As at the last count, I have written seven articles on the nefarious activities of the then Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC), Limited. This obviously will be the eight of the series in my column.
As far back as 2021 when the last regime of Buhari mooted the idea of refurbishing the Port Harcourt refinery, I did not only condemn the idea but pointed out the irrationality inherent in the idea. By way of recall, I had said : ‘Now my take on all the above is simply that the route being taken by the NNPC and , by extension, the country, is a perilous one.
I say this because, beyond all the arguments canvassed above against the government spending the said sum on the refurbishment of the Port Harcourt refinery, I am of the strong view that, in the light of the global warming and the challenge of climate change, Nigeria must be tagging along other nations in the curtailment of the use of fossil fuels. Is it not an absurdity to spend such a sum on a facility meant to be generating fossil fuel when the entire world is drifting towards clean energy, largely by the year 2030? (See My column Published 25th March 2021 in The Daily Sun Newspaper “Retooling Port Harcourt refinery, another avoidable waste https://www.sunnewsonline.com/retooling-port-harcourt-refinery-another-avoidable-waste/”)’ This was my conclusion in the said intervention.
My contention all that while had been that it would be wasteful embarking on such project for the reasons advanced in the column.
Prior to arriving at that conclusion, I had x-rayed the adventure, as I prefer to call it, and observed that ‘…the said refinery is about 32 years old with outdated technology. The implication of this is that some of the parts, (spares) would have to be recalibrated or newly manufactured to fit into the overhaul. Due to the age, there is no way it can be as efficient as any modern refinery.
On this score, therefore, it might not be reasonable to embark on such rehabilitation’ This is one of the so many grounds I alluded to in deprecating the attempt then to rejuvenate the moribund Port Harcourt refinery.
Beyond the reality that in terms of comparative cost advantage of acquiring a better refinery elsewhere, citing the example of Martinex refinery in California, the cost of refurbishment could fetch a new modular refinery of almost equal capacity.
This is apart from the point of concessioning the refinery as it was to a private enterprise, the attempts of which were hitherto made and frustrated by the same cabal in the NNPCL. Acquiring interest in a private venture was another option opened to NNPCL as stated in the said intervention, the option of which was taken through investment in the Dangote refinery.
It will equally be recalled that I suggested the use of more modular refineries which was already gaining ground in the country. This and many more were the options available to the country then instead of wasting the appropriated sum of $1.5 billion on the refurbishment.
Regardless of all these robust positions canvassed and the preponderance of the public opinions that such venture will not only be wasteful but unworkable, the federal government still proceeded to expend the sum on the dead horse.
The strange thing about all these is that despite the expenditure, the refinery refused to resurrect.
At this point, I would have expected the NNPC to fortify its presence in the life of the Dangote refinery while promoting others of such but alas, this is not to be . What emerged thereafter was the outright attempt to frustrate the Dangote refinery by all manner of gimmicks. This is highly regrettable and quite unfortunate.
In another intervention of mine in December 2024, and after observing the various retrogressive steps of the NNPCL, particularly the onslaught against the Dangote refinery, I concluded that , ‘‘..It is in the light of the above that I conclude that in so far as there is no real change of batons in NNPCL, nothing good can come out of it.
The suffering and struggle therefore continue. It is situations like this that lead to revolutions in many countries and it is time the President look deeper into the operations of this company. If for decades, the national refineries are incapable of being revamped so that we do not have to depend on imported fuel products, then, government capacity and will are being questioned’’. There is hardly anything that was not done during the reign of the former helmsman of the NNPCL not to frustrate the Dangote refinery but for the divine intervention and doggedness of the promoter, Aliko Dangote.
It is therefore gladdening to see the transition in the leadership of the company eventually. Let me register my appreciation for the President for subsequently yielding to this demand and changing the leadership of the company. If for anything, a new conducive atmosphere has been created in the oil industry.
