Oil Subsidy Is Fiction
Professor Tam
David-West,
Petroleum Minister
during the era of
General Muhammadu
Buhari, and Mines,
Power and Steel in
the General Ibrahim
Babangida
government, spoke
with GBENRO ADESINA
on the controversy
over oil subsidy
removal
• Professor Tam David-Wes
For the layman on
the street, does oil
subsidy exist?
There is no oil subsidy in
Nigeria. It is a lie and
fraud. After the regime
of General Buhari, I
challenged government
after government, from
General Ibrahim
Babangida and Chief
Ernest Shonekan to
General Olusegun
Obasanjo and President
Goodluck Ebele Jonathan,
to appear on national
television with me to
justify their subsidy.
Let me introduce you to
the basics. Let us say a
particular commodity like
gari is sold for N10 per
bag hypothetically and
the farmers are
producing to make us
self-sufficient at N10. But
at a time, they can’t
produce enough because
of either bad harvest or
natural causes, the
government now says
since garri is a staple
food, the government
goes to another country
where gari is produced
and buys it at N20 per
bag and brings it to
Nigeria to sell at N10 per
bag. The government
now writes off the extra
N10 –– that is subsidy.
The extra N10 the
government pays on
behalf of the people for
them to still buy at N10
is the subsidy paid on
that commodity.
No government should
exist if it can’t serve the
people because
government is a trust.
They are trustees for
the people. Edmund
Burke, the great British
philosopher, said that
government is a
contrivance of human
wisdom and the wisdom
should be used to satisfy
people’s needs. Any
government that can’t
satisfy the need of its
people is irrelevant and
must be overthrown and
kicked out.
Coming to petroleum,
there is no oil subsidy. Oil
subsidy in Nigeria is
fiction, it doesn’t exist
and it is a fraud. During
Buhari’s time, we had
three refineries. When
necessary, I mean,
whenever there was
shortage of oil, we
embarked on offshore
processing. If at a time,
the production of oil
couldn’t satisfy our
needs, we selected oil
companies like Shell and
others that we would
give crude oil to refine
abroad, sell at foreign
exchange and pay to our
account. We got quantum
of barrels of crude oil
and gave to these
companies and after
they might have refined
it, let’s say they got one
million litres and we
needed only 200 litres,
they would give us the
quantity we wanted and
sell the remaining and
give us foreign exchange.
We only took our fuel
back, never imported
fuel.
This time what do they
do? These fraudulent
people will take our oil,
refine it and bring it
back and sell it at
foreign exchange. This is
fraud in the highest
places. Why is it that
during Buhari era, with
three refineries we were
self sufficient but at
their time, with four
refineries we are now
importing fuel?
I personally signed the
contract of the fourth
refinery which we call
new Port Harcourt
Refinery in 1984. It was
one of the best in Africa,
with a capacity of
160,000 barrels per day.
The first refinery, in Port
Harcourt, was built in
1965; Warri refinery in
1978, and Kaduna
refinery in 1980. A newly
constructed refinery
can’t have major problem
for about 30 years. The
problem they will not tell
you is that after Buhari,
every Minister and Head
of State became an oil
sheikh, except General
Abdulsalami Abubakar.
Some ministers have
petrol stations and oil
blocs. You can’t serve
the nation and serve
yourself at the same
time because you can’t
serve two masters at a
time. One must serve his
country and the
dividends of doing this is
satisfaction. Total
capacity of our four
refineries is 445,000
barrels per day. If the
refineries are working
even at 80 per cent, we
will have more than
enough product. They did
not do that but
sabotaged our refineries.
I have been shouting
since 1995 and I wrote
that they are killing
Nigeria and poor men.
And in 2009, the House
of Representatives
corroborated me by
saying that refineries
were sabotaged.
Abdulsalami as head of
state, reacting to the
state of our refineries,
said he didn’t want to
open a box of scandal.
Why did they do this to
the common man? Who
are the importers? Big
people!
A senator said this year,
Nigeria spends N860
million on fuel importation
and they projected that
by the end of the year,
over N1 trillion will be
spent on importation of
fuel when our budget is
N4.3 trillion. Insanity! Dan
Etete said they needed $
250 million to repair the
refineries but the same
minister said Nigeria is
importing fuel at $900
million. Is that not
insanity? If you need this
huge amount of money
to repair refineries, why
don’t you build new
refineries? The money
you are using to import,
use it to build refineries.
Why do you think
Obasanjo did not
repair the four
refineries we had and
build four extra for
petroleum to be sold
at N20 as he analysed
when he was in
power?
Olusegun Obasanjo is a
great liar. They will not
do so in order to
continue to import fuel
for selfish reasons.
Is it true that Nigeria
has the lowest prices
of refined products
among oil producing
countries?
