The Nation Newspaper

Tag: futile

  • ‘Attaining 2.5mbpd output futile without oil exploration’

    The efforts to attain 2.5 million barrels per day (mbpd) in crude oil production by the Federal Government will be unrealistic if aggressive exploration is not encouraged.

    This was the view of experts during a panel session at the 55th Business Anniversary of the Oil Producers Trade Section (OPTS), an arm of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), in Lagos.

    Industry operators, including the  Chairman/CEO, Waltersmith Petroman Oil Limited, Abdulrazaq Isa; Managing Director, Financial Derivatives Company Limited, Bismark J. Rewane; Lead Consultant to Senate Committee on Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) and former Director, Department of Petroleum Resources, Austin Olorunshola; Boston Consulting Group Miguel Pita, and Leader, McKinsey Oil and Gas Practice, Europe, Middle East and Africa, and Chairman, Energy Insights and McKinsey Energy Think-Tank, OccoRoelofsen, among other members of the OPTS, spoke at the  event.

    The panel session entitled: “Competitive fiscals: Challenges, solutions and way forward”, examined how the Nigerian oil and gas space would be able to attract the quantum of investments that will drive government’s aspirations in oil reserves and production growth targets, especially in the face of the growing competition for capital from existing and emerging oil producing African countries.

    They noted that there are very competitive fiscals from other African countries and capital moves to an environment where they are welcome. Therefore, Nigeria should not foot-drag in its determination to maximise value from its hydrocarbon deposits.

    They said if there is no dependable plan to replace used reserves, even with the attainment of 2.5 million barrel daily, the production will drop abysmally with time because it is not sustainable.

    According to them, some new oil firms do not have exploration departments as required, such companies are only interested in production. “The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) is giving licences for petroleum refining, this is good but where is the oil? For instance, if Dangote Refinery takes 650,000 what else remains? It is important that government encourages exploration with competitive fiscals to enable oil companies take risk in oil search,”they said.

    “Government should quicken the completion and implementation of its new reforms to bring in fresh investments into the oil and gas sector. The government should also apply simplicity, transparency and enforceability in the new reforms,” they added.

    OPTS Chairman and Shell Petroleum Development Company(SPDC) and Chairman, Shell Companies in Nigeria, Mr. Osagie Okunbor, said:”We are talking about sustainability and that is a key thing to worry about. The Federal Government through its Economic Recovery Growth Plan (ERGP) eyes 2.5 million barrels per day, which is about a billion barrels a year.

    “The nation’s legacy reserve base has not been increased in the last 20 years. With 30 billion barrels reserves base and one billion barrels per year depletion, in 30 years the reserves base will be zero. The broad policy is around a replacement ratio of one to one and I don’t see a billion barrels coming into the reserves every year from the reality on ground.

    “The reality is that OPTS consists a significant proportion of what our economy represents, therefore, anything  that  impacts the oil and gas industry will have tremendous effect on the livelihood and meaningfulness of life of the average Nigerian.”

    According to Rewane, the upstream oil and gas sector should be optimised on one hand and continue to significantly aid the development of the country. “So, how do we incentivise this sector to the level of optimisation? We need to correct some misperceptions. There is this rhetoric about diversification, which is misinterpreted to mean ‘kill oil.’

    “In spite of all that have been said, we have not done so well as a country, but because we are in an era of politics where political expediency overrides economic reality. Over dependence on oil in the last 20 year period, even though activities have been diversified, the dependence has actually become more concentrated. Let’s not deceive ourselves as a country, we need to nurture this particular asset, the investors in these assets.

    “Because of the natural state of attrition, the politicians and policy makers have no control over the market. We cannot control OPEC, the glut in the international market, the thing we can control are the incentives we can offer investors,”Rewane said.

  • Futile and fatuous

    Those who play the game of politics should not be impolitic. There are political players that try to turn every issue into a political football. Consider the effort of Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose to discredit the Muhammadu Buhari administration in connection with the recent release of 21 Chibok schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram.

