…urges FG to urgently address issues hampering Dangote Refinery’s full operations
Laolu Akande, former Special Assistant to the immediate past Vice President of Nigeria, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, has restated his call on President Bola Tinubu to urgently appoint a Special Investigator to probe the affairs of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and its subsidiaries.
He also urged the Federal Government to urgently address the issues hampering the full operations of the Dangote Refinery.
Akande, who is also a television host and Founder of Empowered Newswire, gave this advice on his programme, Inside Sources, on Channels Television.
He said President Tinubu should immediately institute a comprehensive probe of the NNPC and all its subsidiaries to unearth the rot in the nation’s oil sector, just as he recently did to the Central Bank of Nigeria, which exposed the monumental fraud perpetrated for years at the nation’s apex bank and resulted in the ongoing prosecution of indicted former top officials of the institution.
Akande, who raised several questions in the course of giving his take on the ongoings in the nation’s oil sector vis-a-vis the recent spat between the NNPC, the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Agency (NMDPRA) and Dangote Refinery, during a recent episode of his TV programme, Inside Sources, enjoined President Tinubu to “muster the courage to institute a comprehensive audit of the entire oil and gas sector, and forthrightly clean up all the mess in there.”
He encouraged the President to “Do to NNPC WHAT YOU DID TO CBN, SIR!”
Akande argued nothing short of such a drastic action by Tinubu would address the rot in the nation’s oil and gas sector.
The popular TV host said in his “take for the week” on recent edition entitled, “The Refinery Brouhaha and lack of transparency in the oil sector,” “Two weeks ago, here on Inside Sources, we advised the President to do to the NNPC what he did to the CBN earlier when he commissioned a serious investigation that exposed the rot in the CBN. We restate that call today.
“Now, the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Agency (NMDPRA) alarmed all of us by attempting to demarket the Dangote Refinery.
“Why are we being told now that the refinery is only 45% completed, that the refinery is dispensing substandard diesel, and complaining that the refinery can’t be a monopoly?
“This absurdity assaults all of us as a people. It’s an abhorrent situation where a government agency runs down the largest industrial effort in Nigeria in the last several decades.
“What we see at play in this matter is an appearance of crass corruption.
“For instance, at what point did the NMDPRA know that the Dangote Refinery is only 45% complete?
“More importantly, what is the disclosure meant to achieve? Which laboratory did the regulator conduct its investigation with the results that the Dangote Refinery diesel is low standard? If the agency were so sure of that, where is the punitive measure that was imposed for such a behaviour?
“And on the issue of monopolistic tendency for which Dangote is regularly accused, the issue is to the regulator to tame this – the laws are there!
“Why is a government agency throwing up such issues without enforcing corrective procedures, otherwise what’s the use?
“The failure of effective regulation of the oil and gas sector is a symptom of the ridicule being perpetrated such as the revelation that some people in the sector are operating a blending plant in Malta to the utter disadvantage of our strategic energy security here at home.
“But the ridiculous circumstances are more, even regarding the Dangote Refinery issue.
“Who gave the NNPC the ok to scale down the Federal Government’s stake from 20% to 7.2%?
“Many of us are aware of how much Nigeria’s stake in the Dangote Refinery ought to be and were even contending that the Federal Government should have more than the 20%, considering the strength of FG’s investment-in cash & crude & assumed valuation.
“The Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved 20%. So, how did that decision get shortchanged without anyone thinking that the Nigerian people deserve a full disclosure?
“Can NNPC by itself overrule a FEC decision?
“Yet, another ridiculous reality in the oil and gas sector is that our regulators shamelessly concede that we as a people and as a nation have no way to determine how much oil is being lifted in our fatherland by the International Oil Companies (IOCs); we only accept whatever figure they give us.
“Finally, let the Federal Government sort out the issues quickly with Dangote Refinery.
“Whatever you say about Dangote and his refinery, & there may be issues indeed, but he has captivated all of us with the idea of a private refinery, when four government refineries have been rendered useless for so long!
“And now, our national interest is involved and he has to be supported to make this refinery a full reality.
“Let Dangote also manage some of the issues that have been highlighted, including the safety and logistics of the operations of the 650,000 bpd refinery.
“Let the President muster the courage to institute a comprehensive audit of the entire oil and gas sector, and forthrightly clean up all the mess in there. Do to NNPC WHAT YOU DID TO CBN, SIR.
“Nothing less will do.”