Forget Jonathan! He
doesn’t understand what
he is saying. He is only
parroting what they told
him. He talks like a
parrot. Can he remove
what doesn’t exist?
Can’t we build our own
refineries to serve us
and remove the untold
hardship they want to
impose on us? Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala said the
subsidy goes to the
wrong hands. If they
remove it, will people not
suffer the more?
Everything will increase.
The new minimum wage
of N18,000 will become
N2,000.
But Obasanjo said
because it is built in
phases, it will take
about five years to
build a refinery?
It is a lie. I told you
Obasanjo is a liar. It took
just two years to build
the fourth refinery. I
signed its contract. It is
between two and three
years. The problem is
that there is intellectual
laziness and physical
indolence. In developed
countries, the president
will not just talk without
being well quizzed. But in
Nigeria, at a media chat
once, Obasanjo shouted
on journalists or talked
to them as a teacher.
They kept quiet. It
doesn’t take five years
to build a refinery.
Okonjo-Iweala talked
about cushioning the
effect of the
removal of oil
subsidy?
Rubbish! She is
sermonising to seduce
people to accept the
callous oil subsidy
removal. Things she
promised are palliative,
nobody should agree.
Labour and Nigerians
should make it impossible
because you don’t take
away what doesn’t exist.
We don’t need oil subsidy
to build roads, provide
water and electricity;
vote for capital projects
has taken care of that.
Degrees don’t guarantee
good governance.
Can a school
certificate holder
rule a nation?
Yes and very well. What
degree does Shehu
Shagari and Balewa
have? School teachers.
Winston Churchill was
among the dullest in his
class and he became one
of the greatest British
leaders. Degrees don’t
make leaders. Leadership
is a natural endowment
or one acquires it by
hard work.
Jonathan wasn’t born
great, he said he was
born poor. Rubbish! It is a
privilege to be born into
a wealthy home. I was
born into a wealthy
home but one can’t
control where God puts
you. I tell my son that he
should not allow the
wealth of his father to
go into his head because
his minister father could
as well be a driver. You
don’t regret where you
were born. So, I didn’t
have shoes or wasn’t
born great is rubbish.
God is not partial. He
does things with reasons.
Being born humble is not
an issue. How you
articulate your humble
situation is the issue.
That you are born rich
doesn’t say you should
look down on people. The
problem with Jonathan is
that though he has Ph.D,
he is a brilliant man, but
there is a difference
between native
intelligence and book
intelligence. Jonathan is
basically brilliant. The
danger in that is that
such people whenever
somebody like Iweala
comes talking, they
idolise them like mental
geniuses and become
internally inferior to
them. Whatever they say
goes –– garbage in,
garbage out. He doesn’t
have the stamina to
challenge them.
For a prince to be
advised wisely, he must
be wise too. Iweala is not
the most brilliant
economist. There are
hundreds of people more
brilliant than she is. Pius
Okigbo and Ojetunji
Aboyade, they served
the nation meritoriously.
She is working with
somebody psychologically
inferior and she will lead
him into a ditch. She
talks like the president.
She once said that
government would not
negotiate with the Niger
Delta militants. Did they
not negotiate later? She
was paid in dollars when
she served in Obasanjo’s
cabinet and her monthly
pay was N2.8 million and
now she is saying oil
subsidy is killing the
economy. Hypocrite!
If you know that what
you are doing is right,
convince people in
arguments, facts and
figures, not by
sermonisation. Now, they
have hired consultants
with millions of naira to
convince Nigeria to
accept their rubbish. It
was done during
Shonekan’s time when a
Nigerian was given N20mn
for public relations job.
He collapsed. They have
started again. Please,
Senators, Honourables of
the House of
Representatives, throw
out this bill. Don’t think
and say we are safe in
Nigeria. There could be
corporate protest here,
just like what is
happening in the Arab
world. If you do anything
that will make Nigerians
suffer more, they will go
on the streets because
the suffering is already
too much. I can afford
things but millions of
Nigerians that form the
majority cannot. They
should know that
government is not about
commissioning or
investment and profits.
Government should have
moral dimension. Any
government that
disregards the moral
dimension, that is,
respect of God, God will
punish such for making
Nigerians to suffer.
How do you react to
the fact that
governors have
endorsed it and
labour has tactically
endorsed it with
conditions?
All that is nonsense. NLC
should represent the
masses well. NLC should
not give any condition
for the consideration of
the removal of oil
subsidy. Government has
ways of compromising
labour. When things are
hot, they can approach
them with millions and
buy them over and they
will start to talk with
double tongues. NLC
should be firm. The
government should
publish the names of
those that(4 d complete interview click d link)
http://thenewsafrica.com/2011/10/24/oil-subsidy-is-fiction/