By Chris Paul Otaigbe
krisval126@gmail.com. 08185591375
If you thought Godwin Emefiele’s stealing of the Stamp Duty trillions was the mother of all corruption, the GRAND FATHER FRAUD of the Century had just been TRACED, predictably, to the NNPC Limited; through the UNMASKING of the FACE of the FAKE FUEL Subsidy.
Though I do not have the SPACE here, to bore you with the details, I will give you a bit of the information to create the comprehensive context to properly ENLIGHTEN you; on why whatever they tell you about their FANTHOM fuel subsidy is a, Guinness Book of world records, LIE from the pit of HELL!
Before 2019, or thereabouts (according to them, though even the CLAIM is SUSPECT at this point), NNPC on behalf of the government had been paying Oil Marketers to import fuel.
From 2019, they RESORTED to the initiative Late Prof. Tam David West of blessed memory, employed as Petroleum Minister to import fuel, each time the nation’s four Refineries were to UNDERGO Turn Around Maintenance (TAM); as a stop gap.
At the time, the International Oil Companies (IOCs) were given Crude to refine abroad to bring petroleum products to the country.
The IOCs did and according to Prof, it was at NO COST to the country and where there were EXCESS products, the IOCs sold and returned the money to the government purse.
That SAME crude swap, known as Direct Sales Direct Purchase (DSDP), is what this generation of NNPC thieves converted, with RECKLESS IMPUNITY, into a CRIMINAL enterprise!
To implement the DSDP policy, NNPC selected 15-16 companies, known as CONSORTIUM, between 2019 and 2023, before the policy was terminated four months ago; according to what they make us to believe.
Out of the 445k barrels of crude per day (BPD) set aside for the NON FUNCTIONAL four refineries, 300kbpd is SPENT on the DSDP with each of the consortium member companies ALLOCATED an average of 20k barrels of crude per day.
Between 2019 and 2023, the DSDP policy has lasted about 1,215 days.
In other words, if you multiply 300kbpd by 1,215 days, you are looking at about 364,500,000 barrels of crude oil.
Please don’t CONFUSE this QUANTITY of crude with the one Nigeria is supposed to be selling to the global market. It is DIFFERENT!
Here, I’m talking about the quantity taken from the Domestic Crude Allocation (DCA).
That is the quantity we are allowed to USE for ourselves.
Remember, my garri producer/seller analogy in my last piece to you.
To drive home, how HORRIBLE this grand theft has been, permit me to lift some paragraphs from the Guardian Publication of June 8,2023…
*
“With the revelation by NNPC that the scheme was terminated four months ago, there are indications that the DSDP, especially under the current management of NNPCL, lasted for three years and four months. That is about 1, 215 days.
In 2019/2020, the oil price averaged $41 per barrel. At an average of 300,000 barrels daily, this means that the 109,500,000 barrels exchanged for the year should be worth $4.4 billion.
In 2020/2021, when oil price averaged $71 per barrel, the 109,500,000 barrels exchanged should be worth about $7.7billion.
In 2021/2022, when oil price averaged $100 per barrel, the yearly exchange should be worth $10.9 billion, while the last four months should be worth $2.9billion.”*
(I urge you to read this edition for more details).
Therefore, $25.9 billion, in CRUDE OIL, is what we have SPENT on the crude swap policy; from 2019- to the first quarter of 2023.
As you may now know, NO CASH, save for this $25.9 billion WORTH of Crude oil is what Nigeria is CLAIMED, by the NNPCL, to have expended in SUBSIDIZING fuel for Nigerians.
This is the policy they have now put an end to; as the new government is now set to RESORT to the old ways of ALLOWING Marketers to go importing fuel to Nigerians at their own cost.
My Take…
I don’t want to litigate NNPCL MAMMOTH CORRUPTION being EXPOSED before our eyes; but to INTERROGATE the PROPRIETY of STOPPING the DSDP policy for ANY reason at all.
