Oil Subsidy Is Fiction

Posted by TheNEWS on October 24, 2011 // 16

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Professor Tam David-West
For the layman on the street, does oil subsidy exist?
There is no oil subsidy in Nigeria. It is a lie and fraud.
After the regime of General Buhari, I challenged
government after government, from General Ibrahim
Babangida and Chief Ernest Shonekan to General
Olusegun Obasanjo and President Goodluck Ebele
Jonathan, to appear on national television with me to
justify their subsidy.
Let me introduce you to the basics. Let us say a particular
commodity like gari is sold for N10 per bag
hypothetically and the farmers are producing to make us
self-sufficient at N10. But at a time, they can’t produce
enough because of either bad harvest or natural causes,
the government now says since garri is a staple food, the
government goes to another country where gari is
produced and buys it at N20 per bag and brings it to
Nigeria to sell at N10 per bag. The government now
writes off the extra N10 –– that is subsidy. The extra N10
the government pays on behalf of the people for them to
still buy at N10 is the subsidy paid on that commodity.
No government should exist if it can’t serve the people
because government is a trust. They are trustees for the
people. Edmund Burke, the great British philosopher, said
that government is a contrivance of human wisdom and
the wisdom should be used to satisfy people’s needs. Any
government that can’t satisfy the need of its people is
irrelevant and must be overthrown and kicked out.
Coming to petroleum, there is no oil subsidy. Oil subsidy
in Nigeria is fiction, it doesn’t exist and it is a fraud.
During Buhari’s time, we had three refineries. When
necessary, I mean, whenever there was shortage of oil, we
embarked on offshore processing. If at a time, the
production of oil couldn’t satisfy our needs, we selected
oil companies like Shell and others that we would give
crude oil to refine abroad, sell at foreign exchange and
pay to our account. We got quantum of barrels of crude
oil and gave to these companies and after they might have
refined it, let’s say they got one million litres and we
needed only 200 litres, they would give us the quantity we
wanted and sell the remaining and give us foreign
exchange. We only took our fuel back, never imported
fuel.
This time what do they do? These fraudulent people will
take our oil, refine it and bring it back and sell it at
foreign exchange. This is fraud in the highest places. Why
is it that during Buhari era, with three refineries we were
self sufficient but at their time, with four refineries we are
now importing fuel?
I personally signed the contract of the fourth refinery
which we call new Port Harcourt Refinery in 1984. It was
one of the best in Africa, with a capacity of 160,000
barrels per day. The first refinery, in Port Harcourt, was
built in 1965; Warri refinery in 1978, and Kaduna refinery
in 1980. A newly constructed refinery can’t have major
problem for about 30 years. The problem they will not tell
you is that after Buhari, every Minister and Head of State
became an oil sheikh, except General Abdulsalami
Abubakar.
Some ministers have petrol stations and oil blocs. You
can’t serve the nation and serve yourself at the same time
because you can’t serve two masters at a time. One must
serve his country and the dividends of doing this is
satisfaction. Total capacity of our four refineries is
445,000 barrels per day. If the refineries are working even
at 80 per cent, we will have more than enough product.
They did not do that but sabotaged our refineries.
I have been shouting since 1995 and I wrote that they are
killing Nigeria and poor men. And in 2009, the House of
Representatives corroborated me by saying that refineries
were sabotaged. Abdulsalami as head of state, reacting to
the state of our refineries, said he didn’t want to open a
box of scandal. Why did they do this to the common man?
Who are the importers? Big people!
A senator said this year, Nigeria spends N860 million on
fuel importation and they projected that by the end of the
year, over N1 trillion will be spent on importation of fuel
when our budget is N4.3 trillion. Insanity! Dan Etete said
they needed $250 million to repair the refineries but the
same minister said Nigeria is importing fuel at $900
million. Is that not insanity? If you need this huge amount
of money to repair refineries, why don’t you build new
refineries? The money you are using to import, use it to
build refineries.
Why do you think Obasanjo did not repair the four
refineries we had and build four extra for petroleum
to be sold at N20 as he analysed when he was in
power?
Olusegun Obasanjo is a great liar. They will not do so in
order to continue to import fuel for selfish reasons.
Is it true that Nigeria has the lowest prices of refined
products among oil producing countries?
Forget Jonathan! He doesn’t understand what he is
saying. He is only parroting what they told him. He talks
like a parrot. Can he remove what doesn’t exist? Can’t we
build our own refineries to serve us and remove the untold
hardship they want to impose on us? Ngozi Okonjo-
Iweala said the subsidy goes to the wrong hands. If they
remove it, will people not suffer the more? Everything
will increase. The new minimum wage of N18,000 will
become N2,000.
But Obasanjo said because it is built in phases, it will
take about five years to build a refinery?
It is a lie. I told you Obasanjo is a liar. It took just two
years to build the fourth refinery. I signed its contract. It
is between two and three years. The problem is that there
is intellectual laziness and physical indolence. In
developed countries, the president will not just talk
without being well quizzed. But in Nigeria, at a media
chat once, Obasanjo shouted on journalists or talked to
them as a teacher. They kept quiet. It doesn’t take five
years to build a refinery.
