Seyi Gambo is the Public Relations Officer of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN).
He spoke with our correspondents on several issues in the oil and gas sector. Excerpts….
Recently PENGASSAN gave a two- week ultimatum to the government over rising cases of oil theft, what had been the government’s response and why did you give that ultimatum?
For years now we have been having problem with the oil theft. In 2009 the United Nations said that Nigeria was losing about 150,000 barrels per day to illegal bunkering. And it was last year that the Finance minister said it’s about 400,000 bpd that we were losing so that is the problem. This is a country where 95 per cent of our exports come from the oil sector and 80 per cent of our revenue is from this same source. So you understand that this is a very big problem and as it is now, we are losing about 30,000 of our members. This is because Shell, Agip, Total had started divestment from Nigeria .
So we do a lot of backdoor negotiations and informal meetings. But we noticed we have to change gear now because everything we thought will happen in the future is meeting us now and then if you take 20,000 oil workers and throw them into the labour market, you know there would be problems.
This is because as I’m seating here I’m responsible for the upkeep and welfare of about 25 of my immediate family members not to talk of friends. So these are the issues and we need to let Nigerians know and we can’t do it alone we need the people, the masses, behind us so that we can all together ask government to do what they are meant to do, which is to create an enabling environment for business to grow in the country.
People felt that there was a sort of acrimony between NUPENG AND PENGASSAN. What do you know about that?
There has never been any acrimony between us that I know of.
Our space of working is different, they are junior staffs and we are senior staffs. Therefore our ways of engagement are different. At some points they might think we should go out and we might think diplomacy would be better. Two people can’t see things the same way. It’s not really a deep seated acrimony, but it’s just that we are coming from different backgrounds of engagement.
Recently the Federal Government just awarded contract to ex-militants to safeguard the Niger Delta waterways. Measuring it with the current happenings now, do you think they been able to live up to expectations?
They have not been able to meet up to expectations and that’s why we are where we are now. I don’t know the philosophy behind government giving them award for security of the waterways when we have the navy there, when you would expect that the navy would be enhanced to perform that role. Brazil that we started together, they have submarines there’s nothing you cannot train anybody to use now, it’s an inverted logic. If they had been doing what they are meant to do, we won’t have this problem now. Shell could do about three million barrels per day, yet we are managing to do about 1.2million barrels per day. Now they are moving between 200,000 and 300,000 bpd and it has to with their bottom-line. But our guys here don’t have anything to do but to repair pipelines and well heads.
What do you think the government should do to safeguard this pipeline vandalization?
If the government is sincere they won’t have this problem. I have always told people it won’t take them a month to address this problem if those in authority are willing to do it. But the problem would still persist because there are markets for these stolen products. How do you address it? You make sure you block the market and give it the kind of treatment Sierra-Leone gave the blood diamond.
Because our oil has a signature, our oil is not a common oil, it’s not a common crude, it’s something that can be trailed it leaves trails, it’s not something you can go somewhere and refine it. So if those in government are serious and they are willing to do it they can do it. It’s something that is affecting the whole world they should be able to talk to the necessary international organs and have MOU with governments, this is because about 80 per cent of the stolen crude oil are taken abroad.
What are your views on the controversial issue of casualization in the oil and gas sector of the Nigerian economy?
One thing is that there are several problems in the oil and gas sector. The fact of the matter is that there’s massive unemployment in the land and it’s something we should have done years ago. But because of the environment this had become an herculean task. For instance if you meet the managing director of a firm you say okay I’m ready to regularize but I can only take 20 per cent and 80 per cent has gone, what do you do? That’s the question. Nobody is happy about it, but things are so bad that now anything is better than nothing.
Another thing is that do you ensure that in the process of laying off the 80%, do you ensure that their severance packages are well taken care of because we have heard of several protests where people appeared on television and to said they have been sacked without entitlements. How do you people come in to ensure that doesn’t happen?
Basically one of the problems we faced is that most of the casual workers came into the jobs with their lowest academic qualifications just for them to work. As you all know there is a limit to which a school certificate holder would work. So when they get there, they would now bring out their university certificate and those people would now say no. So there are so many issues that you know, you cannot really fight for… But if you bring anything to the union as a body, we’d fight it to the last because this is our country and there are laid out rules and we cannot because they are our members we now change the rules. But if what they bring before we know that they are being short changed in any way, you can bet that…that… that’s what we are there for.
How have you been able to harmonize the relationship between the major marketers, the independent marketers, the tank farm owners and the jetty operators?
You know harmonizing and regulating is not our brief. It’s actually out of our league. You see that role is for the ministry and the government to see, to get them all to work as a unit for the benefit of the country. That is really out of our own league. Our major concern is the corporate entity call Nigeria. That is to say this oil we should be able to use it for the good of masses. That even if you are not working in the industry, you will feel the positive impact of these resources in your life. I mean, if we have good rail system, we won’t be having this situation where we have trucks on the roads. It would reduce the number of accidents on the roads. You know these accidents are things that could have been avoided, if the refineries are working. All the refineries are in a very comatose state, they are always telling us that they’ve done turn around by maintenance.
