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Tag: Kachikwu

  • 2027: I’ll prefer Tinubu over others – Kachikwu 

    2027: I’ll prefer Tinubu over others – Kachikwu 

    • …calls for a review of the new tax reform 

    The former presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Dumebi Kachikwu, has reiterated his preference for President Bola Tinubu over any of “failed politicians” masquerading as opposition.

    He reaffirmed this in a 7-page New Year message to mark 2026, released to newsmen in Abuja on Wednesday.

    The media entrepreneur who said he endorsed some of the president’s bold initiatives, expressed that if he would not have a shot at the highest office of the land in 2027, he would support Tinubu above other aspirants. 

    According to the former ADC standard bearer, “I have applauded some of the president’s bold initiatives and if I choose not to run for office, I will support him any day above the failed politicians masquerading as the opposition.”

    He, however, appealed to President Tinubu to reconsider the new tax regime that takes off nationwide on January 1, 2026.

    Read Also: ADC welcomes Obi’s defection from Labour Party

    Kachikwu said his appeal was informed by the adverse effect the policy may likely have on the masses who are already finding it difficult to make ends meet.

    The former presidential hopeful expressed fear that the tax reform would be counterproductive to the detriment of the livelihoods of ordinary Nigerians.

    Admitting that the economic situation in the country as at  assumption of office in 2023 by President Tinubu was in comatose that required urgent and decisive surgery, he lamented that the new tax reform would denied the masses the benefits of the economic resuscitation policies of the government.

    He expressed fear that instead of the masses, the privileged few would manipulate the policy to their advantage. 

    Counseling the president on the issue, Kachikwu said, “Our president must understand that the major beneficiaries of his policies are the legal robbers who instigate government policies that mostly benefit their companies to the detriment of most Nigerians. We understand the need for tax reforms, but an already overburdened populace can’t afford any more taxation.”

  • ADC crisis: Kachikwu rejects expulsion, vows to contest 2027 presidential ticket

    ADC crisis: Kachikwu rejects expulsion, vows to contest 2027 presidential ticket

    …says Nwosu lacks power to expel him from party 

    The 2023 presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Dumebi Kachikwu, has dismissed claims of his expulsion from the party, insisting that former national chairman Ralph Nwosu and his National Working Committee (NWC) lack the authority to remove him.

    Speaking at a press conference in Abuja on Friday, Kachikwu declared he remains a bona fide member of the ADC and will vie for the party’s 2027 presidential ticket. 

    He described the newly inaugurated Senator David Mark-led interim National Executive Committee as an illegality orchestrated by a chairman whose tenure expired two years ago.

    Kachikwu alleged that Nwosu and Mark’s faction forged the signatures of some state chairmen in a settlement agreement as part of a scheme to hijack the ADC’s structure in support of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s 2027 ambition.

    He said the forgery matter has been reported to the relevant security agencies and accused the coalition of plotting a carefully planned takeover of the party ahead of the next general elections. 

    According to him, recent developments vindicate his earlier warnings about elderly former political office holders seeking to control the ADC for Atiku’s presidential bid.

    “I also warned that Peter Obi and other presidential hopefuls in this coalition of geriatrics were being duped as Atiku’s men had been carefully positioned to take over the ADC party structure across the country. 

    “Today I have been proven right as former Governor Obi and his people now realize that this coalition is indeed a one-man power grab,” he said.

    Kachikwu accused Atiku of having no belief in a southern presidency, saying, “Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, a man who claims affinity and friendship with the south does not believe any southerner deserves to be president of Nigeria. Former Presidents Obasanjo and Jonathan are alive to attest to this uncomfortable truth.”

    For emphasis, he alleged fraud in a recent legal settlement involving the ADC, claiming that the signatures of some state chairmen were forged to secure favourable terms in court. 

    “To use the ADC they needed to free it of all legal encumbrances such as those challenging Ralph Nwosu’s fraudulent claim to the chairmanship of the party and so they forged signatures of some of the chairmen who were not interested in the sale of the party and presented it to the court as terms of settlement which the Court of Appeal adopted as judgement,” Kachikwu stated, while displaying documents and signature specimens to journalists.

