Where Are The Refineries?

OMOGBOLAHAN BABAWALE 

There are those who believe the enclave dubbed Nigeria is of God’s making. The undersigned believes firmly, too. Otherwise, no such country world over with people of diverse interests, multiethnic, heterocultures, and pluralistic religious credos could have ever survived the repeated and continuous decades rape and pillage of its economy and remain standing till date.

From the 70s to date, Nigeria has continually been financially ‘massacred’, economically despoiled, and ethically ruined. In introspection, the N2.8bn oil windfall of the late 70s said to be missing under then General Olusegun Obasanjo as the Head of State still remains a mystery till tomorrow. It was this huge theft that earned late Afrobeats legend, Olufela ‘Anikulapo’ Ransom-Kuti the military wrath leading to the destruction of his shrine in Lagos, and the eventual demise of his human rights activist mother, Chief Mrs. Funmilayo Ransom-Kuti.

Fast forward to date, Nigeria has experienced many esurient and voracious ‘eating’ of her common patrimony. The Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida sleaze remains a reference point. The Abacha loot has become windfall in recent years. It was as if the late ‘ancestor’ saved for the future of the country with the record-breaking figures that have hitherto been recovered.

Obasanjo’s second coming as civilian president witnessed another rapacious ‘munch’ of the people’s collective wealth. Is it the Petroleum Trust Development Fund (PTDF) scam involving his vice, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, or the fraud called privatisation exercise that saw 142 national assets sold to families and cronies of the #1 and #2 men and their allies that should be talked about? Let us not even go the way of the power generation ‘sakamanje’ that swallowed, like the snake-eating-JAMB-windfall from Benue State, country’s trillion of Naira. Our $16bn sunk into power generation under the guise of Independent Power Project (IPP) was more of a legerdemain or thaumaturgy that did us all abracadabra. Today, Nigerians, like former President Muhammadu Buhari equally asked, still ask, ‘Where’s the power?’

Goodluck Jonathan regime was more of a debauchery and/or bacchanalia of stealing, ravenous, and avaricious thievery of the people’s assets. Nigeria was milked dry despite oil boom his administration withnessed – the highest in hsitory. It was so bad that despite earning biggest in oil revenue, the country could still not pay federal civil servants at the twilight of that inglorious era. The #DiezaniGate, the #DasukiGate, and the Malabu oil scam among others were anathema on this country.

One would ordinarily have thought the Muhammadu Buhari administration would be different, given the background of the near-octogenarian retired military man as a no-nonsense miliatry man with aversion for corruption. Quite surprisingly, recent revelations may have suggested otherwise. Even when former President Buhari may be said to be incorruptible, can we speak same of his appointees?

The humongous but saddening revelations from former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Mr. (now Pastor) Godwin Emefiele’s probe is a big testament that, indeed, God loves Nigeria. Otherwise, the country by now would have been bought over by Ghana. Or is it the rot in the aviation sector under Hadi Sirika? If only the country’s Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) had also been subjected to probe, the recent failed #EndBadGovernance protest would have taken a different shape and require that some of these government appointees in the court of public opinion would have dịed by ‘firing squad’.

In the wake of former President Muhammadu Buhari’s second term, the then newly appointed Group Managing Director of NNPC, Mallam Mele Kyari had promised that the country’s four refineries would start to function before that administration would extinct. But today, more than a year after the Buhari/Osinbajo government had packed up, no one single refinery is working. Yet, these are national assets that gulp yearly, billions of naira on ‘Turn-Around-Maintenance’ (TAM), overhead expenditure on workers that refine not even a single drop of oil.

How much further can Nigeria go before collapsing. Until recently, the country’s indebtedness was mortgaged for oil swap with her external debt serviced with 97% of her revenue up until the assumption of office of Tinubu/Shettima administration which has now reduced such to 68% in just one year.

Today, the oil industry in engulfed in many intractable miasma. With the rot in the country’s 4-tower building at the heart of the city centre, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), can the current administration summon the courage to unravel the agelong mystery surrounding the operations of the NNPCL that today still looks more of a conundrum? Can we all ask Mallam Mele Kyari, ‘Where are the refineries after almost 5 years?’

OMOGBOLAHAN L.A. BABAWALE
Public Affairs Analyst
riches.babs@gmail.com/officialczar2@gmail.com

Wuse 2, Abuja