First, the RATIONALE behind the DSDP is based on the fact that, since the government doesn’t have MONEY, in hard currency, to give anybody to IMPORT fuel, it would RATHER use what it has (that is relatively FREE, save for the COST of getting the Crude, for its DOMESTIC USE) to give to WILLING and ENTHUSIASTIC Refiners, to refine at NO COST, whatsoever, to the government and people of Nigeria.
Does that not MAKE ECONOMIC SENSE?
Surely, that SHOULD be the way to go.
What is my point here…?
All the talk about fuel subsidy removal and PALLIATIVES should NEVER ARISE!
Why would you JETTISON using your crude to get refined products, which comes with no consequential cost to you, the economy and the people of Nigeria; to ALLOWING business men, in the name of Oil Marketers to go source for forex; import the product in hard currency and then SELL the imported refined products to Nigerians at INTERNATIONAL price?
Are we not ENTERING another ONE CHANCE or LONG TIIN ( as we say in local parlance)?
Don’t forget, the 300kbpd quantity of crude, we are talking about, is just a PART; of the 445kbpd, meant for the four dilapidated refineries ooo …
No one is ASKING what has been HAPPENING to the 145 kbpd that NNPCL has been SILENT about, ALL THESE YEARS!
Finally, my verdict is that Nigerians DO NOT NEED to go through this AVOIDABLE hardship been FOISTED on them at this time.
More so, now that we have a Dangote Refinery, should it NOT make the matter much easier; since NO ONE needs to IMPORT a drop; let alone SPEND ANY FOREX, in the name of importing the petroleum products?
I maintain, if the Bola Ahmed Tinubu government is SINCERE about being CONCERNED about the plight and the welfare of the Nigerian people, it should REVERSE the pump price; and with the benefit of this information, which it already has, it should ACTUALLY do as the Late Umaru Yar’Adua did, BRING DOWN the price of fuel and ALL PETROLEUM Products.
Increasing minimum wage by a MERE N10k, from N30k to N40k is an INSULT on the COLLECTIVE intelligence of the Labor Union and Nigerians at large.
At this point, I make BOLD to state AUTHORITATIVELY here, that this road Tinubu is toeing will ONLY lead Nigeria and Nigerians deeper into the pit Mohammadu Buhari’s orchestra of THIEVES have buried the destiny and future of Nigeria.
If you have been following me, especially in the twilight of the Buhari locust years, you would AGREE that I was CORRECT about the Naira Redesign policy SCAM the outgoing CBN Governor Emefiele DECEIVED Nigerians into.
Remember the UNPRECEDENTED HARDSHIP it brought to Nigerians; you and I; not too long ago!
At the beginning of Buhari’s MONUMENTAL MISADVENTURE, I stated that INCREASING price of fuel by whatever EXCUSE will BECLOUD whatever GOOD his government does for Nigerians.
Even though, it could have been a lot better, his administration built MORE INFRASTRUCTURE than Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan Government, INCLUDING Tinubu’s Lagos State (in the last 24 years till date).
But the fuel subsidy scam SPOILT whatever gains the Buhari government made in its eight years of ABOMINABLE DISASTER!
I’m stating here, therefore, to Jagaban… REDUCE the pump price of fuel to the BAREST TWO DIGIT minimum; and your government would have GAINED the ENDURING Love and SUPPORT you SEEK from Nigerians!
Using the Media to PROMOTE faulty and FRAIL rhetoric and narratives to DECEIVE the Nigerian people can only last but for a while.
As they say, you can only deceive the people, SOME of the TIME…
Everyday, for the THIEF, one day for the OWNER!
Enough said. Everybody should, as we say on the streets, BORROW THEMSELVES BRAIN!
This GRAND DECEPTION should stop NOW!
Nigerians should RESIST being TAKEN for GRANTED any FURTHER!
Again, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!!
