President Muhammadu Buhari, who breached Section 138 of the 1999 Constitution to appoint himself Minister of Petroleum Resources; his Minister of State, Ibe Kachikwu, and the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Maikanti Baru, should please find a way to end the punishing fuel scarcity that has lingered for nearly a month.
If the President thought that by delegating his duties, he had abdicated responsibility for getting petrol to Nigerians, he should remember his Oath of Office: “I will discharge my duties to the best of my ability, faithfully… and always in the interest of the sovereignty, integrity, solidarity, well-being, and prosperity of Nigeria.”
Also, he promised to “strive to preserve the Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy contained in the Constitution,” which contains Section 14(2)(b), which provides that “the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government.”
Initially, there were speculations that the NNPC would increase the pump price of petrol. Oil marketers had argued that the N145 per litre price was unprofitable because the landing cost of petrol was N154. Another report says the NNPC puts it at N171.
A swift denial lulled Nigerians into a false sense of security that gave way to a creeping fuel scarcity that started in Abuja. It spread to other parts of the country, including Lagos, the nation’s economic nerve centre, which reportedly consumes about 60 per cent of petroleum products sold in Nigeria.
The first sign of the fuel crisis was the traffic jams caused by the long fuel lines. Then you noticed the boys with sagging trousers flashing jerrycans of petrol at harried motorists stuck at petrol stations that briskly sell petrol into jerrycans, and grudgingly sell to the occasional vehicle, whose driver has probably raised some hell.
Finally, you experienced the hike in transport fare, which the bus conductors justified with the argument that they bought fuel at black market rates from the black markets that they stayed awake to patronise over the “black” nights.
The Federal Government, the NNPC, and the oil marketers should go beyond trading blame, and make fuel available to the people, who have vehicles and generators to run. Government has only been able to sneak news into the media that Dangote’s refinery would commence operations in 2018.
The unwary would have thought that the promise of a Dangote supply would solve the current problem. But alas! It is in the future. These agencies need to get it together, and go to work to ease the burden that their joint negligence has caused Nigerians.
You won’t get a prize for correctly guessing that the hike in transport fare will lead to increase in the prices of food commodities that are freighted from the farm gates to the markets on a daily basis. The regret really is that all this is taking place during the Christmas period, when the prices of nearly everything “normally” go up. Talk of double jeopardy!
Some Pentecostals have started to insinuate that the Antichrist is behind the fuel scarcity that occurs just around every Christmas, and some rascals have turned the Christmas carol, “Noel, Noel,” into “No fuel, No fuel.”
Somebody wondered if Nigeria’s refineries were working, considering the occasional feeble assurances of the NNPC. Another wondered if Nigeria’s refineries had the same equipment and professional personnel as the refineries of the nations that sold petroleum products to Nigeria.
The answer, given by a former oil engineer, was in the affirmative. This engineer added that the dismal performances of Nigeria’s refineries were caused by the wrong attitude of workers and the civil service tradition.
He explained that the average Nigerian government worker had a sense of entitlement to his perks, but felt he was doing someone a favour by carrying out the responsibilities for which he was being paid. That is about attitude.
The engineer’s explanation about tradition took some long winded explanations: Poor work ethos at the refineries came from Nigeria’s civil service, whose emphasis is long on procedures, but short on deliverables.
The lackadaisical work ethos of the civil service came from when the Federal Government took over the first Port Harcourt Refinery from Shell. The civil servants, who may not necessarily be bad as individuals, simply “infected” the place with bureaucracy, arbitrariness, and a breach of merit.
These inappropriate values collapsed the sense of urgency, and the drive to perform efficiently and effectively. They successfully killed off the virtue called initiative. Those who know will tell you that no matter how brilliant a civil servant may be, he must always wait to be directed by a mythical other, no matter the urgency at hand.
Even the Fiscal Responsibility Act that, sort of, acknowledges that government agencies like the NNPC can only run along commercial lines, also included some provisions that would keep such agencies in dire straits. The ill-executed Treasury Single Accounts policy has further complicated the matter.
