WOULD you say the way the oil and gas sector is
being run, that you are at home with it?
When you talk about the oil and gas, talking
about the downstream, it ends with exploration,
production and the technicalities. I may not be in
the position to talk deep into the upstream
sector. But you know, the downstream is what
the country talks about, that is the distribution,
the marketing and the availability of fuel.
Obviously, every Nigerian wants to have the pump
price that they can afford. They want a
distribution network that is available everywhere
in the country and there is no time they will be
satisfied with any price they feel is unbearable for
them. We have been on that for years. I won’t go
into whether the present price is okay or not,
those are the things we fought so many years
ago. During the military dictatorship, we in
NUPENG, before the government could take any
policy on the downstream sector, at least to
increase the pump price, we were called on.
I remember the 70 kobo per litre lasted for so
many years, 70 kobo not naira. It was in 1993
when oil workers in the marketing sector industry
had to protest that the overhead cost of running
their companies was being affected by the low
price. Well, we had to negotiate with the
government, which even wanted to raise it up. But
we decided to settle for N2 .70 Kobo. We used
that price until I was abducted and imprisoned
during the June 12 struggle. That was part of our
political and social history. But I know that when
I was in Bama Prisons in 1994, I was there barely
two months when the Abacha regime increased
from N2.70k to N11 .00 without consultation or
anything with the civil society or Labour, because
already, NUPENG was frustrated.
Since then, it has been on the upward trend and
the labour unions, which are supposed to monitor
these things and call government to order were
not able to do it up till today. Those are some of
the things I see with Nigeria Labour Movement of
today, that lots of impunity go on in the country
and nobody check them; so it is not only in the
oil industry. We want what you call an effective
oil industry being the life wire of the country,
mono-economy? But what can we do? People like
us are retired, we stay at home, so the
government plays a lot of games with the NNPC
big players and it has become the honey pot.
During your time in the industry, did you forsee a
time like we have it currently in Nigeria that we
will be going in and out of crisis in that sector?
Normally, when there is no good governance and
if there are no checks and balances, impunity
thrives. That is why government needs strong
institutions and once the institutions are
compromised in a country; for instance, the EFCC
is there to check financial crimes; the ICPC are
there, the state security services, these are their
jobs. It is not the jobs of people like us to know
the accounting mechanism of the NNPC and all.
There are institutions that are supposed to check
all those things, Accountant General’s office,
Auditor General’s office, those are the things we
call weak institutions, the system itself.
That is why some of us have sensed the
democratic regime since 1999, some of us have
not being satisfied with the way our country. In
other words, we want a dynamic country where
there is egalitarianism, justice, equity, but the
way politics has gone, we are terribly
disillusioned. Why do we have to go into all those
struggles and sufferings and deprivations, if the
end result of democratic rule is going to be worse
than the military?
We have been in democratic practice for 16 years
and things seem to be getting worse. Do we now
envisage a situation where we have to go back to
the pre-politics era or what do you think is the
way out?
Obviously, nobody wants military rule. People
always say the balance is that the worst
democracy, civil rule is better than the military
rule, no matter how benevolent the military is. We
have lived all as activists and freedom fighters,
there is no way we could talk about military
coming back and they know. Actually, it was after
the June 12 struggle that the Nigerian military,
which were almost addicted to ceasing powers in
coups, felt humiliated, that the people could resist
to that level. Since then, I know they have on
their own decided that never again will they cease
power in this country, that the people will not just
look at them, because we know what we did with
them for 10 to 12 weeks of our resistance. We do
not want the military. At least, we still have
freedom of the press, people demonstrating and
all that. The military wouldn’t accept that.
Do you see a free and fair election?
Obviously, it will be clean and fair because the
PVC is a better source of managing the electoral
fraud. That is why you could see here, a sitting
government trying to use a back door. This is the
greatest thing that could happen to electioneering
in the third world. If we cannot go full electronics
voting, this is the closest thing to electronics
voting where a card is a human being, not just
figures. You must be a human being to have a
card. We will count humans. That’s what we call
dry voting, not wet voting. I analyse these things,
some people will come, daydreaming to say that
some people are against Jonathan in Bayelsa
State. I just laugh; you cannot go against
Jonathan in Bayelsa. Jonathan will clear his 95%
or 90% in Bayelsa State and there is nothing we
can do about that.
In Delta State, I told you the real thing, there is
no way Buhari can beat Jonathan in Delta State,
especially when the opposition is now between
two big Urhobo sons, the major voting bloc of
Delta, Olorogun Otega and Great Ogboru. This we
know but the elections, there is no way they
could do it. I think that is why the PDP is
panicking about the whole thing. They suspect
that the elections will nail their coffin after 16
years. But they should not panic really because in
a real democracy, after you have done your bit
and people feel you are not good enough, you try
the alternative party. That is the legacy I think
Jonathan should leave behind in this country. I
know he has some hawks in his party and kitchen
cabinet, pushing him to sink this country. Let him
not sink this country. If he sinks the country, he
is a human being, he will die one day; we shall all
die and history will judge him. He should not dare
to sink the country and there is no way anybody
in the country can sink Nigeria because if he
dares, the whole people will rise against him.