For nearly two weeks that the current spasm in the fuel supply chain has endured, the Federal Government, through the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, has expectedly moved to douse citizens’ anger. Still missing however are two important measures Nigerians expect to see happen. First is the shooing out of the officials even remotely connected to the scandal from their positions to allow for an unfettered investigation promised by President Muhammadu Buhari; and second, the calling in of the specific individuals/institutions to answer to the law for criminal dereliction.
We say this because none of the measures already taken has sought to address the million dollar question of how – between the importers and the hordes of inspectors and the regulator – the methanol content of the imported fuel would pass the threshold range of between 0.7.1 to 0.7.2 per cent, to 20 per cent without detection. From Minister of State for Petroleum, Timipre Sylva’s artful evasions on the subject to NNPC Group Managing Director’s avant garde but nonetheless distracting charm offensive, the evident body language of the administration not only suggests that it has something to hide but it knows more than it’s willing to divulge.
Already, there have been heightened speculations as to the motives behind the importation of the toxic consignments. And then a related report has since surfaced which suggested that some operators are able to persuade the traders and refiners to increase methanol contents in the fuel coming to Nigeria to make more money. Some Direct Sales and Direct Purchase (DSDP) players, the report specifically inferred, not only maintained contacts with fuel suppliers abroad, but somehow, have the capacity to influence them on issues relating to crude refining and importation of petroleum products. While these allegations are ordinarily confounding enough, none however could match the admission by the NNPC that the issue of the level of methanol is outside the orbits of regulation, hence its pre-emptory move to absolve the NNPC’s foreign and domestic inspectors and the Nigerian Midstream Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) of any responsibility.
Of course, only the government still pretends that the issues at the heart of the latest ruckus are anything but straight-forward. The facts, if we may dare to repeat them are that some persons/institutions in the fuel importation chain failed Nigerians at a critical moment; and for their dereliction, the country as indeed the ordinary citizen are being made to pay premium.
In the developed countries, those responsible for the bad fuel would either have resigned or be under pressure to do so. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is under pressure to resign just for partying during the COVID-19 lockdown. His sin was that of double standard: he attended parties at a time his government directed the citizens to observe COVID-19 protocol, including a ban on social activities. It wasn’t anyway near the consequences of the adulterated fuel that Nigerians are still suffering.
Which is why Nigerians must find it unsettling that an administration which runs on an anti-corruption mantra has chosen to dither when Nigerians expected swift action.
It seems now rather late in the day for the government to press ahead with an in-house panel as it is wont to do. For now, the issue of those responsible no longer lies in the mouth of Minister Sylva. As things stand, nothing short of a comprehensive public inquiry by forensic experts drawn from the private sector and the professions and whose findings shall be made public, will do. The first reason has to do with the legendary opacity and the astounding lack of transparency for which the business of fuel importation is renowned, of which the government is its principal enabler. The other has to do with how previous efforts at investigation of similar acts of endemic corruption have ended. Here, Nigerians readily recall the bungled Representatives Ad Hoc Committee on Fuel Subsidy Management probe in 2012 during which the lead investigator, Farouk Lawan, would himself be charged and convicted for criminal extortion.
At this point, while the issue of whether those who presided over the scandal should be afforded the luxury of further staying on is best left for the government to answer, the least Nigerians expect from the Buhari administration is that it will for once act in their best interest.