The recurring problem of scarcity of fuel in the country, controversies surrounding oil subsidy, issues of the nation’s refineries and other matters associated with the oil and gas industry are parts of the challenges Nigerians battle with on a daily basis.
But,
according to the Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas
Workers, Lagos Zone, who doubles as the Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress
(NLC) in Lagos State, Alhaji Tokunbo Korodo, some of these problems in the oil
sector are man-made.
Korodo,
who granted us an interview in his office in Lagos recently, also speaks on the
crisis facing the NLC and concluded that a faction of the labour union is being
sponsored by the government to cause problems in the system.
He
speaks more on these in this interview with Oladipupo Awojobi.
It
was reported that oil marketers met with the Minister of Finance and that they
have resolved the fuel scarcity issue, yet the problem did not abate, what do
you think caused this?
Truly,
the Federal Government owes the major marketers and for the first time they own
up that they owe them. I remember that the Finance Minister, Mrs. Okonjo Iweala
revealed that the Federal Government paid the marketers N256 Billion with the
understanding that the balance would be paid in two weeks. Now, they are
contradicting one another on the balance, while the marketers said that the
government has N200 Billion balance to pay them, the Federal Government said
the money was not up to that. The two parties ought to have agreed on the total
sum before talking about part payment. The part payment is an admittance that
truly they owe the marketers. It is not that NUPENG is on strike, but the
marketers locked up their loading facilities due to the disagreement between
them and the government, and when there is not fuel for tanker drivers to load
there is nothing they could do. Some tankers rolled out, when the part-payment
was paid by the Federal Government. But, they are only loading what they have
in stock, when they exhaust this, there would be a serious problem.
Deliberately, some marketers are not bringing in products because of the fear
of the unknown. Some of the major oil marketers are quite familiar with the
policy of the in-coming government about its zero tolerance for corruption.
This is why they want the out-going government to pay their balance so that
they would not be speaking grammar, when the new government comes in. The
independent marketers are saying that once the government solves the problem of
the major marketers, they would also shut their own loading facilities because
the government owes them too. They claim that they would not open until they
are settled.
There
are calls that the government should stop the payment of oil subsidy, what is
your advice to the in-coming government on this?
What
you are saying came out from the National Assembly and I accused the
legislators that they are only window-dressing the problem, where were they
before now. They are only trying to dig a grave for the in-coming government so
that they would not have any meaningful project to execute. We made our
position known to the government through our sister union, Petroleum and
Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) that we are against
deregulation. We are not part of import-driven deregulation, whosoever is
selling war implement will never pray for war to come to an end because that
would be the end of his business. Anybody that is benefiting from importation of
fuel will never pray for our refineries to work, which is the problem. We gave
conditions to the government that our own deregulation should not be on
importation that would be to the detriment of my members, who are working at
the refineries because they would lose their jobs as the refineries would be
totally abandoned. I don’t see reasons our refineries cannot work, as I am
talking to you right now, Warri Refinery can work up to 70% capacity, but they
claimed there is not crude to refine, and millions of litres of crude oil are
being exported out to refine outside Nigeria and they bring them back as
refined products. The cabals would never allow crude oil to get to Warri
Refinery.
How
do you think the in-coming government can solve this problem?
I am
happy the in-coming government is going to be led by Gen Muhammadu Buhari
(rtd.), we know him, Nigerians have passion for him, they believe in him. Those
of us in the oil and gas industry should give kudos to Nigerians that actually
voted for Buhari to take over the leadership of this country because the 16
years leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is a disaster to us in
the oil industry because the whole place has been bastardized. I want the
President-elect, when he assumes office to make courtesy visit to all the
refineries because he is the architect of the refineries so that he could see
how his visions have been managed. I know that as a visionary leader, he would
work on them and turn things around. He has said he is going to investigate the
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), which is the architect of all
these, we would give him total support; we want him to do that.
We
have about four refineries; do you think they can still be put to work?
Yes,
the refineries are four in number, what happened to Kaduna Refinery before they
privatized it, it took the intervention of NUPENG and PENGASSAN to reverse
this. The reason they gave was that because of the restiveness of the Niger
Delta militants they were unable to pump crude oil into Kaduna Refinery. Thank
God for the late president Umar Musa Yar’Adua, who God used to bring the
relative peace we have in the Niger Delta to bear through amnesty and other
programmes. Since that one has been done, is there any justification to sell
the refinery again, we said they should pump crude oil to Kaduna Refinery so
that it can start working. There are some things that the government is hiding
for Nigerians in that area. Majority of the loading points of NNPC has not been
put into use since the past 16 years. They lost the control to vandals, who
have taken over the pipelines all over the nation. The security men have not
been able to protect the pipelines not to talk of the people; all these things
would be revisited by the in-coming government. ‘
‘
What
do you think is the final solution to the problem in the oil sector?
Let
them pass the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) into law as it will increase the
interest of foreign investors, we cannot do it alone in the sector. No investor
is ready to invest in the Nigerian economy anymore, the multinational companies
we were having are winding up, they are selling their shares and properties and
leaving the country. A lot of my members have been dropped, for how long are we
going to be in this mess. The pipelines have been ruptured and vandalized by these
so-called vandals, so the pipelines should be repaired. Instead of using the
police or the military against us, let them be re-deployed to protect the
pipelines. I remember there was a time an Inspector General of Police in
Nigeria gave an order that if any pipeline was vandalized in any state, the
Commissioner of Police there would be held responsible, the CPs also gave
similar directives to the Area Commanders, who also passed it to the Divisional
Police Officers (DPOs), who then passed it to the police posts. If we have the
willingness of the government to do things right, all these would be achieved.
I
could remember the efforts of PENGASSAN and NUPENG in ensuring the passage of
PIB into law, but despite all these, the bill has not been passed into law. Is
it the cabals that are still delaying it?
You
know we had different versions of PIB, the Federal Government had their own
version, the legislators had their own and we had our own version. Later, we met
at a symposium in Calabar, capital of Cross Rivers
State, and we harmonized the
three versions and we presented one copy before the National Assembly. We said
we didn’t want to know the one they would work on, but we would resist anyone
that is anti-labour, and majority of what they packaged in their own is
anti-labour. It seems there are some interest groups on the issue. Whosoever partakes
in importation of fuel would never want our refineries to work.
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