By Abdu Labaran Malumfashi.
There is an ongoing campaign by an organisation known as the ‘Tinubu & Shettima National Support Groups’, led by one Mr. Eniola Ehinafe, to have Mele Kyari removed as the Managing Director (MD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) from office.
For reasons most of the members know not, the groups may be in a sponsorship to wage a campaign that must see the NNPC boss leave office for good, before his tenure ends officially.
The groups appear to be sponsored by one of two, or both, individually or in unison, to do the dirty work of ensuring that Mele Kyari is no more at the helm of the Nigerian Government petroleum company as its leader.
These person or people are either those who want the job for themselves, or their minions or his enemies, who for reasons best known to them, want him out at all costs. Again, most of the members of the groups may be doing the hatchet job for one of them, unknown to them.
Senator Kashim Shettima is at the Villa as Nigeria’s Vice President and number two man in the country. He is also from Mele Kyari’s state, and possibly the same town, and therefore should not in anyway be connected with the calls for the removal of the NNPC helmsman without a reason that everybody should know about. Unless Mr. VP is one of the interested parties.
The NNPC boss is not the Petroleum Minister nor is he the Minister of State in charge of the Petroleum Ministry and therefore is not the problem in the sector.
For the information of those not in the know about some of the major achievements of Mele Kyari at the helm of affairs of NNPC, they include:
(1) Implementation of transparency and accountability measures to enhance the operation of the NNPC.
(2) Focus on improving the efficiency and profitability of the corporation.
(3) Initiatives to increase the domestic refining efficiency and reduce the reliance on imported refined products.
(4) Emphasis on the development of the local content and capacity in the industry.
(5) Continued efforts to combat oil theft and pipeline vandalism in Nigeria.
(6) Promotion of public-private partnerships to drive investment in the Nigerian oil and gas sector, and
(7) Advocacy for reforms in the oil and gas sector to attract more investment and improve regulatory frameworks. This is just to name a few of the accomplishments of the NNPC boss at the company.
Meanwhile, the sector is being run by a corrupt cartel, which the government knows all about, but is incapable of doing much to contain its debilitating activities in the society.
Incase anyone is in doubt about the power of the crude oil cartel, they should look at the inexplicable appearances of ships in the international (oil) markets loaded with Nigerian crude oil, looking for buyers. The sellers are not Nigerian government’s officials or agents.
Some of the people behind this illegal business are believed to be richer than Alhaji Aliyu Dangote, who is considered by both the London Economist of the UK and Forbes Magazine of the US as the richest black person on earth. These people are not known to be that wealthy, because they are unknown to be part of any open business, to make them stupendously wealthy. It is said by some of the industry insiders that together, the locals among them are allegedly wealthier than the federal government.
Not even Mr. President, who doubles as the senior petroleum minister, can contain the illegal crude oil activities of these people, who can be ruthless with whoever threatens these activities of theirs.
The only god that these people seem to know and worship is money and collecting more and more of it is their passionate hobby, which they do like the proverbial ‘there is no tomorrow’.
According to those in the know of the ongoings in the local oil sector, the Western world, especially the originating countries of the multinational oil giants operating in Nigeria, is aware of not only what is going on, but also who is involved in the economic sabotage of the country.
There is the added case of the irritation of the independent marketers of petroleum products, especially in the remote states in the federation. There, they sold the products, especially PSM, at their own price.
Although he may be at the top of the rungs in the NNPC, he is not the alpha and omega in the oil sector in the country, because he is not the one who calls the shots, since there are two ministers ahead of him who are his bosses.
There is the case of a retired public official who, by his own confession the day after his retirement from public service, that he was worth N20 billion, earned allegedly from a business he was doing while in office. A former top federal official, who is also a prolific writer and author can say a word or two about this.
If that is not corruption, I do not know what is.
This can happen only in Nigeria and the ‘boss at the top’ will take it on his stride and pretend as if nothing untoward was happening because he seems to be an interested party, all things considered.
In any case, nobody is calling for the head of Mr. President for the seeming failure of the state. So why call for the sack of an appendage, whose role in most cases is only advisory, and can be rejected or accepted by the minister or ministers, who are actually in charge.
We are going through what one may call ‘severe general hardship’ because of the fuel price increase in the country owing to the removal of the fuel subsidy, but not many people are calling for the president’s head, except for the opposition politicians, which they do either directly or through propaganda by their proxies.
Again, look at the case of the government’s intended price hike in the tariff of electricity, which was recently stopped by a Federal Court. But no one is calling for the head of the minister in charge of the sector for that, but for his seeming failure in charge of the power sector.
So do not call a ‘pot black in order to hang it’. If you must (blame someone) then blame the soot for making the pot black or even the fire that produces the smoke, which in turn produces the soot, which then causes the ‘blackness’ of the pot.
Malam Malumfashi wrote from Abuja.