    These girls were among the 276 pupils kidnapped by terrorists on April 14, 2014, at the Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State. It took collaboration between the Federal Government and the Swiss government to un-cage them after over two years in captivity; and 197 of the abducted girls are still captives of terror.

    This context helps to clarify the widespread expressions of delight that greeted the good news of the girls’ freedom. Indeed, the national leadership of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) in a statement described the development as “a sweet relief.”

    But Fayose chose to react to the positive happening with negative thinking. “What they came out today to tell Nigerians that 21 abducted Chibok girls have been released by the Boko Haram group is diversionary,” he declared during a ceremony to mark his second year in office.

    Fayose said: “Nigerians have never had it so bad. People are very hungry. What they did today is just to divert attention from what they did last week by clamping judges and justices into detention. While no one is saying corruption should be condoned, but the due process must be followed…We have had enough of diversionary tactics; they are using the report of Chibok girls’ release to cover up the undue arrest of our judges. Trampling on our rights is trampling on the constitution.”

    Fayose’s mixing of issues suggests that he may lack the capacity to separate issues and deal with them separately. Or perhaps the politician in him just cannot rise above petty politics. He betrayed his thoughtless partisanship when he said: “The Peoples Democratic Party-led Federal Government that they labelled as inept did better than this… all the gains recorded by the previous government as far as democracy is concerned are being eroded.”

    Let’s set the record straight. The Goodluck Jonathan administration that Fayose tried to romanticise failed to bring back any of the abducted Chibok girls. In fact, the PDP-led government initially dismissed the abduction as a non-event. Furthermore, the so-called democratic gains under the former government were not enough to prevent its rejection by democratic means.

    Fayose’s attempt to divert public attention from the significance of the release of the 21 Chibok captives is futile and fatuous.

  • Afenifere: Still consequential or now futile?

    In clarity, Afenifere, the Yoruba socio-political group is no longer what it used to be.  Once upon a time, it was a body respected and honoured by the people of the old Western Region. Its story has changed.

    Purposely in the early 1950s, the leadership of the Yoruba-based political party, the Action Group under the leadership of the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo established the forum tagged ‘Egbe Afenifere’ to tackle predicaments of the people. It was with a mission to inform and propagate the principles and ethics of the party to their people who neither speak nor understand foreign language.

    This group that loves its people for good discovered the good things that would transform their lives. Specifically, it revealed agenda that would make all school age children in the region to be enrolled in primary school at government expenses. It also guaranteed free medical expenses in the hospitals for all children from birth to the age of eighteen.

    All the concepts were materialized in genuineness and authentic faithfulness. To exhibit fundamental and comprehensive transformative thrust of the political party, schools for adults, plainly meaning ‘Ile Eko Awon Agba’ were established in the region to teach farmers, artisans, market women, among others to read and write; the goal being to eradicate illiteracy in the region within two decades. This was also based on the leadership’s believe that it would be intricate misruling a literate people with capacity to preserve their rights.

    Notwithstanding the opposition to Awolowo who was the party’s leader and to the Afenifere group by some political men in the region who distrusted them, dedication in sincerity made the implemented purpose to become fulfilled.

    Till today, in Southwest of Nigeria, there are still feasible products of the Egbe Afenifere agenda through the long-defunct Action Group. The policy set the party apart from other parties, not only in the region, but in all parts of the country. The Egbe Afenifere was not an all-inclusive sunshade for all political propensities in Yorubaland, it was an umbrella for those who pledged to its ethics and principles.

    The story has changed to the other side of progress and benefit to the people even as some of the present elders were supposed to be conscious of the reality of the established Afenifere. Once Pa Abraham Adesanya who later headed the group died, Egbe Afenifere became irrelevant and has continued to decline. Pathetically, it has now relegated itself to licking its wounds in a hushed bend of the Southwest – without influence and without impact on the people and the region as it used to be.

