Nurudeen Dada argues that the speaker of the House of Reps has done his bit to restore sanity to a rotten system For years, the nation’s petroleum sector was opaque, smeared with dirty deals. From the military government to their civilian counterparts, the opaqueness gave ample room to massive grafts which impeded the growth of the sector and indeed, the nation’s economy.
Nigeria remains a paradox, a leading oil producing nation that could not refine her crude into petroleum and allied products but rather prefer to depend on other nations that are not endowed with crude oil. The nation’s refining facilities were left to rot. Turn around maintenance had been carried out repeatedly with billions but with no effect. The sabotage of the refineries by those who are profiting from the rot has become a major concern for many Nigerians. The refinery capacity was deliberately grounded by those who are more concerned about their personal fortunes at the expense of the nation’s growth to create and justify a rent system and, ultimately, the importation of petroleum products with hard currency.
The National Assembly, especially the House of Representatives has investigated various scams under the nation’s petroleum subsidy regime. In the Seventh National Assembly, the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila as the minority leader of the House, headed the House of Representatives ad hoc committee investigating claims by the Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON) about the N140.9bn debt owed by major oil companies. The massive corruption of round tripping and outright theft of crude oil, over invoicing of oil import bills, all other mind-blowing corruption were unravelled by the House committee saddled with the assignment to expose those bleeding the nation with the aim of bringing them to book. The same posture was seen when players in the sector were summoned by the House to explain the lingering fuel scarcity and the general energy crisis facing the nation. The House sought to know the actual volume of petroleum products Nigerians consume and also to find the way out of the protracted quagmire.
The speaker who cares less whose ox is gored especially when the collective interests of Nigerians are involved spoke in strongest terms and vehemently condemned the non-appearance of top officials of the federal government before the ad hoc committee on the volume of fuel consumed daily in Nigeria at its investigative hearing in Abuja. Gbajabiamila particularly called out the Minister of State, Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva; Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed; Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele; and the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (formerly Group Managing Director of the defunct Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation), Mele Kyari; as well as the Managing Director of Petroleum Pipeline Marketing Company, Isiaku Abdullahi, among others. The committee, chaired by Abdulkadir Abdullahi, summoned the GMD of the NNPC; MD of the PPMC; Accountant-General of the Federation; the CBN governor; Minister of State and Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources; Minister of Finance and Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance. That is the strong leadership Gbajabiamila has brought to the legislature since 2019 when he assumed the speakership position. He rises above prependal sentiments to ensure that the right things are done at all times. More than any public figure in recent history, Gbajabiamila has brokered truce over industrial crises between labour unions and the federal government. Gbajabiamila nipped in the bud the imminent strike of airline operators over the rising Jet-A, aviation fuel. The House under his watch, summoned stakeholders in the sector including the NNPC Boss, Mele Kyari, Nigerian aviation regulatory heads to resolve the crisis.
Many practical options came to the fore including the proposed issuance of importation licence to airline operators to import Jet-A directly into Nigeria. In their usual elements, they (stakeholders) went to sleep over the serious matter until the crisis got to the head. Now, airline operators are threatening to suspend flight operations over scarcity of aviation fuel. Nigeria’s oldest airline operator, Aero Contractors, said, “Due to the impact of the challenging operating environment on our daily operations, the management of Aero Contractors Company of Nig. Ltd. wishes to announce the temporary suspension of its scheduled passenger service operations with effect from Wednesday, July 20, 2022. “The decision was carefully considered and taken due to the fact that most of our aircraft are currently undergoing maintenance, resulting in our inability to offer a seamless and efficient service to our esteemed customers. “We are working to bring the aircraft back to service in the next few weeks, so we can continue to offer our passengers the safe, efficient, and reliable services….” According to the airline, the past few months have been very challenging for the aviation industry due to the high cost of maintenance, fuel, inflation and forex scarcity resulting in high foreign exchange rates, which are amongst the major components of airline operations.
Meanwhile, Ibom Air, one of the most promising local airlines, earlier announced that passengers will experience delayed flights in the coming weeks due to scarcity of aviation fuel and the closure of the domestic runway at the Murtala Mohammed Airport in Lagos. It will be said of the speaker that he acted in good faith in the nation’s interest when the crisis reared its ugly head. When the health sector professionals downed tools over unfair treatment and the university teachers downed tools, Gbajabiamila made frantic efforts to placate the striking workers to return to work. Dada writes from Lagos