One stifling and paternalistic provision of the Fiscal Responsibility Act is Section 28(1) which allows that “Where… the Minister (of Finance) determines that the targeted revenues may be insufficient to fund the heads of expenditure in the Appropriation Act, the Minister shall… take appropriate measures to restrict further commitments and financial operation…”
With friends like the drafters of this Act, the NNPC has no need for enemies. It would be a matter for great regret if Nigerians would have to look back at the near disastrous Goodluck Jonathan Presidency, and admit that fuel supply was relatively stable, though it came at the criminal cost of the fuel subsidy scam.
After President Buhari’s so-called rejection of fuel subsidy, which resulted in an increase in the price of petrol, Nigerians have experienced a series of fuel crises in two and half years of his Presidency. This current occasion that crept in just before Christmas is the third.
In 2016, showboating Kachikwu shoved off the oil importers, who complained that the NNPC didn’t pay their outstanding import bills, while the Central Bank of Nigeria wouldn’t provide them with adequate foreign exchange to procure oil imports.
As a result of which, the NNPC, more or less, became the sole importer of petroleum products into Nigeria. The oil marketers, who have missed out of the action, are now asking for government intervention to get foreign exchange from the CBN.
The best anyone had said yet is to merely announce that some shipment of petrol is at sea. Maybe you can catch the pun. But why is the NNPC having to warn oil marketers against hoarding if indeed about 66 million of 650 million litres of petrol is already being discharged into the market?
You may have noticed the near deafening silence of Kachikwu, whom some mischievous folks say is the “erstwhile” Minister of State for Petroleum Resources. It looks like his family feud with Baru prevents him from active involvement in sorting out the fuel crisis.
If Abba Kyari, the President’s Chief of Staff, has finally usurped his responsibilities, maybe he should bow out honourably. There is absolutely no point in occupying a strategic position just to wring your hands. To employ the bad English on Lagos streets, “It doesn’t worth it.”
Kachikwu should do more than photo-ops with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at petrol stations.
If the President thought that by delegating his duties, he had abdicated responsibility for getting petrol to Nigerians, he should remember his Oath of Office: “I will discharge my duties to the best of my ability, faithfully… and always in the interest of the sovereignty, integrity, solidarity, well-being, and prosperity of Nigeria.”
Also, he promised to “strive to preserve the Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy contained in the Constitution,” which contains Section 14(2)(b), which provides that “the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government.”
Initially, there were speculations that the NNPC would increase the pump price of petrol. Oil marketers had argued that the N145 per litre price was unprofitable because the landing cost of petrol was N154. Another report says the NNPC puts it at N171.
A swift denial lulled Nigerians into a false sense of security that gave way to a creeping fuel scarcity that started in Abuja. It spread to other parts of the country, including Lagos, the nation’s economic nerve centre, which reportedly consumes about 60 per cent of petroleum products sold in Nigeria.
The first sign of the fuel crisis was the traffic jams caused by the long fuel lines. Then you noticed the boys with sagging trousers flashing jerrycans of petrol at harried motorists stuck at petrol stations that briskly sell petrol into jerrycans, and grudgingly sell to the occasional vehicle, whose driver has probably raised some hell.
Finally, you experienced the hike in transport fare, which the bus conductors justified with the argument that they bought fuel at black market rates from the black markets that they stayed awake to patronise over the “black” nights.
The Federal Government, the NNPC, and the oil marketers should go beyond trading blame, and make fuel available to the people, who have vehicles and generators to run. Government has only been able to sneak news into the media that Dangote’s refinery would commence operations in 2018.
The unwary would have thought that the promise of a Dangote supply would solve the current problem. But alas! It is in the future. These agencies need to get it together, and go to work to ease the burden that their joint negligence has caused Nigerians.