    That Afenifere was recently mobilized by Ondo State Governor Olusegun Mimiko to ally with President Goodluck Jonathan and endorse his ambition to remain in office is a clear indication of taking a wrong step at the right time. Definitely Afenifere’s  endorsement was not made on behalf of true Yoruba people that earnestly desire for change.

    Is it sensible to see an idle Afenifere justly speaking for a larger Yoruba populace? How many of those elders making pronouncements have ever been voted for in Yorubaland? What impact do they even have upon their local communities? Can they even win ward elections? Endorsement or no endorsement, nobody can enforce the neglected people on how to vote, who to vote for or not to vote for.

    Peoples Democratic Party has ruled for 16 years without moving Nigeria forward. It has proved itself a disgraceful party – of immense corruption and ineptitude. The leaders now move round to share public funds and resources just to inspire being voted for.  It is as if they are unaware that many Nigerians today remain unimpressed of the cluelessness and deceitfulness of the party and its leadership.

    Today’s Afenifere is surely out of value. Its claimed meaningless endorsement is claimed to enable him implement the recommendations of the 2014 National Conference. The conference that swallowed billions of national funds ended mid last year and nothing has been done of its report as if it has been a wasted effort. Will anybody still believe that President Jonathan will implement what he has been failing to do when he resumes office to cover the unrighteousness of his allies?

    What if he wants to implement as promised but again prove incompetent to do what Afenifere wants? Indeed, what has he really attained in Southwest region in the last 6 years that should make him reliable and dependable?

    Must it be because the Southwest woman he had wanted to install as Speaker of the House of Representatives failed is the reason why no other Yoruba people of value will be in position of power in the nation today? Or why should he be more loving to the Yorubas of non-integrity? Just imagine the likes of the Kashamus, Obanikoros, Omisores, Fayoses, Bode Georges who are his Yoruba allies. It is as if he is saying that those in criminalities and in self-interests are the best Yorubaland could offer.

    Many are still ready to vote for Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) today not for any perfection in him, but simply because he is considered as a better alternative to the ruling president that is desperate to resume office and continue to disastrously waste the goodness of the nation for a total of 10 years .

    There is no prominent Nigerian Jonathan and his campaign organisation has not stolen ‘endorsement’ from. He has been visiting all manner of churches, traditional rulers and communities which he had abandoned in his last six years in office. He adopted Ekiti State burdensome and tyrannical Governor Ayodele Fayose’s stomach infrastructures mentality by sharing rice and dumping the money he ought to use to be of promotion to life of the masses that are now in joblessness, poverty and developmental depression. We all learnt last week that PDP had to share foreign currencies to the oppressed Nigerians in the United Kingdom so that they can protest against Buhari who they confessed they have nothing against.

    That the so-called Afenifere is not supporting Buhari is not because those elders hate him. The truth is that they are just working to oppose Asiwaju Bola Tinubu who is a National Leader of Buhari’s main opposition party, the All Progressives Congress (APC). This is why I comply with the view of an earnest Yoruba leader, General Alani Akinrinade (rtd) who condemned the endorsement. He said: “if this old men that are shouting marginalization a few months ago, can sit today to endorse the same man that is marginalizing them, then their brains need medical examination.”

    Akinrinade observed that Prof. Yemi Osinbajo’s emergence as APC vice presidential candidate, an in-law to the Awolowo family, is enough to unite Yoruba to work for a common interest like Afenifere of old. He portrayed the endorsement of Jonathan, against the Buhari/Osinbajo ticket as a serious disservice to the Yoruba race. “How can these people be speaking for Yoruba, when they abandon their own son to celebrate a man that sees them as nothing for complete four years? He continues to deceive them with implementation of National Conference, as if that is where our future lies.”

    The retired General charged Yoruba youths to take their destiny in their hands, as the old men are not good role models. He depicted them as a group of sadist working unremittingly against Yoruba interest because of their hatred for a single man. He then counseled the scrapping Afenifere group to use their last days wisely since they will be answerable to God Almighty who created them one day.

