Hollow threats by the Federal Government of exposing and punishing culprits of oil theft in the country are assuming sickening dimensions.
This is in spite of the volume of vital information at its disposal that points accusing fingers at the most probable perpetrators of the grand larceny.
Last week in Abuja, at a briefing with members of the diplomatic corps, Foreign Affairs Minister, Olugbenga Ashiru, threatened that his ministry would no longer entertain appeals from foreign missions to release ships and their crew members involved in 'illegal activities' on Nigeria's territorial waters.
It was, however, obvious that the minister was referring to oil thieves. According to him, "in the past, ambassadors have come to me or my permanent secretary to plead for the release of either their ships or the crew members caught in illegal activities".
This is a sad indication that the leadership of the Foreign Affairs Ministry has, perhaps, been playing the 'lenient father' to oil thieves. Can a Nigerian ship and crew involved in such crimes go scot free in other nations where laws are sacred?
Recall that in May this year, the Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Patrick Akpobolokemi, revealed that influential Nigerians, including politicians, were behind piracy and oil theft in the country.
Akpobolokemi told newsmen in Abuja that those into piracy were doing it on behalf of influential Nigerians. He refused to make their names public, saying political meanings might be read into the disclosure of the names, which again buttresses the fact that very highly placed persons in government might be behind the assault on the nation's main source of revenue.
While complaining not too long ago that Shell, one of the multinational oil companies operating in the Niger Delta, loses about 60, 000 barrels of oil per month to thieves in the region, the company's Managing Director, Mutiu Sunmonu, had alleged the possible collusion of the security agencies charged with securing the area with local oil thieves.
And just a couple of weeks back, the General Manager of Chevron, another major player in the nation's oil industry in Escravos, near Warri, Delta State, Jide Ajide, voiced a similar suspicion as Sunmonu's. Ajide stated, for instance, that the "JTF (Joint Task Force) has been here this year... I think more than 10 times.
But if you go all around us here, you will see illegal refineries ... It (oil theft) was brought really down three years ago, but this year, it has gone up".
Accusing fingers are also being pointed at Niger Delta militants, including those rehabilitated by the FG through its amnesty programme for restive Niger Delta youths. With all these pointers at its disposal, the FG, to public knowledge, has not brought any visible figure to book for oil theft, yet it has not ceased to cry wolf about the crime and its adverse implications on the nation's economy.
Last weekend, the government said it had approved the setting up of a legal task force headed by the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke, to commence the prosecution of about 500 suspects detained over oil theft.
Delta State Governor, Emmanuel Uduaghan, who briefed newsmen, Thursday, after a meeting of the National Economic Council (NEC) in Aso Rock, said the task force was meant to arrest the daily theft of about 400,000 barrels of oil, which translates into losses of roughly N7.35 billion daily, based on international market price of $117 per barrel.
The losses, according to Uduaghan, have resulted in drastic reduction in the revenue accruing to the FG, which is currently facing the risk of being unable to meet its financial obligations, including the payment of workers' salaries.
The government should realise that Nigerians are no longer fascinated with its spineless grandstanding and rhetoric about bringing oil thieves to book.
No responsible government would tolerate several years of theft of the mainstay of its economy and always be 'preparing' to bring the perpetrators to book, without taking tangible and decisive steps to stop the crime.
Had it been petty thieves that are involved in the economic sabotage, a lot of them would have probably earned the harshest of court sentences and imprisonment. Was a cow thief not amputated by the Zamfara State Government in 2000? The FG should either get serious with tackling the problem of oil theft or pocket its endless sabrerattling.
National Mirror