    He confirmed that allegations of forgery relating to recent attempts to seize control of the party are already before the authorities.

    “It is something that will be prosecuted by the appropriate law enforcement authorities. Today, we have presented our position on this matter before the appropriate authorities, and it is up to them to take it up.”

    The former ADC candidate also dismissed the recent inauguration of former Senate President David Mark as the new chairman of the party, saying, “We all watched almost two months ago the comedic performance of Ralph Nwosu as he anointed David Mark as chairman of the ADC and at the same time presented him with a membership card of our party. 

    “I again warned Nigerians that this was fraud being perpetrated in broad daylight as Nwosu had no legal mandate to anoint or appoint a chairman for our party,” he said.

    Kachikwu insisted the developments were part of a wider plan to influence the 2027 polls along ethnic and religious lines. 

    Read Also: Dumebi Kachikwu rejects alleged ADC takeover, insists party is not for sale

    “Atiku Abubakar and a few northern elites who have for decades held political power but did nothing to alleviate the undereducation and attendant impoverishment in northern Nigeria for political purposes are at it again. 

    “They have armed the weapons of region, religion, tongue, tribe and poverty as they convince millions of poor Northerners that a southern President Tinubu hates them and is the cause of their poverty,” he alleged.

    He claimed that Peter Obi had been told in very clear terms that he would never get northern votes as an Igbo man and should accept to be Atiku’s running mate, adding that former President Jonathan was also being drafted into the race to weaken the South.

    “Meritocracy, which can only thrive when ceteris paribus is in play, has been thrown out of the door because of a truth, ceteris paribus doesn’t exist in the Nigerian ecosystem. 

    “Sadly, I am now here before you championing the cause of a southern presidency, a notion that before now was totally against all I believed in. Nigeria has indeed happened to me,” he said.

    On the claim that former ADC chairman Ralph Nwosu expelled him from the party, the presidential candidate dismissed the move as baseless and illegal.

    “Two years ago, before I ran for the elections, the same person came and said that I was expelled from the party. I represented the party in the elections. We all saw that,” he said.

    “The same person, who two Federal High Courts in Nigeria pronounced is not chairman of the party said to me that he expelled me from the party. I was a recognized flag bearer of the party. I am still a member of the party.”

    “A man who is not chairman of the party, who has no legal basis, cannot say I’ve been expelled from the party. Just like someone saying, I am no longer a Nigerian. I am a Nigerian today, yesterday, and tomorrow. I am a member of ADC today, yesterday, and tomorrow.”

    Despite internal turbulence, he made it clear that he intends to re-contest the party’s presidential ticket.

    “There’s absolutely nothing, no power, that will stop me from contesting in the ADC primaries next year. I assure you that the people who have hijacked our party realize that they brought bad luck to us.”

    On whether he has a plan B in case he fails to clinch the ADC ticket, he said:

    “As I speak to you in different press briefings, you hear them referring to ADA and other alternatives that they have a plan B with. They do indeed have a plan B because they know that they have it contained within the ADC. All they are doing is making our party popular across the country.”

    “We have ADC branding all over the country and we benefit from this. I assure you that in the next election, when people see the ADC logo, people will recognize the ADC logo and we will benefit from it.”

    He claimed the party has lacked legitimate national leadership for two years.

    “ADC, as of today, is presented with a peculiar situation. For the last two years, we haven’t had a chairman because the tenure of Ralph Nwosu expired two years ago, and since then, we’ve been unable to have a convention to produce a new NWC. This was the matter we presented before the courts. The courts upheld what was presented to them. They agreed with us.”

    “The court had given us twice and adjourned until October after the initial break. And that’s when the next sitting will go. I don’t recognize him as the party chairman. He’s not the party chairman and I don’t need to discuss with him. My discussion is with our party people across the country.”

    On who can legitimately convene a national convention, he said the party must now invoke a principle similar to the Doctrine of Necessity.

