Guardian Tolani: Oil theft: Sleep-walking into bankruptcy WEDNESDAY, 24 JULY 2013 00:00 BY PATRICK TOLANI OPINION -COLUMNISTS THE Federal Executive Council (FEC) came up with a ridiculous solution to the problem of crude oil theft on Wednesday February 17, 2013. At the end of its meeting in Abuja, it announced the setting up of a Legal Task Force (LTF) to be headed by the Honourable Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Bello Adoke, SAN. This decision was made as a considered response to the worrisome spate of crude oil theft which is estimated now to be about 400,000 barrels a day representing approximately N7 billion per day. It is regrettable that such a ridiculous decision could emanate from the chambers of those whom we trust with our destiny. It is a case of shallow solution to a deep-seated problem that is bringing the country to its knees. That decision is symptomatic of at least two things. The first is that those who lead us are completely out of touch with reality, otherwise, they should have known that the crude thieves needed to be caught first before they can be prosecuted. I can bet that until eternity, no single person will be caught let alone prosecuted for crude theft in Nigeria. We all know that before that FEC decision, the law has been in place to prosecute and punish those who are stealing our crude oil and causing devastation to the environment in the Niger Delta; but up to now, no one has been apprehended by our security agencies thereby engendering what has now become a large scale business carried on by the perpetrators with impunity. The other way to view the decision of the FEC is to believe that the members of the Executive Council, knowing fully well who are the people behind this sabotage simply wanted a window dressing that would appear to the average Nigerians that they are making motion without making any movement. They just wanted to be seen to be doing something about this national calamity befalling our dear country. There is no point hiding the truth from the public: the country is now at the mercy of the cabals behind the illegal crude theft and the artisanal refining. It is sad that leaders of our country can sit at a meeting where they can see through the facts and figures available to them that the country is sleep-walking into bankruptcy and be unperturbed about it and have the effrontery to come up with such a laughable solution to a problem of this magnitude. The problem of crude oil theft in Nigeria has gone pass the legal domain. We need more than legal intervention to deal with it. The problem is at once legal and economic as well as social and political. Viewed from any direction; it is a problem of exclusion and, as I have always reiterated, the only way to deal with exclusion is inclusion. The problem is economic following years of pillage and dysfunctional policy design and implementation which has left majority of the people in the Niger Delta destitute in the midst of plenty. There are very few arable farm lands left in the entire region and the fish ponds are no longer conducive to sustain what used to be lucrative fishing business of yesteryears. I remember when I did my Youth Service programme in Rivers State. Fish was available in the remote villages and I used to look forward to having a good plate of fish anytime I went for my court cases in Abonnema, Okrika or Yenagoa but I am now worried about the possibility of eating something that can damage my health from the heavily polluted ecosystem. Contributing to the economic conundrum in the area is the fact that employment opportunities are not available to the indigenes as it is with any other region of the country. To compound the problem, there are no social amenities or infrastructure that can support small enterprises. The social dimension is far more disturbing. Decades of playing one group against another by government and the International Oil Companies (IOCs) have left things in a state that can best be described in the words of Chinua Achebe as ‘things fall apart.’ The spate of abandoned projects lying all over the region is fuelling a feeling of abandonment by the local communities. Worst still, the emergence of militancy groups and the undue attention and the financial inducement employed to pacify them is pitching the community against the militants who have now become overlords in their areas. The concept of stealing is really becoming a matter of definition in the Niger Delta because the popular opinion is that it is actually the government and the oil companies stealing the people’s resources. After all, the sentiment is that is it not possible to steal what belongs to you. To the average person in the Niger Delta, the oil belongs to them and it should be used, at least to a reasonable extent, to better their lives. That, in my opinion, is a legitimate expectation which we have failed to meet for decades. These are serious fundamental issues that our elite in the hollowed Chambers of the Villa did not understand. Lastly, the problem is political because it is without controversy that the governments of the region have failed woefully in meeting the needs and aspiration of their people. It is a pity that the International Oil Companies have to play the alternative governments for the people of the Niger Delta. I have said it times and again that it is not the core business of the oil companies to provide all the amenities: schools, road, hospitals, etc., to the people of Niger Delta. Government has its role to play. It has the primary responsibility to see to the welfare of the citizens. Since state governments have been collecting the derivation fund, no tangible development can be shown for the huge sums of money they receive every month. The Petroleum Industry Bill is proposing another 10 per cent fund for the host communities. Who will manage that fund? Is it going to end up in the coffers of the state governments again? Perhaps it would be good timing for the jet-flying governors to inflate their fleet and good avenue for those who do not have to be enhanced to buy. If there is any justice and fairness in this country, we need to heed the call of the local communities asking that the payment of the derivation fund to their state governments should stop immediately. Government must develop the roadmap and provide for the Marshall Plan for the resuscitation of the economy and the environment of the Niger Delta. The solution must come from the people themselves through their own local community boards. The Global Memorandum of Understanding (GMoU) being implemented by Shell Petroleum Development Company and other oil producing companies is working in many communities in the Niger Delta and can serve as a useful template for the empowerment of the communities given the right capacity building support. It is time for our leaders to wake up and be seen to understand the problems facing us and demonstrate that they have the capacity to provide credible solution to our national problems. President Jonathan and his administration should not wait to go down in history as the band who presided over the bankruptcy of our nation. Lest I am dubbed an arm-chair pen monger whose pastime is to criticise government policies without providing any alternative solution, I would like to bring to the public domain the idea that I have recently developed. It is a simple and straight forward solution which could complement the Legal Task Force (LTF). Without doubt, there is out there in the communities useful intelligence about those who are the perpetrators of this crime against our nation and given the sensitive nature of the information that we need to arrest the criminals and bring them to justice, I am proposing an Independent Multi-Agency Monitoring Consortium (IMOMC) that can receive discreet and anonymous information from the members of the public and work in a coordinated manner with law enforcement agents to unearth those who are behind this dastardly crime. After thorough investigation, the LTF can then do its job of prosecuting the criminals; but the IMOMC will ensure that it holds watching brief to ensure that the legal process is not compromised. Nigeria belongs to all of us and we must join hands to save it from imminent bankruptcy and environmental disaster. • Tolani is the Executive Director, Institute for Oil, Gas, Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development (OGEES), Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti.
Posted on: Wed, 24 Jul 2013 07:46:41 +0000