Posted by EMMMA AMAIZE on
A FORMER head of state in Nigeria once told a delegation of the Traditional Rulers of Oil Mineral Producing Communities of Nigeria (TROMPCON) that he had no knowledge of the ...
A FORMER head of state in Nigeria once told a delegation of the Traditional Rulers of Oil Mineral Producing Communities of Nigeria (TROMPCON) that he had no knowledge of the quantity of oil being produced by the country except what the oil companies themselves told him.This order known to be the biggest singular way the country is being ripped off by the multinationals and their collaborators, is not known to have changed.
National executive chairman of TROMPCON, Pere Charles E. Ayemi-Botu, the paramount ruler of Seimbiri Kingdom in Delta, who was on that delegation to the late General Sani Abacha when he made the startling revelation, is angry that seven years after, it is still business as usual, contrary to the impression that the augean stable has been cleansed.
He is even more bitter that the same oil is being used as bribe to those he described as outsiders while the people of the Niger-Delta wallow in abject poverty and under-development. A question that arises naturally is: has TROMPCON, given its influential position, passed such a privileged information to the incumbent president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo who is wielding a puritanical stick and what was or is his response? You will be marveled that the President's brash, rash and impatient attitude has constituted a stumbling block to such a vital information. So if a group of royal fathers consider it foolhardy to pass information to Mr. President because of his stubbornness, where lies the fate of the ordinary Nigerian? Pere Ayemi-Botu spoke on the mess in the oil industry, the way out and why Obasanjo should appoint a Minister for Petroleum Resources. Excerpts:
THEY'RE playing with our oil: As a layman and one of the custodians of whatever is got in the Niger-Delta region as a traditional ruler, I want to say that our petroleum products have not been properly and carefully utilized, be it from the export aspect to the domestic consumption.
If you can recall in the military days when we had the Supreme Military Council, the Armed Forces Ruling Council, the Provisional Ruling Council, whatever name, the highest military ruling body - they were playing with the oil. I will say from the Gowon days up to the Abdulasalami Abubakar period, whenever they were having their military council meeting, they round it off with a sort of Armed Forces Ruling Council subsidized oil.
Oil as a bounty to Northern and Yoruba royal fathers: There were subsidies they issued out like a kind of largesse for I think 50, 000, 800,000, 850,000 barrels and not only that, they even gave to some top traditional rulers in the North and part of the South-West. This is predicated on who is ruling this country, be it an Hausa or Yoruba. They give armed forces discounted crude oil.
If you go to Victoria Island where you have NNPC office, it is given out and is being sold, you just get the ticket and they sell it and they come and take this oil away. So I would say that because this is something coming from the ground, it is a natural resource and to account for it is unimaginable. But then, our people, those at the corridors of power, having known that this oil is a unifying factor in this country, should try to use it well. But now, the position is that whoever is aspiring to power does so with a view to corner that oil and dictate the pace of the usage, use it to launder his or her image, use it to enrich himself.
From that period I have mentioned, I cannot say we have been meticulous or that we have settled down to know what quantity of oil is produced daily in crude oil form, what quantity is being refined for domestic consumption and the quantity that is going for export as per OPEC agreement.
I know that there are government agencies like the NNPC and PPMC in charge of some of these things but I am afraid nobody can be able to ascertain what these multi-national oil companies really produce and what is used as the quantity that is produced and the one that is not even known to us, lay men. I think that it is perhaps now that the group managing director of the NNPC is going to give answer to it or Mr. President who from all indications, serves as the Minister of Petroleum Resources. They are the people that can tell Nigerians the quantity being produced for export and domestic consumption and the oil toppings.
Abacha's down-to-earth confession: I can recall in 1998 when the traditional rulers of the nine oil and gas producing states of Nigeria held a meeting with the former head of state, the late General Sani Abacha at Aso Rock Villa. We started the meeting from about 6.45pm because the President of the Gambia came calling and it was after the visit that he met with us till about 8.00 pm. While we were rubbing minds, he stated as follows:
Nigeria is not the largest in size but God, in his infinite mercy, blessed us with oil and we are the fifth largest producer in the entire world by OPEC ranking. He said that it will be surprising for us to hear. He said these oil companies, we cannot understand them. He said that they came here to explore and exploit our oil, they are the people who tell us the production figure and that he, as the head of state and commander-in-chief, did not know whether it is the actual production figure they tell him and I am not sure that he knew till his death because some people are making their own livelihood from here.
They are ripping off the country, and indeed, controlling the resources while the oil communities are begging for just medical attention, potable water and road. What they even tell the present government on what they produce is what the government knows but we have our engineers, and up to the NNPC boss and the President, nobody knows the actual production figures of crude oil, be it from the SPDC, Chevron-Texaco, Elf, Total, Exxon or Mobil, you name them, our people don't know, so these people will go and come out and will tell you this is what they got.
