Why Hon Ugochinyere Ikenga legislative investigative panel on oil sector should be supported

Editorial Comment

It is no longer news that Nigeria is bleeding in all fronts, economy, security, political, social; but what is currently news because of its perceived oddity is the combustible, inflammatory and incendiary outbursts and indefensible moves by unpatriotic Nigerians calling to put a halt to the investigative panel set up by the Federal House of Representatives to investigate the downstream petroleum subsector of the economy.

Petroleum since its discovery in Nigeria has been pivotal in the economy of the nation and has been the mainstay of the economy amounting to about 90% of the nation’s revenue generation. Of course this singular economy resource also made Nigeria the giant of Africa aside our teeming population size currently put at over 200 million, hence Nigeria has always played a commanding role in the affairs of African Union and Economic Community of West Africa (ECOWAS). In fact, it was reported that a certain Head of State of Nigeria once said that Nigeria has money but the problem has been how to spend it.

However, the Nigeria’s oil sector has surprisingly become an albatross, a tragedy to the nation’s income source. The sector which became sick since the introduction of subsidy resulting from concomitant effect of fuel importation has defiled all known Medicare; it has developed anti resistance hormonal substance making it impossible for any solution proffered on it to work solely because of certain entrenched interests.

Worried by this intractable trajectory of anomalies within the petroleum sector, the Federal House of Representatives set up a joint investigative committee to look into the problems and proffer lasting solutions for the betterment of Nigerians and the nation’s economy. It is however surprising with the turn of event as people with obviously ingrained interests allegedly began to call for stoppage of the panel set up to oversee the investigation. But the more embarrassing thing is that this team of panelist did not constitute itself, it came up as a result of a motion moved in the general House by those that represent the good people of Nigeria as demanded by the constitution.

According to Leadership Newspaper, while reporting the constitution of the investigative panel by the House said, “The House of Representatives, on Tuesday, constituted a special Joint Investigative Committee of the Downstream and Midstream Petroleum Resources to immediately embark on a deep rooted forensic investigative hearing and stakeholders engagement towards finding a lasting solution to the issues and challenges affecting and deliberate killing of the Nigerian downstream and midstream petroleum sector.

“The issues to be probed and looked into range from subsidy payments, PFI/depot sharp practices, non-availability of domestic crude supply to local refineries, killing of local refineries, fuel queues, high cost of PMS, source of funding of PMS subsidy, endless shifting of timelines for refinery rehabilitation, nefarious activities at the petrol depots, status of all downstream pipelines and depot projects, indiscriminate issuance of licenses, OVH and NNPCL Retail product anomalies and lack of product to marketers, use of middle men in crude sales to refinery, non-domestication of profit from sale of crude oil by IOCs, among others.

“The House unanimously mandated Ideato Representative, Hon. Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere, who doubles as the Chairman of House Committee on Petroleum Downstream Sector to lead the joint investigative committee of the downstream and midstream petroleum resources committee to unearth all the anomalies militating against the Downstream Midstream Sector.

“The resolution followed the adoption of a motion on matter of urgent importance, which was sponsored by Hon. Billy Osawaru, and Hon. Philip Agbese, who is the Deputy Spokesman of the House of Representatives. Moving the motion, Osawaru noted that the National Assembly is saddled with the task of making laws for the peace, order and good governance of the Federation or any part thereof as enshrined in Section 4(2) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (As Amended).”

It is very clear from the above excerpts that the committee did not constitute itself the committee is only holding the mandate of the House, and by extension the mandate of the whole nation. Come to think of it, money spent on the petroleum sector in this country without kobo in return is not only mind-burgling but also pathetic and a national embarrassment.

Despite the huge and humongous amounts spent to rehabilitate the refineries, they were producing at less than 30% capacity. This has kept the country reliant on fuel imports, which it subsidies to keep prices low.

As at May, 2023, Reuters reported that Nigeria spent more than 11.35 trillion naira ($25 billion) on fixing the country’s three moribund refineries in the past 10 years, according to the outgoing parliament while calling for a forensic audit of the matter.

According to bbc.com March 12, 2014, Nigeria’s president then, Goodluck Jonathan ordered forensic audit of the state oil following claims that $20billion (12billion pounds) have been declared missing. Another news platform reported that Obasanjo, Yar’Adua and Jonathan paid a whopping N8trillion as subsidy. In July 2024, Tinubu announced the injection of about N2trn into the economy for stabilisation. Out of this money, N500 billion was for the Energy and Power sector.

The oil sector has been a potpourri of unexplainable story-telling, where nobody has been called upon to account, lacking in transparency and accountability even in the face of obvious hardship it unleashes on the nation. The story of a cabal and no cabal has continued to gain currency while the nation bleeds.

Even more worrisome is the daily escalating salaries and emoluments of the moribund refineries staff. According to Dataphyte.com, an online platform, in its October 21, 2022 report stated, “Despite these developments, the Kaduna, Port-Harcourt and Warri refinery companies spent the sum of N127.326 billion on salaries , Wages and Employees benefits between 2020 and 2021, a review of the companies’ audited financial statements has shown.

“In simpler terms, while operations were not ongoing at refineries (going by the details of the financial statement), the workers received monies running into billions of naira as Salaries, Wages and employees benefits.

