By: Ifeanyi Izeze<\/p>\n
Thedifference in meaning between the two words finish and complete is
\nmosttimes confusing but can be made clearer using the current Nigerian
\nPresidency.Thus, when a country is ruled by a president who trumpets his
\nimpeccableintegrity as unmatched but at the same time turns blind eyes to
\nthe glaringmisdemeanour of his appointees in conducts that depict
\nundeniable corruption,that country is finished. Worse still, when the Mr
\nintegrity pretends not toeven be aware of the level of sleaze by his men,
\nthe country is thencompletely finished.<\/p>\n
The first step to findingsolutions to any problem is to first agree that
\nindeed there is a problem.Living in denial will only complicate the
\nsituation and thats exactly what wehave in our hands today in this fuel
\nsubsidy scam. Ofcourse, thisis what you get when a president is not aware
\nof a single thing in hisgovernment even in his presidency.<\/p>\n
How do you explain that the MohammaduBuhari-led government that came
\ntelling us it has stopped all forms of subsidypayments on petroleum
\nproducts has been secretly doling out over N1.4 trillionannually as
\nsubsidy on petrol alone to oil contractors and their cronies in theNNPC
\nand the Presidency? Interestingly,they have given the scam a new English
\nname- Under-recovery. Its longer fuelsubsidy. Up Naija!<\/p>\n
It is very clearthat President Buhari will not rid his government of the
\nscourge of corruptionuntil he actually understands what is going on
\nespecially the harm beinginflicted on our commonwealth. Do we need anyone
\nto say before we agree that The Buhari Presidency istolerating and
\nenabling dictatorial kleptocracy in the nations apex oilconcern where his
\nChief of Staff also serves as a commanding board member ofcourse as ogas
\neyes in the business?<\/p>\n
Lastweek Thursday, April 5 2018, The Minister of State for Petroleum
\nResources, IbeKachikwu, while speaking at a Liquefied Petroleum Gas
\nworkshop organised by theFederal Ministry of Petroleum Resources in Abuja
\nsaid the NNPC was spendingenormous resources subsidising petrol to the
\ntune of over N1.4 trillionannually up from the very few hundred billions
\nas at 2015 when this governmentcame into office.<\/p>\n
Interestingly,the government stated that the NNPC had been shouldering the
\nhuge financial under-recoveryburden, because the state oil firm is the
\ncountrys supplier of last resortwhen it comes to the provision of
\npetroleum products. The minister was quickhowever, to add that the
\nunder-recovery is being addressed at very highlevels whatever that
\nmeans.<\/p>\n
Themonies funding this scam, where does NNPC get it from? What has stopped
\nourrepresentatives at the National Assembly from asking the
\nNNPC\/Presidency toexplain the sources of this over N1.4 trillion annual
\ndole as such monies werenever provided either in the NNPC budgets or even
\nthe National Budgets? How canwe continue like this as a country?<\/p>\n
They have told us differentthings at different times as concerns the
\npricing governance from partial tototal deregulation and now to the
\ncurrent jargon of price modulationwhatever that means. If the government
\nas they told us had moved from a fullysubsidy-based sector to a partially
\nliberalised sector, why is the subsidy billskyrocketing instead of coming
\ndown? How do you explain the astronomicalincrease from few hundreds of
\nbillions as at 2015 to over N1.4 trillion as we have it today?<\/p>\n
The summary of the ministersdisclosure is that the federal government is
\nstill subsidizing petrol and haslicensed the NNPC to become the oil
\nindustry monopoly in the corruption calledfuel import subsidy. Otherwise,
\nwhat does he mean by the NNPC books are absorbingsome of the cost
\nimplications?<\/p>\n
TheGroup Managing Director of NNPC, Maikanti Baru, was outrightly naive in
\nsaying thatthe huge under-recovery was due to the proliferation of
\nfilling stations incommunities with international land and coastal borders
\nacross the country.This is the only way they can justify the mind-boggling
\nincrease in ourdomestic consumption figures from 35 million litres to over
\n60 million litresevery day.<\/p>\n
Accordingto him, a detailed study conducted by the NNPC indicated strong
\ncorrelationbetween the presence of the frontier stations and the
\nactivities of fuelsmuggling syndicates.<\/p>\n
Themultiplication of filling stations had energised unprecedented
\ncross-bordersmuggling of petrol to neighbouring countries, making it
\ndifficult to sanitisethe fuel supply and distribution matrix in Nigeria.
\nThe activities of thesmugglers led to the recent abnormal surge in the
\nevacuation of petrol fromless than 35 million litres per day to more than
\n60 million litres per day,which was in sharp contrast to the established
\nnational consumption pattern.<\/p>\n
As hesaid, because of the obvious differential in petrol prices between
\nNigeria andother neighbouring countries, it had become lucrative for
\nsmugglers to use thefrontier stations as a veritable conduit for the
\nsmuggling of products acrossthe borders. This had resulted in a thriving
\nmarket for Nigerian petrol inNiger Republic, Benin Republic, Cameroon,
\nChad and Togo, as well as Ghana,which has no direct borders with Nigeria.<\/p>\n
TheNNPC boss is talking as if its my responsibility to safeguard our
\nborders withneighbouring countries? Is it not the same governments
\nagencies andparastatals? Nigerians thought the President brought the
\nCustoms boss, AngelHammid Ali to checkmate cross-border smugglings, is
\nthat still not the case?<\/p>\n
Thereal truth is that nosingle person in the entire NNPC system, DPR, and
\nthe Office of the Minister ofPetroleum can authouritatively say the exact
\ndaily volume of petrol we consumedomestically? All we have are projections
\nbased on faulty and dubiousassumptions. Figures ranging from 35 to 50
\nmillion litres and now over 60million litres have been thrown at us at
\nvarious times as our daily petrolconsumption.<\/p>\n
If the NNPC doesnt know what weconsume daily, how are they going to plan
\nfor it? How can they ascertain theexact volume loss as leakage to the so
\ncalled cross-border smugglers? Uninformedextrapolations in this matter
\nonly breeds opportunities for corruption and thishas been the case since
\nwe started this near 100 percent reliance onimportation. Those who know
\nwould agree that the gap between 35 million litresand over 60 million
\nlitres is wide enough to accommodate all the NNPC andPresidencys wuru
\nwuru in secret subsidy and equalisation payments. Howlong can we continue
\nlike this as a country?<\/p>\n
Is it not clear why the nationsthree and half refineries are not working
\nand would never work to any decentlevel to serve the country?<\/p>\n
Our president isnot aware of the $25 billion NNPC secret contract sealed
\nby the NNPC boss onthe orders of the presidents Chief of Staff. He is not
\naware that the NNPC hasbeen paying over N1.4 trillion as subsidy or rather
\nunder-recovery since hecame into office. The President is not aware that
\nNigerians now consumes over 60million litres of imported petrol everyday
\nup from the 35 million litres peak thisgovernment met when they took over
\npower in 2015. The President is not awarethat Kaduna refinery has never
\nworked since he came into office because ofcrude feedstock and ingrained
\ntechnical issues. The president is not aware thatfuel sells for between
\n170-300 Naira per litre in the country depending onwhere you are buying
\ndespite the hundreds of billions of naira he releasesevery month as
\nsubsidy and equalisation payments. No, he does not know but heis still the
\nPetroleum Minister. Shege DanIska!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":61023,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n