One of the most unfortunate things that could happen to any nation is the inability to chart a progressive course for her developmental strides in a manner that the country has a solid base whereby successive administrations would consolidate and steer the ship of state towards attaining set human development indices with enough room for adjustments, amendments and improvements as exemplified in the time tested long term rolling plans of developed nations like Britain, America, Japan and France which have continued to provide them with the impetus to focus on achieving dreams.
It is on the engine of such growth trajectories that these nations have already closed the gap in achieving energy transition from fossil fuel to electric and gas-driven automobiles among other related master plans including health, infrastructure and social security.
To imagine that Nigeria, with all her human and natural resources, is still hamstrung by inept leadership on virtually all fronts with greater emphasis on economic and infrastructural development thus leading to backwardness in quality of life and living is an irony that has continued to defy all logics.
We are worried and disappointed that close to four years after the government of former president Muhammadu Buhari entered into a $1.5 billion dollars contract with Maire Tecnimont S.P.A for the Turn Around Maintenance (TAM), repair and refurbishment of the Port Harcourt Refinery and the urgent need to ameliorate the sufferings of Nigerians, who had hitherto suffered the misfortune of depending solely on imported refined petroleum products with their attendant high cost which is determined by unstable exchange rates, are still not sure on the date for the actual delivery of products from the refinery. Going by the terms of the contract which was awarded in April 2021, the project was expected to be completed in three phases of 18, 24 and 44 months.
But citizens don’t still know which phases have been completed as at set date. Port Harcourt II (New Refinery) is a complex, conversion refinery with a nameplate distillation capacity of 7,500,000 MTA (150,000 bpd). It came on stream in 1988 and was originally intended to serve as an export refinery. It has been subsequently dedicated to domestic market service given frequent interruptions in supply from the other three refineries in Nigeria. Port Harcourt II has considerable clean fuel capability, including lead-free gasoline.
Unfortunately for the long suffering Nigerians, the story of Port Harcourt Refinery and its false restarts and promises of providing refined petroleum products to them is not too far from what has come to stand as the model of governance in present-day Nigeria where commitments and deliverables are mere political gymnastics with little or no intention of seeing them through. For instance, the Ajeokuta Steel Complex remains a gigantic monster after it was started several decades ago, depicting a failed nation.
Regrettably, the prices of petroleum products have continued to increase astronomically despite the coming on stream of the Dangote Refinery just as the commodities remain scarce hence the endless queues at most retail outlets nationwide. Therefore, we strongly recommend the immediate sacking of the duo of Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, Mr Mele Kyari and the Minister for State Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri on the basis of prolonged deceit, poor performance and lack of empirical evidence of responsiveness to responsibilities leading to the continued failure of the Port Harcourt Refinery to commence production as promised on several occasions when they gave timelines.
The matter is made worse by their nonchalant attitude and penchant for taking Nigerians for a ride by their failure to even offer an official explanation on why the false promises on the recommencement of the refinery; the last of which was the end of September, failed.
The matter is further compounded by the contractor handling the project who has insisted that it owes Nigerians no explanation on the actual completion date of the project. Unfortunately, the unwholesome practice of President Bola Tinubu assuming the office of Minister of Petroleum Resources, just like his predecessor, Buhari, has not translated to efficiency and effectiveness considering that the Port Harcourt Refinery is yet to commence production.
Although the current high cost of petroleum products from the Dangote Refinery is trying to demystify the argument about locally refined products arriving at the pumps at cheaper rates, we still hold the belief that the commencement of production at the government-owned Port Harcourt Refinery and indeed the other three refineries in the country will offer an effective blend of products availability and competition capable of stimulating a lower pricing regime in the absence of such extraneous factors as fluctuation in foreign exchange, cost of shipment, insurance and port handling charges among others.
It beats every logic to say that nations do not enjoy certain forms of comparative advantages, wavers, concessions and subsidies over certain line items including energy and food commodities. To therefore say that it is unconventional for Nigerians to contemplate a cheaper pump price of petroleum products in a country with an abundance of the crude oil is a fallacy.
If countries like Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Libya and Angola among others can subsidize pump prices of petroleum products for their citizens why not Nigeria, a country whose people should be its greatest assets in terms of population, mobility and productivity.
We are of the opinion that Nigeria has come to the point where people must be held responsible and accountable for their stewardship as opposed to the current nonchalant attitude which pervades the corridors of power with leaders reigning with impunity. Today, Nigeria’s president Bola Ahmed Tinubu is in France for what was described as two-week working leave in United Kingdom even though he failed to hand over power to the Vice President Kashim Shettima as stipulated in the constitution.
It is against this backdrop that we are insisting that state actors should begin to set templates for functionality, accountability and consequences for state assignments to the extent that it will be easier to track performance with the view to either reward excellence or sanction delinquency. Nigeria can no longer function as a platform for abandoned projects. Visions, programmes and projects must henceforth be tied to set goals to the extent that their effective delivery would constitute the base line for escalating further development if only to achieve incremental growth in quality of human lives and national objectives.
For a better society
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