Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke has alleged that her life is being
threatened by members of a powerful cabal who benefited from petroleum
subsidy fraud.
The Nigeria’s first female Minister of Petroleum
Resources and first female President of OPEC, said the cabal is
resisting the reform in the sector.
According to her, despite her
role in reforming the oil industry in Nigeria to the benefit of all,
she found herself in the mucky water of Nigerian politics mostly in last
few days of President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.
In a
three phase interview in London with freelance journalist reporting for
African Free Press, Allison-Madueke bares her mind on how she reformed
the oil sector in Nigeria and why the oil cabals are on her throat
Except
Honourable
Minister, thank you for granting me a few minutes of your time for this
pressing discussion about the future of policy evolution in Nigeria.
But I want you to quickly talk about the fuel scarcity that has come
just weeks before the hand-over to the new administration.
The
time of my appointment as Minister of Petroleum Resources five years ago
was a time when the nation was in the throes of many years of
continuous fuel scarcity and the abandonment of our fuel facilities.
This was having such an adverse impact on the masses especially in terms
of livelihood and quality of life. This situation certainly affected me
and my household. I was one of those who went out to queue at filling
stations and what left an indelible mark on me was the plight of the
many, many women who were queuing for this essential commodity for their
families. We are looking at time when women where losing their lives as
a result of adulterated products as kerosene stoves were exploding all
over the country. So the problem was not just about getting access to
the product but also purchasing the right quality products to ensure the
safety of the households of my fellow women. It was a time when cars
were ‘knocking’ engines, generators that cost hundreds of thousands of
naira were also breaking down because of adulterated products. People
around the country were losing many millions of Naira as a result of
loss of business incomes and we are talking of taxi drivers,
face-me-I-face-you traders in the market, the lorry drivers transporting
food to the markets, the okada drivers – basically the engine room of
the economy was affected.
I am a mother and grandmother myself
and I understand the pressure that women go through in order to put food
on the table for their families. I am very sensitive to the struggles
of the Nigerian woman. So, when granted the opportunity to serve the
country as Petroleum Resources minister, I made this my first priority.
Dealing with the fuel scarcity was a key issue that I resolved to
address as soon as I stepped into office. Nigeria is a country that
relies on access to petroleum products for businesses to thrive, for
families to survive and for communities to evolve. For me it was a
fundamental issue. I immediately set to the task. Several
inter-ministerial committees were formed to get to the root of the
matter including liaising with marketers and the unions.
A few
things were identified such as the process of payment to marketers as
well as the improvement of the distribution and monitoring mechanisms.
The Ministry of Finance is charged with addressing the payment process
while the Ministry of Petroleum Resources and its parastatals tackle
production, distribution and monitoring aspects.
So what did you do in terms of tackling the issue of access to products?
Firstly
sectorial reforms were put in place, and an attempt was made to
establish a uniform pricing regime across the country, which still
requires task forces to be put in place to oversee its success.
Secondly, an aggressive strategy was completed to build as well as
refurbish over 23 Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) depots
across the country many of which had lain fallow for several years. This
is the result of the determined efforts of the Pipelines and Product
Marketing Company (PPMC), a subsidiary of the NNPC. The aggressive
establishment of the depots occurred from Aba to Benin, from Gusau to
Suleja, in an attempt to ensure a more robust delivery of products, to
not only those areas but also all contingent areas. Thirdly many
vandalized pipelines have been restored and expanded in addition, fuel
products are now transported by rail where possible to ensure that the
products get to the depots in good time to avert situations of shortage.
Furthermore, NNPC now holds and maintains a 30-day stock of PMS, as
part of the National Strategic Stock Reserve for products.
The
Ministry has also increased the flash point for DPK (kerosene) from 44
to 45 (curbing the incidences of kerosene cookers exploding) – I cannot
remember the last time a kerosene cooker has exploded; implemented
inspection of trucks at each NNPC Depot for cleanness (preventing
contamination) and lab testing of truck samples for quality control. DPR
also introduced colour coding for all trucks loading any petroleum
product this means the trucks cannot be used for any other purpose apart
from what it has been coded to load. Many Nigerians will attest to the
fact that before now, the country has been “wet” with products with even
filling stations in remote areas, able to dispense products.
I
also led the roll out of robust measures to identify and penalise those
behind the activities of fuel adulteration as well as pipeline
vandalism, in a joint effort between security agencies, the NNPC and the
Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR). The first joint meeting
between the key parastatals, the Service Chiefs and Inspector General of
Police took place at the Oriental Hotel. It was the first meeting of
its kind in the history of the sector.
So if all these measures have been put in place why has there been this crippling fuel crisis?
The
fuel scarcity that we see today I can only describe as the ‘fear of the
unknown’ in these last few days before hand-over. It is also a backlog
following the attempts by the government to stamp-out the subsidy fraud
and clean the system in November 2011. Identifying and cutting out up to
92 marketers who had been round-tripping reduced the subsidy payments
by about 50%. This also brought about a few delays in payment, as the
investigations to identify erring marketers were robust and took time.
We
are faced with a situation where the marketers want this administration
to pay them ALL the money they are owed before the tenure runs out on
May 29. This is a difficult situation more peculiarly because this
administration did not incur ALL the debt, which actually goes back 40
years. It is a rolling obligation. There has never been a time, when the
debt obligations was reduced to zero it is cyclical. What the marketers
are asking for is not just the outstanding amount to be paid but also
for the exchange rate differential that they have incurred. This is in
the light of the many conversations that are on going about deregulating
the subsidy payments. The transition period is allowing the marketers
to try to forestall any losses as a result of a change in regime, while
this makes good business sense it is the polity that suffer. The
Ministry of Finance and the presidency are giving this situation the
priority it deserves.