    “Our situation is indeed very peculiar. According to what happened when late President Yar’Adua was not in the country, was very ill, and we invoked the Doctrine of Necessity to swear in the President, my party seeks such a doctrine of necessity to ensure that we keep the hope and dreams of our party alive.

    “Our party must not perish under the current onslaught by brutal demons across the continent,” he added.

    He also emphasized that he was waiting for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to make an official move on the status of the party’s National Executive Council since the tenure of the Nwosu-led NEC expired two years ago and the party has been unable to convoke a national convention since then to replace them 

    Furthermore, he said he is also exploring legal options to challenge the legitimacy of the Mark-led NEC.

    He urged Nigerians to resist what he described as an inequitable political agenda, saying, “We don’t burn our houses because we want to kill rats and cockroaches; sometimes we just need to make our houses clean so that rats and cockroaches leave on their own. 

    “My earnest prayer is that Nigeria will soon work for every one of us”.

  • Kachikwu’s faction to petition INEC, head to court over alleged ADC takeover

    Kachikwu’s faction to petition INEC, head to court over alleged ADC takeover

    The 2023 presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Dumebi Kachikwu, has announced a three-pronged strategy to challenge what he called a “hostile takeover” of the party’s leadership by a rival faction.

    He noted that despite being subjected to threats and online harassment by unnamed individuals and social media trolls following his stance on the party’s latest internal crisis, he remains undeterred.

    Kachikwu also disclosed that he had rejected overtures from members of the opposition coalition against President Bola Tinubu as far back as last year. 

    According to him, the talks collapsed when the coalition promoters rejected presenting a southern candidate as the coalition’s standard bearer, an arrangement he believes is necessary to complete the South’s turn in the power rotation currently occupied by President Tinubu.

    He added that even if the coalition eventually agrees to present a southern candidate and formally approaches the ADC, the party would still conduct a primary election. 

    This, he stressed, would ensure that all interested party members have a fair opportunity to contest for the ticket alongside the coalition’s preferred aspirant.

    Dumebi spoke at a media parley in Abuja on Thursday, flanked by seven state chairmen from Benue, Niger, Nasarawa, Akwa Ibom, Borno, and Jigawa States, as well as the party’s national spokesman, all of whom he said were arbitrarily removed from their positions through a social media announcement by the rival group.

    “These so-called common Nigerians have safeguarded this party for years. Yesterday (Wednesday), they were simply chased out of their offices online. That is not what they signed up for,” he regretted.

    Dumebi said his camp will formally petition the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), explore legal redress through the courts, and rally the support of grassroots party members across Nigeria to resist the undemocratic hijack.

    “All options are on the table. INEC as the regulator, the courts as the last hope of the common man, and the Nigerian people as witnesses,” he said.

    According to Kachikwu, the first step is to demand that INEC clarify who currently occupies the position of party chairman. 

    If a leadership vacuum is confirmed, he said, the ADC State caucus, composed of elected chairmen, will immediately convene a national convention to elect new officers and restore order to the embattled party.

    “We’re asking INEC: Is there a chairman in this party, or is there a vacuum? If there is, then we need to convene a convention immediately to elect new leadership. That’s our pathway to resolving this crisis,” he said 

    Kachikwu emphasized that the chairmen in his camp were elected at the party’s April 2022 convention, with valid mandates running until April 2026. 

    “They were not appointed on WhatsApp or Facebook. They were elected by the people,” he pointed out.

    Speaking further on whether his faction would go to court, Kachikwu confirmed that legal action is under serious consideration. 

    “Yes, the option of court is absolutely on the table. We are exploring all avenues, and we will not rest until this injustice is reversed.”

    He faulted INEC for previously tolerating parallel structures within the party under former interim chairman Ralph O. Nwosu, accusing the electoral body of enabling confusion. 

    “For three years, INEC allowed Nwosu to appoint parallel chairmen. We’re now asking the same INEC to clarify who leads ADC. This time, they must act,” he said.

    Kachikwu faulted the abrupt announcement of a new interim chairman by the rival faction, who allegedly received his ADC membership card during the very event where he was named leader.