Okonjo-Iweala talked about cushioning the effect of
the removal of oil subsidy?
Rubbish! She is sermonising to seduce people to accept
the callous oil subsidy removal. Things she promised are
palliative, nobody should agree. Labour and Nigerians
should make it impossible because you don’t take away
what doesn’t exist. We don’t need oil subsidy to build
roads, provide water and electricity; vote for capital
projects has taken care of that. Degrees don’t guarantee
good governance.
Can a school certificate holder rule a nation?
Yes and very well. What degree does Shehu Shagari and
Balewa have? School teachers. Winston Churchill was
among the dullest in his class and he became one of the
greatest British leaders. Degrees don’t make leaders.
Leadership is a natural endowment or one acquires it by
hard work.
Jonathan wasn’t born great, he said he was born poor.
Rubbish! It is a privilege to be born into a wealthy home.
I was born into a wealthy home but one can’t control
where God puts you. I tell my son that he should not
allow the wealth of his father to go into his head because
his minister father could as well be a driver. You don’t
regret where you were born. So, I didn’t have shoes or
wasn’t born great is rubbish. God is not partial. He does
things with reasons.
Being born humble is not an issue. How you articulate
your humble situation is the issue. That you are born rich
doesn’t say you should look down on people. The
problem with Jonathan is that though he has Ph.D, he is a
brilliant man, but there is a difference between native
intelligence and book intelligence. Jonathan is basically
brilliant. The danger in that is that such people whenever
somebody like Iweala comes talking, they idolise them
like mental geniuses and become internally inferior to
them. Whatever they say goes –– garbage in, garbage out.
He doesn’t have the stamina to challenge them.
For a prince to be advised wisely, he must be wise too.
Iweala is not the most brilliant economist. There are
hundreds of people more brilliant than she is. Pius Okigbo
and Ojetunji Aboyade, they served the nation
meritoriously. She is working with somebody
psychologically inferior and she will lead him into a ditch.
She talks like the president. She once said that
government would not negotiate with the Niger Delta
militants. Did they not negotiate later? She was paid in
dollars when she served in Obasanjo’s cabinet and her
monthly pay was N2.8 million and now she is saying oil
subsidy is killing the economy. Hypocrite!
If you know that what you are doing is right, convince
people in arguments, facts and figures, not by
sermonisation. Now, they have hired consultants with
millions of naira to convince Nigeria to accept their
rubbish. It was done during Shonekan’s time when a
Nigerian was given N20mn for public relations job. He
collapsed. They have started again. Please, Senators,
Honourables of the House of Representatives, throw out
this bill. Don’t think and say we are safe in Nigeria. There
could be corporate protest here, just like what is
happening in the Arab world. If you do anything that will
make Nigerians suffer more, they will go on the streets
because the suffering is already too much. I can afford
things but millions of Nigerians that form the majority
cannot. They should know that government is not about
commissioning or investment and profits. Government
should have moral dimension. Any government that
disregards the moral dimension, that is, respect of God,
God will punish such for making Nigerians to suffer.
How do you react to the fact that governors have
endorsed it and labour has tactically endorsed it with
conditions?
All that is nonsense. NLC should represent the masses
well. NLC should not give any condition for the
consideration of the removal of oil subsidy. Government
has ways of compromising labour. When things are hot,
they can approach them with millions and buy them over
and they will start to talk with double tongues. NLC
should be firm. The government should publish the names
of those that are importing fuel and government should
sign that if it is removed and the effects are not felt
between three and six months, then we must dissolve the
present government. If they remove oil subsidy, l will
lead a protest. I will organise students for demonstration.
Do you still have faith in Nigeria?
My dear young man, if I don’t have faith in Nigeria, I will
not be talking to you. I still have faith in Nigeria. To keep
Nigeria as one is a task that must be done. We should
differentiate between metaphysical Nigeria and political
Nigeria. Nigeria is a great country blessed by God. The
way we are going, the political Nigeria will destroy the
metaphysical Nigeria. Most of those in government are
rogues and thieves. They love themselves more than
Nigeria. Every Nigerian owes Nigeria more than what
Nigeria owes him/her. Nigeria will change for better
when we have more statesmen than politicians.
Now, we have a bunch of politicians who only think of
the next election while a statesman thinks of the future.
Nigeria will collapse if we have more politicians than
statesmen. Nigeria is a country where a senator is earning
more than the President of America. They even buy
government houses. They spend billions on cars and they
can’t pay N18,000 minimum wage. They have morally
crippled the country and the governance. They will be
destroyed by God. Nigeria is a great country –– no natural
disaster, there are able men and natural resources. But
people are still crying, no job, graduates are driving taxis,
doing menial jobs. Many now engage in armed robbery
because they have to survive. May God bless us with
good leaders.
The worst enemy of Buhari says that Buhari is not corrupt
and that is the truth. It takes integrity and rigidity not to
be corrupt and lead the nation. You don’t lead like
Jonathan. God will punish those that are punishing
Nigerians and Nigeria. When the poor man weeps, the
tears go to heaven and come down with burning fire and
consume his enemies. And that is what will happen in
Nigeria.