28th May, 2015
It is less than 24 hours to the historic inauguration that would see President Goodluck Jonathan hand the baton of Nigeria’s presidency to Muhammadu Buhari. Part of the anxiety that seems to taint the excitement in the country concerning this new government has to do with where to begin from in a country that has been seemingly grounded by the outgoing government whose officials have been feeding fat at the expense of the majority of Nigerians.
From education to health, to infrastructure, security, the economy, especially the petroleum sector, all have failed and need urgent attention. The tenure of President Jonathan was practically bogged down by various challenges. The petroleum industry witnessed monumental corruption through spurious subsidy payments and diversion of crude oil revenue. Since the petroleum sector is currently the mainstay of the country’s economy, it is our candid opinion that in order to sanitise the petroleum sector, the Buhari administration must look at reviving the country’s refineries and where possible, build new ones. As dilapidated as Nigeria’s four refineries are currently, we believe that they can still refine enough fuel to meet local demand.
Because of the shady deals involving officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, an agency that has become a cult unto itself, crude oil hardly gets to the refineries and where it does, the quantity is lamentable. On many occasions too, the NNPC has been accused of also paying subsidy claims on the locally refined fuel as if it was imported, thereby encouraging the large scale fraud in the subsidy process.
Many Nigerian stakeholders have maintained that with effective supply of crude to the refineries, the government can stop subsidy payments, eradicate corruption, export refined petroleum products to other countries while the Nigerian consumers would pay less for the products.
The incoming government must probe the subsidy regime of the President Goodluck Jonathan government and ask questions as to who got what and for what purpose. The government should also find out why kerosene remained unaffordable despite being subsidised, how the NNPC got to its sorry state and how petroleum marketers became so powerful as to hold the country to ransom.
Once again, we reiterate the need to revive the refining capacities of our refineries. Each time, we hear of sharp drops in electricity generation as a result of shortage of gas. Most parts of Nigeria have remained in darkness for months on end. As a result of this, the citizens are constantly forced to pay electricity bills for what they did not consume. We believe that refining locally would also boost gas supply while the government looks for alternative ways to generate power.