“A study of the financial reports shows that the Port Harcourt refinery Company spent the sum of N22.547 billion in 2020 and another N32.023 billion in 2021 on Salaries, wages and employee benefits.

“This shows that between 2020 and 2021, the sum of N9.476 billion was added to the money spent on salaries, wages and employee benefits.

“In the case of the Port Harcourt refinery Company, the number of Directors whose emoluments were within 12 million and above numbered four in 2020 and another four in 2021.

“Warri Refinery Company spent N12 billion in 2020 and another N14 billion in 2021, while Kaduna Refinery Company spent N26 billion in 2020 and N20 billion in 2021. The company increased its wage bill by two billion naira within a year despite no operation.

“A further study shows that the highest paid director in the Kaduna Refinery Company earned N25.392 million in 2021 while the sum of N22.811 million was earned in 2020, showing that despite no activity, the Oil company increased remuneration to its highest paid director by over N2.5 million.

“The increase in wage bills between 2021 and 2020 comes despite a decrease in the number of staff who worked in these years.

“For instance, at the Port-Harcourt refinery the total number of staff in 2020 stood at 487 persons but fell to 450 persons in 2021, this did not stop the wage bill from increasing by N9.476 billion within these one year.” Above is from dataphyte.com report.

According to National Economy Newspaper online, “There have been calls in recent times that despite paucity of funds to drive economic growth, government is paying for redundancy as local refineries keeping these workers are not functional.

“Nigeria’s four refineries have about 1,586 new staff, paying salaries, wages and other benefits which in the view of some people are unproductive workers and their pay is calculated to the tune of N69 billion.

“According to an audited statements of the NNPC, Ltd, two plants located in Port Harcourt with an installed capacity of 210,000 barrels a day, bpd employed 487 new staff members in 2020, Kaduna refinery with an installed capacity 110,000 of barrels per day (bpd) employed 655 new staffs, while the Warri refinery with an installed capacity of 125,000 bpd employed 444 new staffs within the same period.

“According the report, out of the 487 staff members employed in Port Harcourt refinery, 430 were senior and management staff; amounting to 88.2 per cent with huge financial implications, while only 57 were junior staff members.

“The audited report showed the Port Harcourt refinery paid the 487 new workers N3.93 billion annually, indicating that each of them takes an average of N8.072 million annually or N672, 713 monthly.

“Out of 675 staff engaged by the refinery in 2019, the financial statement showed 656 were management and senior staff, representing 97 per cent of the total, with huge financial implications. In Kaduna refinery, the management employed 655 new staff which comprised 501 new staff in the operations department and 154 new administrative staff.

“Despite generating zero revenue, total pay received by the staff of Kaduna refinery within 2020 also amounted to N26 billion implying that the NNPC sought monies from outside the refinery to pay staff salaries.

“For the Warri Refinery, its audited account by Oguobi & Co and Ijebor+Ijebor, Chartered Accountants, showed the organisation employed an average of 444 new employees in 2020. The new employee comprises 80 services workers and 364 operational staff.” The above reports are not guess work but information in the public domain. So the intention to call for forensic investigation is not just appropriate but timely.

How did the nation get here? Between 1999 and 2007 under President Olusegun Obasanjo, Nigeria earned a whopping N27 trillion from crude oil sales. Between 2007 and 2010 Yar’Adua’s Presidency, Nigeria earned N9 trillion from crude sales, between 2010 and 2015, President Goodluck Jonathan received N51 trillion from crude while in his 8 years of unexplainable administrative disaster, Buhari earned a paltry N6trillion from crude.

It is also on record that beginning from the time oil was discovered in 1957 till the end of 2015, Nigeria earned a total of N96.212 trillion from crude oil sales but today, it is a tale of a formally wealthy nation going cap in hand to beg from China and the Western world.

Today, there is hunger in the world’s most populous nation and Africa’s once richest nation basically as a result of entrenched interests, escalation of corruption, policy summersaults, unpatriotic acts, vandalism, oil theft, wickedness in high places, nepotism and ethnic jingoism, among others.

It beats the imagination of any sound mind, however, that a few Nigerians, while government is trying to find lasting panacea to the malaise bedeviling the oil industry, would gather themselves only to call to thwart the good intentions of the Honorable Members of the 10th Assembly. Indeed Nigeria is bigger than the interest of a few who obviously have some cockroaches in their cupboards making attempts to abort the good intentions of the House which has the mandate and interest of the people at heart.

We dare say that any person, group or organisation that does not appreciate and wish well this noble and patriotic assignment, that person must be living in another planet. Nigeria, of course has passed this stage when some groups for pecuniary considerations would embark on media war against those with mandate to bring succor to the petroleum sector.

The best thing anybody should do at this stage is to support the committee or at worse remain aloof, but for someone to embark on accusations of bribery and unrelated issues, is to shoot oneself in the foot.

It is the general belief that the investigative panel was not designed to witch-hunt anybody, but it is to sincerely get to the root of the menace that hurts all of us as a nation. And it is hoped that the House will remain firm in its honest agenda of making use of the outcomes in terms of the investigative panel’s recommendations going forward.