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| MOMAN, Executive Secretary, Obafemi Olawore |
Speaking at the 5th Lecture and Award Ceremony of the Nigerian NewsDirect held in Lagos, the Executive Secretary of MOMAN, Mr. Obafemi Olawore said the private sector would not import products unless their subsidy claims were paid, adding that it would also be difficult for the NNPC to bring in products to meet the Christmas period’s demand.
He however stated that as soon as they were paid they would bring in products because the stock of petrol nationwide had since dwindled.
“The private sector cannot continue to import fuel because government had failed to reimburse those that have already imported product, thinking that they can do it alone. We know that government had never succeeded being the sole importer to satisfy the petrol need of the country,” he said.
Olawore added that no marketer had been paid any reimbursement since August 2014, adding that all the payments the marketers received this year were for products brought in last year.
“When there was deregulation, life was very beautiful in this country. We had only one refinery that was able to provide enough for those that needed fuel. Those days when you take your crude to the refinery, you will process it and you will take it away. It was not involving any government, it was pure private, but problem started when the government took over the refinery.”
“In the year when we have oil boom, it was a period when we should have taken an opportunity to develop. In 1970, we had what is called Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) and that brought up the middle class people. The tendency of the middle class people was to buy cars. So we had more cars than the oil could service and that was the beginning of scarcity in this country.”
“Therefore in 1973, government started uniform pricing through the enactment of the petroleum equalisation fund act. Before then there was no uniform price. I could sell my product at any price. The meaning of this was that company ‘A’ that sells petrol in Lagos Island could sell the same petrol at a different price in Agege. It takes its cost into consideration. Company ‘A’ and ‘B’ in the same sector could develop a product but sell at different prices, but the elimination of the deregulation is the cause of the problem we have today,” Olawore explained.
Also speaking at the event, the Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Mr. Ekpo Nta said there was almost Siamese relationship between the oil industry and corruption.
“A few other nations with petroleum products like gas have used this God-given wealth to change their fortunes for the better and had like Qatar achieved health standards higher than the USA and European countries. The ongoing infrastructural development is unprecedented to the extent that this country with only 400,000 indigenes has 1.7million foreigners providing general and specialised engineering and other services. I didn’t read this up because I was physically there as Head of Nigeria’s delegation to attend the United Nations Conference on Crime and Criminal Justice early this year,” Nta explained.
He stated that in the past, the commonest form of corruption in Nigeria was bribery, adding that in recent years “this has been overtaken in level of prevalence by embezzlement and theft from public funds, extortion, abuse of discretion, abuse of public power for private gain or unofficial end, favouritism and nepotism, conflict of interest, scam, fraud, extortion, opportunism and illegal political party financing”.
“Today, out of about 22 government’s depots, almost none is working. I am standing in front of you to say that we should thank Nigerians who are bold enough to take loans and build depots all over the country, otherwise, the fuel scarcity we are experiencing today could have been worse,” Olawore added.
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