The truth as it occurred to me then is that NNPCL is incapable of being redeemed from its own self-consuming corruption and rot. It has promised and failed so many times that the refineries would come to life and be operational with Nigerians expecting their days of woes to be over only, at every point of failure, NNPCL would just shamelessly carry on proving that its words count for nothing. The serial promises then on commencement of operations at Kaduna and Port Harcourt refineries were yet to manifest .
The new management of the company has been struggling to be transparent in its operations through public disclosures that were lacking during the regime of the last management. Virtually everything under the said management was opaque.
Now, back further to my vindication. After years of failed attempts to resurrect the moribund refinery, suddenly the former management of the NNPCL, led by Kyari, suddenly announced the resumption of production at the Port Harcourt refinery. The announcement was greeted with celebration and fanfare. This noise had hardly settled when several stakeholders shouted hoax on the resumption.
The efforts of some community leaders in the area where the refinery is sited and other stakeholders including an investigative journalist of the Punch Newspapers brought to fore the lies inherent in the announcement. It was from those quarters that we discovered that it was all a glamour rather than achievement.
The whole unveiling was discovered to be a ruse. With my innocent comment on the trajectory of performance of the company in another column (See my column Published Thursday, September 12 2024 In the Daily Sun Newspaper
“NNPCL and the Nigerian Black Hole
https://thesun.ng/nnpcl-and-the-nigerian-black-hole/”), the spokesman of the company then, Olufemi Soneye, harshly responded to my observations, basically asserting my alleged ignorance of the facts without substantiating same, and suggesting that I was being mischievous and biased when there was no basis for inference and assertion.
As characteristic of me, it will be recalled that I never let the reaction pass without responding. In my response ( See My column Published September 19 2024 in the Daily Sun Newspaper “NNPCL as a black hole: A response to an Amukunmeko https://thesun.ng/nnpcl-as-a-black-hole-a-response-to-an-amukunmeko/”), I did not only educate him as per his role as a spokesman of an organization but also carpeted him on the issues alluded to by him. I then opined that ‘The author forgot that I am still a Nigerian and a consumer of the product and impacted by the nefarious activities in the organization.
The response showed, as usual, lack of direction and institutional memory. The author expects me, assuming without conceding, that he is innocent, to help the organization prevent smuggling as if that was my job.
Should your management be unable to resolve the issue, let them get out of the kitchen and allow more competent and honestly responsible people to run the most critical height of the economy, for God’s sake…’’
Upon the ascendance of the new management, my position and the discoveries of the other stakeholders were validated through the shutting down of the Port Harcourt refinery for inefficiency and malfunctioning. This certainly is contrary to the position of the spokesman.
At this point I had expected the said Olufemi Soneye to resign his appointment for defending fraud.
This he did not do and sojourned on, even while the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission ( EFCC) unveiled the misappropriation of the fund meant for the resurrection of the Port Harcourt refinery. In fact, the commission just arrested senior officials involved in the management of the refineries on allegation of misappropriating the sum of $7.2b.
This is another vindication of my position as the misappropriated sum relates to the refineries. More revelations in the last couple of months have come out in point of corruption to justify my castigation of the organization, overtime.
Recently the said Olufemi Soneye resigned his appointment allegedly due to personal commitments. That is interesting! This is the conventional and routine reasons often given by public officers when they become embattled in office.
My suspicion of the ground of resignation is most likely due to the inability of the spokesman to either cope with the degree of discoveries of mismanagement unveiling, or inability to cope with the transparency of the new management.
Honestly, I believe that it would have been much more honourable if Olufemi Soneye had attributed his resignation to the discoveries or incapacity to cope with the dictates of the new management and beyond my vindication, I expect Mr Olufemi Soneye to, in the nearest future, author a book cataloguing his experience within the few months he served the beleaguered organization.
To the new management of the NNPCL, strive to live above board and justify the confidence reposed in you by Mr. President. Best of luck.
