the firstinstance, does Elder Okoronkwo have the powers or rather
acceptability acrossboard to order members nationwide to slash off N5 from
the current price theysell petrol or he was just making a mere vacuous
political statement?
Self deceit isthe worst form of deceiving one’s self. The reality on
ground in theassociation is that Chinedu Okoronkwo remains a factional
leader whose onlyclaim to the seat was the recent Supreme Court ruling. He
in fact commands theweaker faction compared to the group led by another
National President Chief LawsonObasi his blood brother and instead of
working assiduously to reconcile all thedisgruntled elements in the
association, he prefers to drag his faction intopartisan politics for
short time gains.
How do youexplain that in its hurry to ingratiate itself to General Buhari
and his APCgovernment, the leadership of the oil marketers association
unwittinglyconfirmed their members as first line culprits in the subsidy
and equalisationscam by ordering them nationwide to reduce petroleum pump
price from N145 perlitre to N140 in solidarity with the president?
So petrol canactually sell below the current pump price and this same
IPMAN has beenclamouring for a jack-up of the current price regime? You
see the wickednessagainst the Nigerian people!
In effect, IPMANnational president has simply confirmed the argument of
the PresidentialCandidate of the People’s Democratic Party, Atiku
Abubakar, who insisted duringhis campaign that petrol can actually sell
for far less than the current price ofN145 per litre and the marketers
will still have comfortable profit margins ontheir investments.
These sameindependents have been canvassing for an upward review of the
pump price ofpetroleum products in the country particularly (PMS)
popularly called petrol.Their argument has been that with the current
price regime and the racketeeringof foreign exchange by the Central Bank
of Nigeria and individuals representingthe interests of people in the
Presidency, there was no way IPMAN members can sustainthe fuel import
business which they stopped doing for over four years now.
As said in astatement signed by the National President of IPMAN, Chinedu
Okronkwo, releasedin Kano by the duo of IPMAN chairman,Kano state chapter
and the North West Zonal chairman, Alhaji Bashir Dan-Malamand Bashir
Salisu-Tahir respectively, “IPMAN was prompted to slash N5 from theN145
per litre official petroleum pump price in a bid to motivate Nigerians
toreturn to vote again on Feb. 23.
“We urge all ourmembers across Nigeria to immediately reduce the fuel pump
price from N145 perlitre to N140 per litre.
“This is becauseof the political situation that hit the country after the
Independent NationalElectoral Commission (INEC) suddenly announced the
postponement ofpresidential and National Assembly elections after
Nigerians were fullyprepared.
“We are allaware how Nigerians travelled to different parts of the country
in order toexercise their civic duty; unfortunately, they heard the sad
news ofpostponement of the polls.
“This made usdeem it fit to reduce the pump price in order to ease their
suffering, and toalso motivate them to travel again to exercise their
franchise on Feb. 23.”
The abovereasons would have been considered patriotic if not that IPMAN
leadershipunintelligently gave away the real intention of the
pronouncement by saying thatIPMAN’s decision was equally in response to
President Muhammadu Buhari’sconcern over the postponement.
Hear ChineduOkoronkwo: “We decided to express our concern over the
postponement of theelection, as President Buhari expressed concern over
the development.
“As Buhariapologised to Nigerians to show restraint and return to polling
units on Feb.23, IPMAN also calls on the citizens to exercise patience and
come out en massto cast their votes on the rescheduled date.”
First, let’seven look at the IPMAN set up: The order directing the
association’s membersnationwide to slash off N5 from the current pump
price of petrol was containedin a statement signed by the new National
President, Elder Chinedu Okworonkwobut was issued in Kano through the
Chairman of state chapter, Alhaji Bashir Dan-Malam.
Is the IPMANnational headquarters now in Kano? What stopped Chinedu
Okoronkwo from signingand issuing the statement through his office if he
is genuinely sincere withthe intentions of the directives? So does it mean
the new National President ofthe association has relinquished the powers
to take decisions and actions tothe Kano Chapter and its Chairman? So many
things are not adding up in thisgimmick that is going to terribly
backfire.
Those who know wouldagree that the new IPMAN national president Chinedu
Okoronkwo is full card-carrying member of the APC and also a member of the
current APC PresidentialCampaign Council and have been involved in the
nationwide re-election campaignof General Buhari. So IPMAN has now become
partisan? This is a very unwise wayto go, mark my words again!
As we talktoday, IPMAN does not import a single drop of petrol from
anywhere into thiscountry as we were reliably informed by the
administrators of the NigerianNational Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) when
the association was blackmailingthem for an upward review of the current
price regime.
All that IPMANmembers do is go to the fleet of NNPC storage facilities in
Atlas Cove areas ofLagos amongst some other coastal areas and pick NNPC
imported products whichmajority of them even selling off at 2-3 times the
NNPC prices just at the gateof those facilities. The same racket happens
in Port Harcourt and Warri Depots.These same independents will then go to
Abuja to collect subsidy andequalisation payments for products they did
not import nor transport toanywhere outside Lagos.
Nigerians shouldask Okoronkwo how much petrol sells in his home state
Abia? If he is sincere,he should start the compliance enforcement from Aba
and the entire stretch of Abiastate where it has become very normal to
sell at whatever you like which mosttimes are far above the regulated N145
per litre.
The PetroleumProducts Pricing and Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) is the sole
authority laden withthe responsibility of working out the nation’s
domestic pricing template. Butif IPMAN can on its own crash the price of
petrol to support Gen Buhari’sre-election bid, it all means that the
marketers on their own have decided toderegulate the downstream sub-sector
of the nation’s oil industry and this isgood news which Nigerians will
reap after all the elections because we will thencome back to the issue
and take up IPMAN on it. No more subsidy andequalisation payments, that’s
what it means! Nigeria will work again! God blessmy country!!
(Zubby Alazua is a Lagos -based Oil and Gas Lawyerand can be reached on:
alazua3000@yahoo.com)