By Kolawole Owoseni
I wish to write Your Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, on the bold step taken in reviving the nation’s oil refineries, and to your credit, two out of the four refineries; Portharcourt and Warri are back in operation after decades of moribund and abandonment by successive government.
In my growing up as a teen, youth, I had thought the refineries only exists in imagination and not in reality, considering what some of us grew up to know about the usual stories of government’s plan to revive the nation’s oil refineries, not until the recent when the media was washed with the news of rehabilitation of two refineries earlier stated.
Just like every Nigerians who wanted the best system for the country, I became very excited on hearing of the functioning of the refineries and I’m compelled to publicly commend Your Excellency for this giant feat. I must say unequivocally at this juncture, that, I’m convinced Nigeria system will work and better for us if we are consistently blessed with such leaders who would put the interest of all Nigerians over the interest of the few.
Your Excellency sir, now that we have two of our refineries working, I honestly have caveat for its sustainability and it is high time we imbibed or enforced the culture of sustainability, as government and as Nigerians, it would only be better for us a nation and have prosperity shared among Nigerians if we sustain this feat.
My caveat centred on the groaning of Nigerians over the high cost of petroleum products and the need to prevent crude oil theft, vandalization of oil pipelines facilities and blocking of all illegal exploitation of the oil resources.
Now that you have cross the hurdles of the cabals feasting on the nation’s oil resources at the detriment of Nigerians, it is expected that Your Excellency should take steps further by thinking outside the box in protecting and preventing unauthorized exploitation of the nation’s oil resources. In my opinion, declaring emergency on the need to protect the facilities surrounding the oil resources should be the next option. Nigeria Navy and other relevant agencies saddled with responsibilities of securing and preventing illegal exploitation are seemingly overstretched and overwhelmed by operation of illegal exploitation which has not only resulted to huge loss to our nation but has adversely affected the nation’s economic drive.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has on several occasions declared that Nigeria is in a bad situation over oil theft and pipeline vandalism. The theft of crude oil is harming the revenue of the federal government, thus denying the country the much-needed fund to boost economic development. Apart from revenue loss, the issue of oil theft is currently threatening not just the NNPCL’s quest for energy security for the country, it is also having a debilitating effect on Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings.
In the first quarter of year 2024, it was widely reported that Nigeria lost $1bn in revenue to crude oil theft and production shut-in caused by pipeline vandalism coupled with a daily loss of over 700,000 barrels of crude oil to theft, pipeline vandalism and production shut-ins, caused by tapping of crude oil from a maze of pipelines owned by oil majors. Owing to the facts above, I humbly advise Your Excellency to adopt holistic approach to address the crude oil revenue loss challenge.
Your Excellency may wish to agree with me that the crime of oil theft in Nigeria has been in existence for over two decades going by several reports by government and concerned stakeholders with different dimensions in every successive government to a state of unprecedented in 2024. According to previous reports, several hundreds of illegal refineries have been deactivated while several illegal reservoirs and illegal oil connection lines were destroyed, yet the menace seems to be subsisting, hence the need to wake up and take action.
It is high time Your Excellency take the bull by the horn and check or put stop to the activities of the saboteurs who carries out their activities unperturbed so the resources invested in reviving the two refineries would not amount to waste.I’m of the opinion that Your Excellency, the President, should engage the services of armed and unarmed Non-State actors to address the occuring menace, this I believe would bring about sustainability to the functioning refineries so our joy would not be short-lived by the saboteurs. It is not out of place to declare emergency on the nation’s oil resources facilities by making use of the Non-State Actors as being done in some countries like Mexico, Cambodia, which has ultimately produced desire outcome. In replicating this, a legal framework should be provided to give mandate and guide the operation of the Non-State Actors while their activities should be supervised by the presidency.
While I congratulate Your Excellency once again, I wish you the very best in piloting the affairs of our dear nation.
Kolawole Owoseni writes from Ado Ekiti.