The fuel scarcity was mingled with strikes
by different unions (Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN),
Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) etc.) what
is going on?
The strike was about two things. First the union
workers were demanding for salary increases at a time when the NNPC’s
running cost is already extremely high. How are we going to increase
salaries when we are currently looking at ways to cap expenses and more
especially keep things in a consistent and clear state for the new
regime that is coming into effect.
Secondly, the strike by the
NUPENG arm of NPDC has come about following the decision to move NPDC
from a sole operator model to a joint operatorship model for some of its
assets. This was done to increase the production volumes from those
assets, which had remained consistently low for some time. The reason
production has been low is as a result of the sheer cost that NPDC has
had to bear in operating the assets. These joint venture partners that
have been brought in to alleviate the cost pressure are operating under
extremely stringent terms to ensure that the ownership of the assets
remain with the government. The companies have also had to take out huge
loans with moratoriums of up to 10 years in order to perform their
activities to successfully meet the production volume expectations. So
in many ways this situation can be regarded as a win-win for the
government, NPDC and the JV operators, which would begin to yield great
benefits for the generality of Nigerians, as the boost in volumes would
inevitably lead to a boost in the nations revenue from the sector.
I
am sincerely pleased that the unions have come to this realization and
taken into consideration the sufferings of many millions of Nigerians
during the period of the fuel scarcity. It was truly a heartbreaking
time for me… heartbreaking as fuel scarcity is one issue I consistently
fought to avoid given its impact on women and their families as well as
businesses. Yes, I am very happy that life will begin to return to
normal across the country as we have the National Strategic Stock
Reserve ready to be distributed across the country.
Lets talk
about some of the allegations that you face with regards ensuring
stability of supply across the country more specifically about the
debate on the subsidy. The memory of Occupy Nigeria is still distant but
we see this same situation by marketers holding the country to ransom?
Let
me start by making the distinction that the decision as to whether
subsidy payments are made or not is entirely economic and outside my
purview as Ministry of Petroleum Resources. What we are responsible for
is the production, distribution and marketing aspects. What we also do
is give a view as to the status in terms of these 3 areas and the
decision becomes an economic one from the Presidency.
In terms of
my direct actions in November 2011, following the high incidence of
subsidy claims, with a stroke of the pen, I removed 92 throughput
marketers from the PPPRA scheme because we believed that within the
group were the round trippers who were causing problems for the country
in term of the burgeoning levels of subsidy payments. As a consequence
of this action, the amount of subsidy payments dropped by over 50%.
A
series of probes where kicked-off to investigate the transactions of
these marketers and to begin to bring in a level of accountability and
transparency into the system of subsidy payments. The lists of these
marketers were also published in the local press and a series of probes
ensued. The marketers had to justify their claims to the payments. This
was the first ever-major cleanup of the subsidy programmes and yet again
the ministry was vindicated and offending marketers are going through
the legal implications of their actions.
The Petroleum Products
Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) was also restructured and the
processes in place for the determination of subsidy payments were
comprehensively reviewed.
But these actions led to major push back by
many with accusations of corruption against the ministry and NNPC to
get us to back down. I am sure I stepped on the toes of the greedy
cabals that have dominated the sector for years, upset at the change in
the system. The push back has come from many other sources beyond the
marketers. The funny thing is these are the same people that shout
corruption the loudest but yet are unable to accept the reforms that are
being put in place to make the sector more accountable so we are almost
caught between a rock and hard place in the sector.
[The minister at this point puts her hands on her head and sighs]
In
fact this is where the bane of my problems as a woman in government
began. I wonder why people seem to want to put a tag of corruption
against my name when all I have ever tried to do is to open the sector
up for more Nigerians and make it work better for the benefit of the
country. If I were corrupt would we have achieved the extent of reform
that has occurred in the sector to date? Ah my brother, I have worked
tirelessly to curtail the excesses while ensuring that the country
remains wet with products and the sector run more efficiently. I have
constantly ignored the viciousness and focused on my job.
The
most important point to make in terms of stability of supply is that
today, marketers have a clear contract to deliver their products on
specified dates. Marketers are put under strict terms to deliver
products at dates specified if they miss the cut off date for delivery
then their cargo goes into demurrage which in itself acts as an
incentive to ensure supplies.
More recently, as part of the
transition activity I have instructed that all of the swap operators
across the board provide detailed and clear reports about their export
and import activities so that a reconciliation can be conducted and
published for all Nigerians to see. These swap transactions involve
extremely high volumes and huge cost obligations to banks. The contracts
with these operators are very stringent indeed and delivery
specifications clear. There are serious ramifications to the operators
for non-delivery most especially by the banks for non-delivery this is
dependent generally on the lines of credit arrangements.
This is
being done as part of my commitment to accountability and transparency
to Nigerians. It will also put to bed the various claims in the press
about different alleged practices by the operators that are being
associated to me. The operators deal with the NNPC according to tight
contractual agreements.
All the swap operators were well vetted
and passed as credible Nigerian corporations capable of executing such
major stringent contracts with no room for any offences to the system.
So when you have strict contracts in place and bank obligations it is
surprising that mischief-makers can say that I am in league with some of
these operators in acts of corruption! It shows that they have no idea
how the system works and I would ask that they educate themselves before
they speak. If Aiteo, or any other operator were cheating the NNPC it
would be made public as the system has been reorganized to do this
automatically. The publication of the reconciled transactions from the
time the contracts were assigned to them will also be a testament to
this commitment. Erring contractors will be made to face the legal
implications of any wrongdoings that are uncovered.
http://www.metronaija.com/2015/05/my-life-threatened-for-doing-best-for.html
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