Why do you think they are not working?
They are not working because people don’t want them to work. I mean it’s just like NITEL andjust like the Nigerian Railway. When I was checking my records I noticed these things started during Abacha’s time. So when there is a vacuum, people now come in. some people are now making money, I mean, it’s now an industry for some people to make money. They are making billions of money by the refineries not working. When you are importing, you know the kind of transactions that go on there, so it’s very hard. That’s why the minister somewhere sometime when she travelled abroad said that there’s a cabal in the industry; but it also shows that we are having people that are either clueless or they are careless. How can a minister in an industry say that there is a cabal and you cannot arrest it? You know it’s something that is very shameful. if it’s in another clan, that person would have resigned that day. When you say that there is a cabal and you cannot do anything about it. But if it is to start chasing small small thieves on the road you’d see our security agents, they would be up and doing.
Can you to measure the performance of the SURE-P initiative. What’s the position of your association considering what they have done until now, has it lived up to expectations?
Well I would say personally that if we have a working government. I mean a government that lives up to his responsibility we’ll not have things like SURE-P. In other words SURE-P is an aberration.
Is there a way forward in all these?
There’s a way forward, that’s what we are saying, that look, the future of Nigeria lies in our hands. We have to stand up and let our voices be heard. And when there’s a need for action, we must be counted; we must come out and be counted. And now we’re… we are having symbiotic relationship with other organizations outside the union, the NGO and the civil society groups because we’re all Nigerians.
There’s nothing that happens in one sector that does not affect all of us. Look at the problem in the health sector, you see Nigerians, the ones that can afford it, they are going to India. For schooling our people are now heading to Ghana and Togo. These are things that you can never imagine would happen in Nigeria. We are a major oil producing nation and not only oil we have other natural endowments. We also have very brilliant people here, and, but look at the mess we have found ourselves in.
And your strike, is it likely to happen?
As it is now, one of the problems we’ve been having, as I said earlier on is the modus operandi of each union, each body is different. We believe in a lot of engagements, so that by the time we cry out people would see that these people really have a case. And when your government tells you that they are going to do something and as a citizen, an average citizen, you should trust them. But now that trust… that credit is almost done with and that’s why we are out coming now.
We have myriads of problems. There are some that can be done immediately, there are some that be done in months, you know, but even the ones that can be done in months or in years. But you’d know that they’ve started. But what we are saying is if they are not taking concrete efforts to address these issues, I mean, anything can happen… anything can happen.
Talking about the way forward, PIB is one of them, so what’s you take on the subject?
Yes, we have made our presentations on the PIB. And this week we are making another presentation to the Senate. And our take on the issue is that we are nationalistic, we are neither the IOC’s nor the marketers.
Which one is IOC?
What we are looking for is what would make Nigeria get the maximum benefits for these resources that God has blessed us with. Looking at the points that we raised about the power that they are giving to the minister of petroleum; we asked them to look at the best model in the world, anywhere in the world and give it to us. Let’s even imagine that this minister means well, you’ll have one minister that would be mischievous and misuse these thing, so it’s not… it’s not done. You know, we’ve have told them our decision, that government should hands off many of these things ,like the refinery if you need major repairs you have to go to Abuja. I mean there should be money for the man there to be able to do it.
What do you think the federal government should do concerning revenue generated from exportation of oil since major buyer America has found an alternative?
Well as we have said before know there is a disconnect between the revenue generated and what they do with the money. We expect that from the revenue generated from the oil and gas, we should see more things on the ground but there is nothing on ground to show for our oil exporting activities. There is power, there is road, there is education, there are so many things that you can do with this revenue and go to Saudi Arabia and you now wonder you know..That’s why I always laugh when people say that we are more religious than the pope. Go to Saudi Arabia look at how they take care of their citizens, look at Libya before the fall of Gaddafi, all the people were enjoying, we have no business being poor. Anytime I am on the streets and I see these hawking adults, children of school age and young teenagers, I feel bad, it’s painful because you know they have no business being on the streets. If we have responsible leaders. You know, even a blind man can tell what they should do with this money. You know but they are keeping it in foreign accounts, they are not even accounting for it and there is no accountability for the revenues. Do you know as it is now the NNPC don’t even know how much fuel the IOC pump in a day.
Let me just talk about your purposed strike, there is this talk that each time you call for a strike, your executive, your top people they go behind to connive with government and short-change Nigerians how true is that?
I know that you are referring to the last subsidy strike and let me tell you this about PENGASSAN. From all the people I know in PENGASSAN – from my president to all the executives, they are patriots and they will not take blood money. Anybody that takes that kind of money collects blood money and I can tell you that my president will not do that. All the people that took the money or those that were alleged to have collected it have not come out to say that they did not take it. Go and do your research you will see what I mean.
