By Ozegbe Ogokuni

In the last fifteen months, the hardship on Nigerians, arising from the removal of petrol subsidy; the floating of the Naira exchange rate; hike in electricity tariff, among other economic policies designed to revamp the national economy, has been seen as very painful for the over 135 million Nigerians purportedly striken by multidimensional poverty. This no doubt, may be nerve racking with dire consequences for businesses, income, inflation, and the social stability of the Nation. But President Bola Ahmed Tinubu would always say that the pains are sacrifices that Nigerians would have to make for economic turnaround and a prosperous future.

Government’s palliative measures such as salary awards, cash transfers, tax cuts and business incentives, release and distribution of food items from the strategic grain reserves, and the awaited gas powered public transport vehicles among other economic growth and stabilisation measures, designed to curtail and ameliorate the hardship and hunger in the land, are being perceived in some quarters to be inconsequential and inadequate, given the high expectations from the promised Renewed Hope Agenda of the Federal Government. With so much public outcries for quicker respites, fueled by impatience for economic policies and measures to crystallize and yield the desired results, a nationwide feeling of discontent, disillusionment and anger has become the order of the day, thus leading to the just ended citizens protests that were reportedly hijacked by hoodlums and inflamed by fifth columnists.

Given these milieu, it is hoped that a visionary statesman and a people-focused leader in the cockpit of our State craft, would hear the cry of the Nigerian people, and promptly rise to tackling the fundamental malaise threatening our social fabric. Unarguably, Nigeria’s multifarious problems revolve around an energy crisis which portends a macro effect nationally. This is because the cost, availability or scarcity of petroleum products inevitably impacts every other sector with attendant implications on inflationary trends, living standards, gross domestic product (GDP), and ultimately social stability. Consequently, it is expected that a people oriented leadership would have a key role to play in quickly dousing tensions occasioned by price volatility, scarcity of products, and other macroeconomic factors, usually obtainable in our petroleum industry. This leadership zest has passionately inspired the Distinguished Senate President, His Excellency, Godswill Obot Akpabio to show uncommon leadership when he constituted and inaugurated ‘The Senate Ad-hoc Committee to Investigate Alleged Economic Sabotage in the Nigerian Petroleum Industry’. This Ad-hoc Committee which is not only timely but very strategic to unearthing the truth about the allegations of entrenched cartels sabotaging the system, oil subsidy regimes, round tripping deals, substandard products, pricing irregularities and manipulations, product hoarding and diversions, and other corrupt practices bedeviling the industry, has been welcomed by the general public as a formidable pathway to restoring sanity in the oil and gas industry, and a good oversight model for the governance and regulatory operations within the industry, coming from the Distinguished Senate President.
The Ad-hoc Committee chaired by the Leader of the Senate, Distinguished Senator Michael Opeyemi Bamidele, CON has shown that they will be thorough in the probe, given the high stake Industry Players, both private and public, that have been invited to the Investigative Sessions.
The particular involvement in the probe, of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Ministry of Petroleum (Oil), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Federal Ministry of Finance, Nigeria Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Agency (NMDPRA), Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Nigerian Customs Service, Dangote Group, Independent Petroleum Producers Group (IPPG), Nigerian Navy, Oil Producers Trade Section (OPTS), Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN), and Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) among other key players, are strategic to unravelling the worrisome undercurrents that have for long undermined national interests in the industry.

Nigerians may also want to know if the Management of the Warri, Kaduna, and Port Harcourt Refineries would participate in the probe as Critical Industry Players or not ? Of particular interest would be the defence of the National Refineries on why the plants have remained comatose after the $1.5 billion released in 2021 for the Turn around Maintenance (TAM) of the Port Harcourt Refinery, and other votes and fund releases for the maintenance of other public Refineries. This brings to question the raging accusation on the NNPCL for depriving private local Refineries the sustainable supply of crude oil. While domestic Refineries are demanding to purchase crude oil directly from producers in Nigeria as prescribed by the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), rather than obtaining such at increased costs from international middlemen, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) appears unable to enforce the statutory domestic crude oil obligation due to its avowed commitment to the sanctity of Nigeria’s international Contracts. Recall that the Country entered into some International loan Agreements that conditioned some upfront or future crude oil output to the repayment of loans obtained from such Foreign Creditors. This could also explain the reason why national Refineries may have been kept redundant in the guise of false challenges arising from their turnaround maintenance efforts. Perhaps, this ongoing Senate probe would be able to tell us the truth about this suspicious angle.

The outcome of this Investigation may therefore help the Government to achieve the salient recommendations from the 47th edition of the Nigeria Annual International Conference & Exhibition (NAICE), 2024, organized by the Society for Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Nigeria Council, in which Industry Players have been urged to adopt innovative technologies that could guarantee cleaner, cheaper and efficient energy supply to Nigerians; emphasizing the need for sustainability and optimization of the petroleum industry value chain. It is therefore expected that this Investigation, otherwise conveniently tagged the Akpabio intervention, would have an outcome that will streamline the processes for having domestic sufficiency of crude oil supply to our public and private refineries and the availability of refined products in order to crash the current high price of energy and have the economy adequately reflated. This is one straight way to quickly bring succour to millions of people long agitated by the hunger and hardship in the country, thus fostering the sustainable hope that largely helped to end the recently witnessed rumpus across the country. This Legislative intervention could not have been timely but for a caring Akpabio’s leadership, who working in synergy with Mr President, are desirous of driving home the Renewed Hope Agenda of the Government, and eagerly intensifying and deepening good governance that would make life more abundant for the citizenry. We must therefore be patient and supportive of Government’s commitment to anchor this Investigative initiative for our general good and well-being, not minding that pessimists would doubt whether the Government will be courageous enough to implement the outcome of this Investigation. But we must quickly remind ourselves that no government would face the kind of social upheaval we just witnessed and do nothing to address its root causes as a preemptive panacea against future occurrences.

•Ogokuni, a chieftain of the Ndokwa Patriots Advancement Forum (NPAF), writes from Abbi, Delta State.