On Nigerian Refineries: Appropriating the Private Shell Refinery, now PH1 (Gowon) and the proposal for a policy of Nationalization of the downstream sector with 100% govt control, govt supervised contracts for refineries etc, was one of the worst national policies ever conceived (Gowon, Murtala, OBJ, Shagari, IBB). The deliberate effort at stopping investments in Refining by the eager multi-nationals at the time, was a devious and deliberate self-seeking effort at graft, kickbacks and other benefits, if not by the leaders, by their advisors Every well-informed position predicted a failure of those projects, along with other white elephant govt projects like Govt managed National Airlines, Steel Company (Ajaokuta), Shipping lines, Hotels (Nicon), State Guest Houses, Refineries, National and State banks etc Lack of competent capacity for sustainability, corruption and a source for massive debt without feasible return, constant wasteful maintenance expenditures that amount to naught, sources for looting govt funds, are an expected outcome. On the law of averages, a society that plans for long term major sustainable Industries, Refineries etc as projects to be executed directly by the Federal or State Government is grossly wrong headed. 98% of the outcome would be inflated contracts, kickbacks, wrong project decisions, mismanagement, loss of investment etc, which would manifest a few years down the line as failed projects. Even a new car would give you a few years of non-maintenance efficiency. Not a sensible policy. The part to sustainable long-term efficient and sustainable refining capacity is through the private sector via a free market; fully deregulated private sector policy. Even more so for a country like Nigeria where federal and State govts cannot manage a Hotel or Rice farm. (There are exceptions; most of them would be small run monarchies without a rule of law, and in which the state is the business of the monarch, this would fall in the 0.25%) Let’s be informed so as not to provide a populist pressure towards another set of white elephant projects as the discussion for 2015 continues!
Posted on: Sun, 28 Dec 2014 22:31:20 +0000
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