You won’t get a prize for correctly guessing that the hike in transport fare will lead to increase in the prices of food commodities that are freighted from the farm gates to the markets on a daily basis. The regret really is that all this is taking place during the Christmas period, when the prices of nearly everything “normally” go up. Talk of double jeopardy!
Some Pentecostals have started to insinuate that the Antichrist is behind the fuel scarcity that occurs just around every Christmas, and some rascals have turned the Christmas carol, “Noel, Noel,” into “No fuel, No fuel.”
Somebody wondered if Nigeria’s refineries were working, considering the occasional feeble assurances of the NNPC. Another wondered if Nigeria’s refineries had the same equipment and professional personnel as the refineries of the nations that sold petroleum products to Nigeria.
The answer, given by a former oil engineer, was in the affirmative. This engineer added that the dismal performances of Nigeria’s refineries were caused by the wrong attitude of workers and the civil service tradition.
He explained that the average Nigerian government worker had a sense of entitlement to his perks, but felt he was doing someone a favour by carrying out the responsibilities for which he was being paid. That is about attitude.
The engineer’s explanation about tradition took some long winded explanations: Poor work ethos at the refineries came from Nigeria’s civil service, whose emphasis is long on procedures, but short on deliverables.
The lackadaisical work ethos of the civil service came from when the Federal Government took over the first Port Harcourt Refinery from Shell. The civil servants, who may not necessarily be bad as individuals, simply “infected” the place with bureaucracy, arbitrariness, and a breach of merit.
These inappropriate values collapsed the sense of urgency, and the drive to perform efficiently and effectively. They successfully killed off the virtue called initiative. Those who know will tell you that no matter how brilliant a civil servant may be, he must always wait to be directed by a mythical other, no matter the urgency at hand.
Even the Fiscal Responsibility Act that, sort of, acknowledges that government agencies like the NNPC can only run along commercial lines, also included some provisions that would keep such agencies in dire straits. The ill-executed Treasury Single Accounts policy has further complicated the matter.
One stifling and paternalistic provision of the Fiscal Responsibility Act is Section 28(1) which allows that “Where… the Minister (of Finance) determines that the targeted revenues may be insufficient to fund the heads of expenditure in the Appropriation Act, the Minister shall… take appropriate measures to restrict further commitments and financial operation…”
With friends like the drafters of this Act, the NNPC has no need for enemies. It would be a matter for great regret if Nigerians would have to look back at the near disastrous Goodluck Jonathan Presidency, and admit that fuel supply was relatively stable, though it came at the criminal cost of the fuel subsidy scam.
After President Buhari’s so-called rejection of fuel subsidy, which resulted in an increase in the price of petrol, Nigerians have experienced a series of fuel crises in two and half years of his Presidency. This current occasion that crept in just before Christmas is the third.
In 2016, showboating Kachikwu shoved off the oil importers, who complained that the NNPC didn’t pay their outstanding import bills, while the Central Bank of Nigeria wouldn’t provide them with adequate foreign exchange to procure oil imports.
As a result of which, the NNPC, more or less, became the sole importer of petroleum products into Nigeria. The oil marketers, who have missed out of the action, are now asking for government intervention to get foreign exchange from the CBN.
The best anyone had said yet is to merely announce that some shipment of petrol is at sea. Maybe you can catch the pun. But why is the NNPC having to warn oil marketers against hoarding if indeed about 66 million of 650 million litres of petrol is already being discharged into the market?
You may have noticed the near deafening silence of Kachikwu, whom some mischievous folks say is the “erstwhile” Minister of State for Petroleum Resources. It looks like his family feud with Baru prevents him from active involvement in sorting out the fuel crisis.
If Abba Kyari, the President’s Chief of Staff, has finally usurped his responsibilities, maybe he should bow out honourably. There is absolutely no point in occupying a strategic position just to wring your hands. To employ the bad English on Lagos streets, “It doesn’t worth it.”
Kachikwu should do more than photo-ops with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at petrol stations.
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