Exportation racket: When they are now shipping these products overseas, the same people will bring it, they have their servicing companies and when they feel that this thing has about 100 or 1million barrels to go into it, they get to a point where they say they need oil toppings. Who uses the oil toppings? Who are those that account for these toppings? If we have about 10 chambers in a petroleum tanker and each chamber is taking let us say 100,000 barrels and the 10 chambers will give us say 1million barrels, whose purse do those very toppings go to? So in actual fact, I am not in the field to know how they rip off the country but from the information we gathered in the past 20 to 25 years, we realized that a lot of sewage has been passing under the bridge as regards exploration, exploitation, production and the sale of petroleum products in our beloved country, Nigeria.
It's foolhardy to advise Obasanjo: I must be very frank with you. You know the President we have. I remember during his first term on his monthly media chat, somebody asked him who is the Petroleum Minister, he interjected and of course furiously, asking the person why he was asking the question. He said that you are talking to the petroleum minister and you are saying who is the petroleum minister.
Now when you bring up certain issues of national importance and you have the opportunity to rub minds, as the man that has been elected by the electorate to govern, you must be ready to have a listening ear, you must listen to know whether the way you govern is accepted by the governed but when you find somebody will not be ready to listen, you find one wanting to say he is infallible, it becomes foolhardy for one to want to make any proposal to such a person.
No freedom to talk in Obasanjo's court: We have had cause to meet with Mr. President several times and I can tell you since my coming on board, about three times we have met, I think there is no freedom of expression while you are in a face-to-face discussion with Mr. President. I will say that we have never for once proposed. I will give you an instance of what happened on October 2, 2003. We had a meeting with Mr. President, then it was my predecessor who was in office.
Dualising of East-West road
We said this East-West road that links the major oil-producing states of the federation, from Akwa-Ibom to Rivers, Bayelsa and Delta, had been in a state of disrepair and all other roads had been dualized from Agege down to Sango-Ota, Ibadan-Ilorin and same thing in the far North, but this road where all the heavy machineries are running on a 24-hour basis was left in a dilapidated state. But Mr. President told us that he had proposed N4million for feasibility study of the area and that the National Assembly reduced it by half.
We also added that if that road is going to be done because of its peculiar terrain, we should use Julius Berger and he exclaimed: "Ah, why are you people talking about Julius Berger. Julius Berger is one of the least companies in the world." I said but Julius Berger is the one that is transforming Abuja. He said he would get some other contractors that could even do better than Julius Berger. Do you really wish us well? When we know in Nigeria that the best civil engineering and construction company is Julius Berger? As we are talking, from 2001 to last year, if not for the NDDC, at a certain time of the year, the road after Kaiama in Bayelsa would have cut into two. Then people coming from Delta will pass through Onitsha down to Rivers State.
Obasanjo's stubborness: So you find out that areas where you have to advise Mr. President on what to do and if he does not listen to hear and accept it in good faith, how do you then go further to advise that the crude oil is like this or like that and I want to tell you that the first statement Chief Obasanjo made on the demise of General Abacha around June 1998 was that when General Abacha was the head of state, hardly would a day pass by that he would not reflect on the petroleum file which he held very close to his chest. Incidentally, in spite of holding the file very close to his chest, Abacha had a Petroleum minister.
Obasanjo should appoint a Petroleum minister: So for Mr. President to be the chairman of the African Union, the Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group, etc, he should relinquish the ministerial portfolio, you find out that the most problematic area in this country is that of oil and there is no minister in that place.
Why must he compound issues by remaining as the Minister of Petroleum, President and all that? And I think it is advisable that in this his second term, he should bring in a Minister for Petroleum Resources. It is the most sensitive, the most strategic and in fact, it is that petroleum that is unifying, and keeping this Nigeria going. If Obasanjo accused Abacha of keeping that file so close to his chest, what now makes him not to appoint a petroleum minister? Is he not now doing much more than what Abacha did?
Petroleum minister
Sanitizing the system: Like I said earlier, nobody can be able to ascertain what these multinational companies really produce and what is used as the quantity that is produced and what is not even known to us laymen. I think it is perhaps now, that either the group managing director of NNPC is going to give answer to it or Mr. President who is the Petroleum minister.
They are the people that can tell Nigerians the quantity that is being produced for export and domestic consumption and about oil toppings. Well, the present government from the recent developments where they brought an internationally acclaimed accountant and auditors to come and audit the account of the NNPC, I think at the end of the day, we will be able to know. Though the GMD of NNPC said there was nothing wrong there, that we only want to do it for the sake of doing it.
What I expect from the confab: Though I expected Mr. President to have nominated at least one, two or three of the over 200 traditional rulers from the nine oil and gas producing states to the confab since his government did not subscribe to the sovereign national conference the people asked for, I think it is too early to begin to make comments on the work of the confab. But I am happy that the various states in the Niger-Delta have a clear-cut idea of what the region wants and their delegates know the game plan.