    He is right in wisdom. Failing Afenifere leaders does not speak for the entire Yoruba race. They have become inconsequential set who cannot dictate for Yorubas who are still sensible.

  • Jonathan’s futile media war

    But everything President Goodluck Jonathan promised not to be, he has become in the countdown to the 2015 elections. A lion, a general, a Pharaoh  and Nebuchadnezzar, all rolled into one.  All the president seems to have in mind these days is the election.  Do not forget he told us last year that in  2014  he will let us know whether or not he will contest the election.  Now 2014 is here, but the president cannot  declare his stand  because of recent developments in the polity. What has really stopped him from making his position known is the abduction of the Chibok schoolgirls.

    It is also because of these same girls that the media may have incurred the president’s  wrath. In the past five days, the media has been under siege from a government, which naturally should protect it. By virtue of his position, President Jonathan is the father of the nation. He may be in power because we voted for him, but as president he is not expected to be partisan. His office transcends party politics. Sadly, he views everything from the narrow prism of party politics.

    This is why today he is waging a war against the media. I do not know of  those who ever  fought the media and won.  His cannot be an exception. So, it would be advisable for Jonathan and his men to retrace their steps before it is too late. Some people may be deceiving him that he should go all-out against the media. Those who are giving him such piece of advice  do not love him. They are only talking like that because of the benefits therein.  Frankly, what has a good leader to fear about the media? Nothing, absolutely nothing. Only leaders  with skeletons  in their cupboards are afraid of  the media. Is Jonathan such a leader? Is that why he has set the army against the media to search distribution vans under the guise of looking for bombs?

    The media  does not deliberately set out to probe anybody, not even a  leader. Its job is to report events and to comment on them as it deems fit. The media is all about people and their activities. Since leaders are accountable to the people, it is the job of the media to let the people know what their leaders are doing. In doing that, the media must have unfettered access to information and also be free to circulate its products. This freedom is being threatened by the Jonathan administration under the pretence  of maintaining security.

    Between last Friday and Monday, the media came under siege, the sort of which was last experienced under the Babangida and Abacha juntas.  Distribution vans were  waylaid  by military men across the country. It was a premeditated and clinically executed act, which caught all the newspapers offguard. The soldiers seized the vans for the better part of the day. By the time they released the vans, it was too late to distribute  the newspapers they were carrying. What do you do with such a product, which by then, had become perishable? You count it as unsold and that means a huge loss in revenue. Who should be responsible for that loss? Your guess is good as mine. Newspapers are not like edible products, which can be on display for as long as the vendor wants. It is time-barred and once that time  is up the newspaper becomes as good as a tissue paper.

    It is all over for a newspaper, no matter how rich its content may be,  which is not distributed within time. If there are no vendors to collect the paper at the appointed hour,  forget it, it will be returned to the publishers as unsold. The soldiers, who ambushed the vans of The Nation, The Punch, Vanguard, Leadership and Daily Trust,  among others, knew what they were doing by holding on to those newspapers until about 5 pm or 6 pm before releasing them. They knew that at that  hour, the papers can no longer be distributed to vendors not to talk of selling them.

    As expected, the military defended its action. According to the Director, Defence Information (DDI),  Maj. Gen Chris Olukolade, the onslaught was launched after security agencies received ”intelligence reports indicating movement of materials  with grave security implications across the country, using the channel of newsprint related consignment”. Yes, the military or any arm of the security agencies has the right to enforce security, but it should not be at the risk of depriving the citizenry of  their means of livelihood.

    If it was true the soldiers   were looking for explosives, why didn’t they release the vehicles after searching them and finding no incriminating evidence in them? Why detain the vehicles until very late in the day when their contents – the newspapers – could no longer be distributed for sale? Does that not show that the government had ulterior motives, and only  made up  its claim that it was looking for bombs, to justify what clearly is an illegal action?  That jester called Doyin Okupe added insult upon the injury when he also  spoke on the matter. ”If the security of the country is at stake, some segments may have to undergo some discomfort. This is what we have to face because our country is under siege”.

