KEY stakeholders in the petroleum industry and the clergy yesterday took up the Federal Government on its plan to remove fuel subsidy, declaring that corruption and not subsidy was the bane of the industry.
Instead of pressing on with the withdrawal of subsidy, the stakeholders, who included former Petroleum Resources Minister, Prof. Tam David-West, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), and Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, Rt. Rev. Joseph Onaiyekan, lamented that the subsidy saga was still shrouded in mystery.
While David-West said Nigerians were yet to be told the truth about fuel subsidy by the government, PENGASSAN declared that no Turnaround Maintenance (TAM) had been carried out on the two refineries in Port Harcourt, Rivers State in the past 11 years.
Onaiyekan advised the government to first educate Nigerians on the merit of deregulation before implementing the policy.
David-West accused the government of dressing fuel price hike with the borrowed robe of deregulation and blamed corruption for the private sector's unwillingness to setting up new refineries in the country.
In an interview with The Guardian on Monday, David-West said the government was misleading Nigerians on the deregulation of the sector because its real intention is to hike fuel prices. He asked President Goodluck Jonathan to first combat corruption in the industry before forging ahead with the controversial policy.
According to him, contrary to government's claim that the subsidy on products discourages private investment in refineries, it was corruption that is the bane of the industry.
"The reason why private investors are not keen on building new refineries is not connected with subsidy which does not exist in the first place. The truth is that investors do not want to invest in Nigeria and in the sector because of corruption, and nothing else," he said.
David-West continued: "At present, the investment climate is not conducive here because of corruption. The old refineries were built by the government, which can still do same today but for corruption, which is the bane of Nigeria. Nobody will invest in your country when it is known to be corrupt. In Nigeria, corruption is official."
The former minister, who during his time as Petroleum Minister under Gen. Muhammadu Buhari was wrongly accused of corruption by the Gen. Ibrahim Babangida regime and clamped into detention, hinted that Nigeria was supposed to have had at least five refineries by 1986 if the Ibibio and Efik in the Old Cross River State had resolved their differences over the location of the refinery, which Second Republic President Shehu Shagari had planned to build in the state.
He said Shagari had planned to build two refineries in Old Rivers and Cross River states, each with capacity to refine 100,000 barrels per day.
David-West said the ethnic divide, which the issue generated in Cross River State led to the increment of the capacity of the Port Harcourt's second refinery to 150,000 barrels per day.
The former minister, who signed the contract for the second Port Harcourt Refinery in 1984, explained that the Gen. Buhari's regime would have considered building more refineries if the existing ones were not meeting the country's domestic needs.
He cautioned the government to desist from the intended increase in the fuel prices because of its adverse effects on the country's economy and its impoverished people, who live on barely a dollar per day.
David-West, who argued that the cost of production of petroleum products in Nigeria is one of the cheapest in the world, challenged the government to provide statistics to back up its claim to the contrary.
"If they push ahead with their planned price increase, there will be mass revolt because there is nothing like subsidy. Petroleum products price increase will lead to hike in food and transportation," he said.
In a statement titled: "Issues with oil subsidy in Nigeria," PENGASSAN said oil workers in Nigeria believe that what is required is the removal of corruption and inefficiency in downstream sector management, rather than subsidy.
The association's National and Industrial Relations Officer, Chika Onuegbu, alleged that the government had not carried out TAM of the two refineries in Port Harcourt in the past 11 years.
Onuegbu, who is also the chairman of the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) in Rivers State, said all the turbines that generate electricity for the refineries, which mandatorily are to be overhauled every three years, were last repaired in 1993.
He said they had expected the government would carry out a sincere and comprehensive review of the downstream sector with a view to finding and implementing lasting solutions to the industry's problems.
"The turbines have not been overhauled for 18 years now! No wonder there is this recurrent failure of the power generation plant leading to loading failures," he said.
Onuegbu said the fact that these fundamental problems militating against the proper functioning of the refineries were not addressed by the government even after PENGASSAN and the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas (NUPENG) workers some two years ago listed the proper functioning of the refineries as part of the conditions precedent to deregulation of the downstream sector, demonstrates that the government is not sincere about the welfare of Nigerians, and so, should not be trusted to deliver on any of its promises with respect to the removal of oil subsidy.
The Guardian