Fuel crisis knocks Buhari, APC credibility

None of the government officials running the nation’s oil sector is telling Nigerians anything new about the caustic and persistent fuel scarcity in the country- not even the very pro-active speaking minister of state for petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu (for whom explaining the latest wave was rather confounding).

After all, President Buhari and the rest of the All Progressives Congress (APC) members rode to office on the back of the nation’s many economic troubles, which include, entrenched fuel crisis. If you are APC right now, you are no doubt wishing we could talk about something else or if you are in accommodating mood, you would like the issue framed in a less annoying way.

The current crisis has raised the prospect of a Nigeria with weak growth again, inflation figures reeling back into double digits by the end of first quarter 2016. This firmly puts the Muhammadu Buhari-led APC government’s credibility on the line and brings into focus the acerbic criticism of the previous governments’ handling of the situation.

APC shortly before they won the May 2015 general elections showed no mercy in tackling the ex-president Goodluck Jonathan’s People’s Democratic Party (PDP)-led government on their handling of the perennial fuel shortages that dotted their 16 years in power. Repudiating what they called “the incompetence” of the government, the APC signaled that PDP lacked credibility and consistent lies to Nigerians on various issues affecting them meant that PDP failed in all ramifications.

After just a few days on the job, everything that looked irreparable in the country suddenly became functional- from electricity to even citizens behaviour- and many Nigerians hailed the rebirth of the nation. Suddenly, Africa’s most populous nation has lurched along as the world’s most inactive government, having spent over six months figuring out who to appoint ministers and now seems stalled with one of the longest fuel crisis in the history of the country.

“APC should be able tell the country the real truth about this perennial crisis,” says a filling station owner who told BDSUNDAY he has spent the last one week trying to get petrol for his station. “They are in government now. So they should know. We must be told the truth after all they made the same demand about the truth of the matter when PDP was in power.”

His retorting echoes the bile-like and often very prickly questions put to the PDP leadership in the dying days of their governance that was polluted by both subsidy payment scam and fuel crisis by the APC.

One of those read like a law officer admonishing a criminal: “Following the ongoing fuel scarcity in Lagos State and other neighbouring states, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has urged the federal government to tell Nigerians what is responsible for the ongoing debilitating fuel scarcity that has further worsened the sufferings inflicted on the citizens by an incompetent government. We know that this Federal Government lacks credibility and has consistently lied to Nigerians on various issues affecting them, and we urge it to come clean for once on the reasons for this fuel scarcity and also step up efforts to end it.” The then APC Interim National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed led the campaign of words.

Talks of revamping the refineries and subsequently moving them towards semi-autonomous status was Kachikwu’s attempt to persuade Nigerians, investors and the world that they should have confidence in Nigeria. The Warri refinery exploded out of operation shortly after he made the remarks about making it a viable concern again. Port Harcourt and Kaduna refineries are still ‘tombstoned’. The much-dreaded long disorganised fuel queues have become the familiar disheartening image. Most analysts think even that is enough to disarm the most optimistic. Not even the Friday 11, December release to the public by the Finance Ministry of the list of subsidy payments made to oil marketers dating back to 15 December 2014, is convincing enough.

“Making the list public doesn’t say anything,” according to a top executive of one of the oil companies listed as recipient of the payment. “The real reason or truth of the situation is unspoken, only the familiar line of lies and excuses that dates back 16 years- Pipeline vandalism, unscrupulous marketers, subsidy debts and refineries. Where is the petrol,” he asked seemingly annoyed.

“It is difficult for them (Federal Government) to admit the real problems and the reason for the crisis,” says Muda Lawal. “They have their own understanding and approach-that is their own model but it has not worked. I don’t think they have the capacity to fund the current demand and that is why we have always called for deregulation to take the burden off the treasury,” he told BDSUNDAY in a telephone conversation.

Another industry player based in Port Harcourt and operating one of the biggest seismic mapping projects for oil corporations in Nigeria was even more shocked at the response from the federal government on the fuel crisis.

“How can they come back with the same old story of vandals and subsidy arrears?” he questioned. “There are certainly things they are not telling us, besides I see some elements of the massive corruption in that sector beginning to rub-off on them already,” he added.

Nigeria’s oil sector has long had a reputation for being one of the sleaziest in the world. Corruption, bribery, inefficiency and red tape are synonymous with the sector and have been the major factors keeping investors and investments away for almost a decade now. Refinery capacity has consistently lagged behind that of its contemporaries. The flagship company, The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), has for decades been plagued by mismanagement and debt, cost overruns and frequent change of leadership. The NNPC more broadly has been a consistent problem, superintending one of the biggest subsidy scandals in Africa’s history when bogus independent oil market fleeced the country of over N382 billion for petrol they never supplied.

BDSUNDAY quest to unearth the ‘truth’ was met with fierce rebuff. Virtually all key industry players contacted refused to speak openly on the issue. But a source who has worked closely with politicians and some NNPC top guns provided a lurid picture of conspiracy and outright greed as the plank for the perennial fuel crisis.

“You will not easily see an end to this type of situation soon. Even Buhari’s reputation as a corruption fighter will be messed up by their guile,” he told BDSUNDAY.

He told the story of a complex web of conspirators; those who never want the refineries to work. These are the set that collude with the refineries managers and ministry officials to ensure that the complex is under perennial turn-around maintenance.

“They determine what has gone wrong with a furnace or a compressor. They fix the cost for repairs and they contract the purchase of the spare-parts. But you never get to see the tender for the contract and they will ensure that even when the dysfunctional parts are fixed, they take it down the next day,” he said.

This may explain what happened at the Warri refinery that became functional shortly after the Buhari government was sworn in but was quickly blown up under mysterious circumstance. Nobody in government has offered any tangible explanation for the damage to the facility that was built to refine over 100,000 barrels of crude daily.

The other group is made up of those who know the quantity of crude that are supplied the refineries. He says that they work closely with officials of the NNPC and clearly knows the quantity of petrol imported into the country everyday and the quantity consumed on a daily basis. Both the import and consumption figure have always been controverted and unknown, often shrouded in doubt as to real quantity the country needs to spend money to import. He says also that it is the reason why nobody knows how the federal government arrives at the figure they claim to pay as subsidy to marketers.

“They are like a top secret cult. They are responsible for channeling money to the politicians. They tell the government how much crude they received everyday and they are the ones that tell the government how much crude oil is stolen every day. But in actual fact, they are the thieves,” he said. Within this group he says are contractors of pipeline vandalism. They know and have the map of the pipeline route. They know where it is most vulnerable to attack and they finance the sophisticated tools used in the despicable act of vandalisation.

He says within this group are the politicians who benefit from the crude. “They own the small barges that take the crude to ocean liners that frequently berth in international waters just by our borders in the sea.”

Meanwhile, the crisis seems far from over as long queues continue all over major cities around the country. The price of the product from BDSUNDAY investigation range between N100 to N160 per litre depending on what part of the country you are buying from.