When shall we be able to face up to this monster threatening our very existence? When shall we be able confront and chain our Prometheus? Remember him, the fellow who, according to Greek mythology, stole fire from heaven and Zeus, that god that lived on mount Olympus, chained him to the rock so that vultures would prey on him. How shall we uproot Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke from our Petroleum and Natural Resources Ministry before she brings this house down upon us? Since 2011 when she was appointed to head Nigeria’s most strategic assets – oil and gas – she has proved over and over that she lacks the capacity, the drive and character to oversee Nigeria’s mainstay.
Besides having not been able to add any value to Nigeria’s vast oil and gas assets, she has found it difficult to maintain even the status-quo. In other words, she cannot seem to be able to work out the arithmetic of her great office; she cannot seem to stop brewing scandals and finagling with figures. Apart from the grave injury her ineptitude (let’s call a spade a spade) has brought to bear on the nation’s economic wellbeing, the image of the country has been damaged to no end by the odium emanating from her corner of the cabinet. Oil and gas is an international business, Nigeria is a big player and her every move is noted by the international community.
Most notable international media entities have recently highlighted to the world the stench in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), under Mrs. Alison-Madueke’s oversight. For instance, The Africa Report in its bumper edition last year wrote about the opacity and decline of the NNPC; there is hardly any quarter that passes without The Economist of London passing a sad verdict on Nigeria’ oil industry. The journal wrote recently about a “horrifying scope of corruption” in Africa’s biggest oil industry. Financial Times too was unsparing. In the same vein, global bodies like Transparency International; Chatham House, London; Human Rights Watch and the accounting firm, KPMG, among others, have no good word to say about Nigeria’s oil industry today.
House of sleaze
There had always been corruption in the Nigerian oil industry no doubt. In fact, the NNPC can be described as a house of sleaze. But under Diezani’s watch, this malfeasance has climbed to Olympian heights: from outright diversion of revenues to dubious subsidies, shady crude swap arrangements, crude sale through middlemen, unaccounted for daily crude allocation to NNPC; massive petroleum products imports; oil blocs gerrymandering, etc. there is almost no depth to the graft at NNPC, particularly now. The governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi was queried and suspended from office last week for what many have conjecture be his whistle-blowing on NNPC; the current one being an allegedly missing $20 billion.
But in all the ruckus in the oil industry, nary a query has gone out to Mrs. Alison-Madueke, in fact she grows impertinent and diffident by the day, seeming to regale in the malodorous suffusion wafting out of her corner. It is amazing that what is required to arrest this debacle is a simple, single change of guards; the appointment of another Nigerian of competence and character who can quickly clean up the house and set the industry back on track. According to Africa Report, Algeria’ state-owned oil firm, SONATRACH is the biggest in Africa today. It is investing $80 billion in the next four years, including $16 billion for four new refineries. Did you ever hear NNPC speak of investment recently? SONANGOL is Angola’s state oil company; it is ranked second in Africa. It is currently investing heavily in Portugal, Asia and Africa. Cote D’Ivoire has no crude oil, yet she runs a profitable refinery; same as South Africa whose PetroSA is a huge, viable state corporation.
What more to say than that the Diezani debacle is the Nigerian debacle and put plainly, it is President Goodluck Jonathan’s failure. It is the President’s monster, he had better kill it or…