Is the fuel subsidy cabal too powerful?

Written by Jibrin Ibrahim.

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There is increasing evidence that mega looters have taken over the economy and maybe the political system of Nigeria. The mega looters are using our stolen resources to give themselves impunity and to prevent the State and its judicial system from sanctioning them.

They are now taking over the Nigerian labour movement after defeating the police and the anti-corruption agencies. When the House of Representatives tried to deal with the mega thieves, the response was carefully planned and executed. Farouk Lawan who led the Committee ended up as the accused. Even civil society appears cowed as we try with great difficulty to understand what is going on and we are unable to take appropriate measures. Recent actions by NUPENG and the NLC have been confusing and have raised issues on which side they are on, the people or the mega thieves. The action of the Government is very scandalous.

People who are given licenses to import fuel have been provided very high patronage and privilege because the fuel importation system has been designed to provide mega profits for these friends of government. They should have imported the fuel and quietly enjoyed their mega profits. It turned out that most of them did not import any fuel and were simply pocketing a significant proportion of the national budget. When the discovery was done, I expected the Jonathan Administration to be very angry at the economic sabotage carried out by these unpatriotic and wicked elements. I saw no anger. I hear the Minister of Finance celebrating on television that the mega thieves have refunded some of the booty they have stolen. I read in the papers that the mega thieves want to negotiate a partial refund. In any country which takes its integrity and economy seriously, the demand would have been for immediate refund and prosecution to ensure they spend a long time in jail.

Rather than that, the mega thieves pay NUPENG to organise a strike and blockade of the federal capital and openly threaten the Government that they will bring the Jonathan Administration to its knees if it does not continue to pay for fuel that has not been supplied. The response of Government was to negotiate with them, beg them and cajole them. Is the Government mad? The stupendous wealth these people control is based 100 percent on Government patronage. How can they threaten the same Government that is making them super rich? And how can the Government succumb to the blackmail?

The Nigerian Labour Congress owes Nigerians an explanation for their shameful action in support of the mega thieves. How can they come out to openly support the mega thieves? In January, we had engaged in a struggle in which lives were lost to compel Government to look inward at their friends in the oil cabal who were responsible to the spectacular increase in the amount of money spent on the so called fuel subsidy. We called for investigation and prosecution of the cabal. When NLC chickened out of the struggle, their excuse was that they had been threatened. Who is threatening them now to support the same cabal that we fought against? They must apologies to Nigerians for selling out. Government must be very pleased with itself that the trade unions are now wheelers and dealers and are no longer in a position to organise a credible strike but are available to organise strikes on behalf of those looting our national treasury.

There is a real question today about whether we have a functional state. We now learn that Nigeria, the country with the largest armored forces in Africa is paying the former militant, Alhaji Dokubo-Asari $9 million a year, to get his militants protect our oil pipelines which they used to destroy. He is not the only one. NNPC is reported to be paying $3.8 million a year apiece to two former rebel leaders, Gen. Ebikabowei “Boyloaf” Victor Ben and Gen. Ateke Tom for the same pipeline protection. In addition, yet another one, General “Tompolo” Ekpumopolo, maintains a $22.9 million-a-year contract to do the same, the official said.

Nigeria is paying out hundreds of millions of dollars a year to maintain an uneasy calm in the Niger Delta, where attacks ranging from theft to bombings to kidnappings had led to a significant decline in oil production. Production, we are now told, has risen to its former level of 2.6 million barrels a day. Most of the extra money earned is however paid back to the former militants or distributed to the fuel subsidy cabal. The risk posed by the action of Government is that everybody now knows that the rewards of militancy and economic sabotage are millions of dollars. The prime placed on paying off saboteurs would definitely lead to an escalation of their activities. According to reports, oil theft appears to be on the rise again. Shell has announced that an estimated 150,000 barrels of oil are stolen from Nigerian pipelines daily. Some experts think this estimate is actually much lower than the reality.

Following a review of totally incomprehensible and contradictory presentations by Governmental ministries, departments and agencies, the House Of Representatives Committee on Fuel Subsidy was able to make a credible estimate that the probable daily consumption of Petrol from the record of marketers and NNPC comes to an average of 31.5 million litres daily. It, therefore, proposed the continuation of subsidy for Petrol and Kerosene and suggested a budget of N806.766 Billion for the 2012 fiscal year. The Committee asserted that the 445,000 bpd allocation to NNPC is sufficient to provide the Nation with its needs in petrol and kerosene, with proper management and efficiency. The Committee recommended the refund to the treasury of the sum of N1, 06 trillion for various violations. The Government now is talking of a refund of only 400 billion.

It is clear that fuel subsidy corruption has revealed a new trend of corruption in Nigeria. In the past, corrupt transactions took place mainly through contract inflation, over- invoicing and receiving of kickbacks. But the fuel subsidy corruption has witnessed situations whereby people collect subsidy payments without making any supplies, collect foreign exchange without supplying petrol and collect subsidy payments for not supplying petrol having collected foreign exchange for the purpose.

The spectacular failure of recent high profile criminal prosecutions relating to corruption dramatizes the collapse of the system of public prosecution in Nigeria. It appears clear that the fuel subsidy cabal are likely to defeat the judiciary and get away free. The body language of the Government is a good indicator. We do not see anger in the voices of Government as they talk about the issue. No wonder some of those being prosecuted would have the temerity to ask for their passports back so that they can travel abroad for their summer holidays.

We Nigerians must act more as citizens and not subjects. The country belongs to us all and we can no longer leave the political space and bureaucracy to shenanigans, and for common thieves and crooks. If the mega thieves are too strong for the Government, we need to devise new strategies to continue the struggle against corruption. Above all, we need to assess what is happening to the Nigerian state and seek pathways towards saving it.