Nigeria marked its 64th independence day on 1 October, but there was not much cheer in the media. Nor backslapping and even jokes on social. The Punch issued a trenchant editorial filled with lamentations.
An Aljazeera report captured the gloom. In Nigeria, economic blues dampen patriotism on Independence Day
Nigerians of all ages say they are disillusioned with the country’s progress in six decades, so their patriotism is waning.
PORT HARCOURT REFINERY MISSES SEVENTH PRODUCTION ROLLOUT DEADLINE, NNPC FAILS TO PROVIDE UPDATES
I dey laff. One may be tempted to dismiss these people as clowns and comedians.
But they know what they are doing.
They are profiting immensely from the situation.
Though they are not functioning, funds are still being allocated to the refineries.
Their staff are paid all their salaries and benefits, and contracts are still being awarded and paid for.
They are selling the crude oil these refineries should have refined without accounting for it properly.
Most importantly, they are making a killing from importing refined petroleum products and paying a dubious subsidy.
They are not losing anything by leaving the refineries dormant for twenty years. If they were, they would have been fixed long ago.
A man with four cars cannot allow all of them to break down and lie unused while he spends vast sums of money on hiring or renting cars to move himself and his family around if he does not have some interest in the company in which he is hiring those cars.
He is also making money from renting the vehicles, so he prefers to avoid fixing his cars.
He may have an expense account that he can top up at will and from which he pays for the vehicles he rents.
In both cases, it pays him more to ground his cars.
This is precisely the situation with the refineries.
It pays the big guns in the NNPC and the government much more to keep them dying and discourage local crude oil refining.
That is why they are having problems with the modular refineries and, lately, Dangote Refinery.
GEE
PORT HARCOURT REFINERY MISSES SEVENTH PRODUCTION ROLLOUT DEADLINE, NNPC FAILS TO PROVIDE UPDATES
Detailed Breakdown:
1. Context: The Port Harcourt Refinery in Rivers State, managed by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC), has yet to reach its seventh deadline to begin fuel production.
The refinery has been non-operational for years, contributing to Nigeria’s dependence on imported fuel despite having several refineries.
2. Previous Promises and Delays: In August 2024, NNPC’s Chief Financial Officer, Umar Ajiya, promised fuel production would start by September 2024, but this target was also missed.
Since December 2023, NNPC has given various dates for the refinery’s rehabilitation completion, but all deadlines have been postponed.
3. Contractor’s Response: Maire Tecnimont SpA, the contractor handling the refinery’s rehabilitation, communicated that it would provide an update by October 2, 2024, after receiving inquiries from a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana.
4. Government’s Initial Plans: The rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt Refinery was initially promised by the NNPC Group Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari, to be completed before the end of 2023.
The Nigerian government secured a $1.5 billion loan in 2021 to fund the refinery’s modernisation.
5. Impact on Nigeria’s Fuel Imports: Due to the refinery’s long-term non-functionality, Nigeria has had to rely on fuel imports, costing the country significant amounts monthly.
Dangote Group’s President, Aliko Dangote, disclosed that $4 billion has been spent trying to revive the country’s refineries.
6. Nigerian Public’s Reaction: Nigerians have expressed frustration with the continuous delays and failed promises about the refinery’s rehabilitation. There is hope that once the refinery becomes operational, it will help reduce fuel importation costs and lower petrol prices.
2. The return of Emirates Airlines
The UAE carrier returned to Nigeria after two years on 1 October. Some travellers exhaled. Influential citizen Senator Shehu Sani was not one of them. He tweeted on X:
Senator Shehu Sani
@ShehuSani
We have abandoned the idea of manufacturing Aircraft in our country to celebrating the return of Emirates Airlines to our country.
3. On clearing FG’s Ways and Means obligations
Citizens reacted promptly to the assertion by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu that the Federal Government has successfully cleared the huge Ways and Means of debt obligation. They disagreed in posts online.
a. How can President Tinubu say that his Government has cleared ways and means of debt?
This is a deliberate, wicked and outright bare-faced lie.
I, Opatola Victor, was the lawyer who handled the lawsuit against the Federal Government, CBN, Debt Management Office, Ministry of Finance, and others, asking the court to declare the accumulated ways and means and securitisation illegal. So, I know for a fact that this Government never cleared that debt.
It only securitised that debt and, by so doing, converted trillions of Naira worth of Federal Government debt to Nigeria’s debt.
This means a debt that the federal government was supposed to pay, a debt that the national assembly elected by the people never approved of borrowing, a debt that the National Assembly couldn’t even determine how it was spent, a debt that the Nigerian people couldn’t manage or determine how it was spent; it is such debt that has now been converted into a public debt that Nigeria and Nigerians must pay.
So, the 30 trillion naira that President Tinubu mentioned in his Independence Day speech that it cleared was definitely a lie. It was intentional technical language used to hoodwink Nigerians into believing that a 30 trillion Naira debt was actually cleared.
It wasn’t paid.
The Federal Government should cease and desist from telling bare-face lies to its citizens in a desperate bid to be seen as efficient and performing.
It must stop.
Opatola Victor Esq.
[email protected]
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