    Our country did not come under siege today. It has been under siege for years and the media has been playing its role to ensure that things return to normal. If our leaders have been as concerned as the media things would not have  become this bad. Are the troops now hunting for newspapers’ delivery vans all over the place not in the country when the President said there were Boko Haram elements in government? What have they done to fish out these Boko Haramites?

    They can go after vans on the roads of Ibadan, Ilorin, Port Harcourt, Kaduna, Abuja, Benin, Ekiti and Lokoja, but close their eyes to the President’s revelation that Boko Haram has infiltrated some  government offices. Let the soldiers go and search those offices and even themselves for bombs.   Lest we forget, the matter  of the abducted Chibok girls is also still there. How far have these soldiers gone in their search for the girls? They should keep busy at that and let the media be. As for Jonathan, he should stop venting his anger on the media over what he perceives as a delay in making known his second term bid.

  • Re: Nnamani’s futile re-entry into PDP

    SIR: On Wednesday March 19, I received a text message from a phone caller ID – SAVE ENUGU. The message read: President says that sovereignty belongs to the people and PDP says that power belongs to ther people. But in Enugu State, Sullivan Chime and Ifeoma Nwobodo are the people.

    After reading the article in The Nation  titled Nnamani’s futile re-entry into PDP, it dawned on me that there is serious trouble with my state.

    The issue is that Chimaroke Nnamani having left the PDP for whatever reasons had also for whatever reasons chosen to come back. Whether it is for realization of political ambition or in acceptance of the olive branch being extended by the national chairman of the party is immaterial to me for now. I learnt that there were series of organized moves to stop him. The state chairman of the party, Vita Abba had described Nnamani as a liability on the party and that his planned return would not be feasible. Another report had it that Nnamani had actually returned having been issued with a valid membership card in his ward. Subsequently, the state government allegedly directed, through the party hierarchy, the suspension of the ward chairman, Monday Ngene, who re-registered Nnamani.

    Based on reports, I sought out most of the characters for their opinions on raging controversy. First was Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu who frowned at the actions aimed at preventing Nnamani from re-joining the party.

    So also was Senator Gilbert Nnaji. He described Chimaroke’s re-entry as an asset to the party because as a former governor and a former senator, he has a lot to offer in ensuring that PDP is victorious come 2015.

    From the foregoing, one does not need to wonder why the newspaper publication which was obviously sponsored by the state government would conclude that “ the alliance of Senator Ike Ekweremadu, Gil Nnaji and Nnamani was not only a conspiracy against the interest of the people, it is also selfish and a self-serving move aimed at taking the state back to dark days of political insecurity and crisis……

    What business does Ekweremadu who is from Enugu-West have with who represents Enugu-East.? Also to what extent would the return of Chimaroke to the party alter the “adoption by the people” of the zone, and not even the party?

    Again, why should Gilbert Nnaji still be a factor since it is a peculiar tradition to Enugu-East that nobody should represent them at the senate twice, despite performance?

    What is the essence of calling democracy the government of the people by the people whereas it is only one person or a few individuals that determine the fate of the people? For instance, if such an agreement exists, then once an individual is elected he or she should not even bother to deliver since he or she must vacate office whether or not he or she performs.

    Besides, has actual politicking begun? Otherwise, why this adoption brouhaha? Or, is PDP not concerned about the implication of premature campaign? And, have politics and governance become inseparable?

    My inference as such is that Enugu State is in bondage crying for salvation all round. The manner the governor parted ways with his wife, the manner Deputy Governor Sunday Onyebuchi’s poultry was invaded and demolished, the manner the state boards of parastatals were dissolved and lopsidedly reconstituted in favour of perceived die-hards as well as the indecent manner the health condition of Governor Chime is being managed all allegedly revolve around Ifeoma Nwobodo.

     

    • Frank Ene,

    FESTAC Town Lagos