The Convener , Coalition of Democrats for Electoral Reforms, Mr. Ayo Opadokun , and the Chairman , Galaxy Clique , Offa , Mr. Muideen Ibrahim , have said it is shameful that Nigeria , which is one of the largest global producers of crude oil , still imports petrol for domestic consumption .

They also said the Offa people were at a disadvantaged position on the basis of their inclusion in Kwara State , which is one of the 19 northern states, when according to them , they share cultural norms and history with the Yoruba.

They spoke in Offa on Tuesday during the 2017 annual Galaxy Colloquium in honour of the late Chief Josiah Olawoyin .

Opadokun , who was the guest lecturer, during an interview with journalists on the sidelines of the event , said Nigeria should develop its capacity to indigenously refine petrol for its domestic consumption .

He said , “I am extremely sad and weakened over the fuel crisis . But I know it to be a cumulative effect of the prolonged misrule of the country by the military .

“ When Buhari was there as the military Head of State , he built refineries but none has been added to the ones he built . The population was not as large as this ; the vehicular movement was not as large and wide as this .

“ Since then, what has happened ? Those who took over from him have totally ravaged Nigeria . What they needed to do, they did not do.
“ I was part of the Nigeria Labour Congress team that did sufficient research . We went to Libya , Egypt, Saudi Arabia , United Arab Emirates and Venezuela to find out how much it costs to explore one barrel of crude oil . Nigeria ’ s own is the most costly in the world and then, what are they doing now .

“ What has happened in the last three or four months is that because the government is not willing to add more money to their profit, they ( importers) said they would not import . So , the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has been importing the totality of fuel being used in Nigeria .
“ But because we have been used to a system where fuel tanks ( tank farms) are being built by independent marketers , they made that unavailable and impossible for the distribution to go seamlessly . That is the cause of the crisis . ”

Ibrahim in his own remarks said , “It is a shame , sad and disheartening that a country that is producing oil and is one of the largest producers in the world, cannot get oil .

“ The timing of the fuel crisis is what really saddens me. Many people could not go for Christmas. Even those of us who came from Lagos , we bought fuel at the rate of N 400 and N 500 per litre .

“ It is shameful that we are still importing fuel . What they need to do is to get it right . The turnaround maintenance on the refineries should be genuine and not cosmetic . We cannot continue to wait until Dangote opens his own in 2019. ”

Opadokun had earlier , while delivering his paper titled , ‘ Offa in Yoruba history , ’ stated that Offa was significant in Yoruba tradition .

According to him , Offa suffered irreparable loss in the hands of the British colonial officers .
Opadokun stated, “ Offa is the traditional headquarters of the Ibolo people. Ibolo people are one of the four species of the Yoruba nation .
“ Ibolo people are in Offa to Iwo, Ede , Osogbo. Ejigbo and Ikirun, Inisa, Okuku, all of them are Ibolo people . Offa is the traditional headquarters

“ If not for a vicious system organised by the British, how can you take the headquarters of a majority and put it in a minority place where we are minoritised . That is why Offa is an important nation . It is the centre of the attack on the Yoruba nation . ” Copyright PUNCH .

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Unfortunately those who laid the foundation of corruption in Nigeria's oil industry are in power today, deceiving Nigerians that they are fighting kwaruption .

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