    “In a democratic society, how does it make sense that someone is made interim chairman and given his party card at the same event? That’s not a merger. That’s a hijack,” he stressed.

    The former presidential candidate said he had previously engaged with coalition advocates, including former Ministers and senior political figures, but ended all talks when it became clear the arrangement was designed to return Atiku Abubakar to power.

    “I asked a simple question, do you agree that since Tinubu is in his first term, the South should produce the flag bearer in 2027? Their immediate response was, ‘We are taking our power back.’ That was a red flag”.

    He rejected any arrangement that discounts southern participation in future leadership, calling it a return to recycled leadership and ethnic-based politics.

    “Imagine my situation, someone who came fifth in the last presidential race and I’m told that because I’m from the South, I should foreclose my ambition. That was an absolute no-no,” he added.

    Issuing a direct challenge, Kachikwu said, “Let them declare publicly that the next flag bearer will come from the South. If they do, I’ll welcome them through the front door. 

    “But we all know they won’t, because this is a coalition designed for Atiku, and that’s a betrayal of balance and equity.”

    Kachikwu also lamented the rise of what he called “toxic social media politics,” which he said is foreign to the ADC’s values. 

    “APC, PDP, Labour Party, these are parties where all they do is insult and threaten each other online. That’s not who we are. We are decent people.”

    Since rejecting the faction’s legitimacy, Kachikwu said he has been targeted with threats, online abuse, and even preemptive media attacks. 

    Read Also: ADC: Tinubu’s 2027 re-election unshaken by opposition coalition – Group

    He referenced an article reportedly in the works by Peoples Gazette, alleging unresolved U.S. tax issues

    “For those who believe I can be bullied, you are the vocal minority. Politics in Nigeria must move away from threats and blackmail. You cannot cow people on social media.

    “If you believe that threats or blackmail will move me, you’re making a big mistake. Maybe Kachikwu is the last person anyone can cow.”

    He also criticized the media for failing to properly label the opposing camp as a faction, warning that misleading headlines can distort the political narrative.

    “When I became our candidate in 2023, the media focused only on four names, Atiku, Tinubu, Obi, and Kwankwaso. You told Nigerians the rest of us didn’t matter. The media can make or mar a nation,” he said.

    He, however, insisted that despite the turmoil, he remained confident in the resilience of his camp, which includes several elected chairmen who helped take the ADC to fifth place in the 2023 general elections.

    “Our party is worth fighting for. We won’t give up, no matter the threats, no matter the pockets behind them. We’re ready for the long haul.”

  • Don’t instigate violence against Tinubu, wait till 2027 elections – Kachikwu

    Don’t instigate violence against Tinubu, wait till 2027 elections – Kachikwu

    • …blasts opposition

    The former presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Dumebi Kachikwu on Sunday, August 4, warned the opposition against instigating violence in the country.

    He said the opposition should allow President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration to deliver on its mandate.

    He asked the opposition to proffer solutions to the problems of the country rather than scathing comments.

    He asked those against the government to allow the next presidential election in 2027 to determine Tinubu’s administration’s fate.

     He urged protesters against hunger to halt their marches and destruction of public facilities.

    Kachikwu bared his mind in a statement in Abuja.

    Read Also: Protests: CISLAC commends Tinubu’s call for dialogue, others

    He said: “What of those who lost elections but like President Trump won’t accept the result and move on? This is not a progressive attitude. We can’t burn down our country over elections that have been won and lost.

    “The job of the opposition now is to oppose and propose but what we are doing is only opposing without providing any solutions to our problems. Watch any advanced democracy and see how the opposition behaves. They have their stand and solution on all issues, and they will debate you night and day but here all we want to do is abuse Tinubu without offering any concrete solutions. This is not leadership.

    “Nigerians lost a golden opportunity by not insisting on credible debates. Joe Biden has pulled out of the race because a single debate spotlighted his deficiencies but here in Nigeria we don’t care. President Buhari fumbled in all the debates, but he won two elections. His government set us back three decades, yet we didn’t protest bad governance when he was President.

    “We protested SARS arresting so-called Yahoo boys and our youths on trumped up charges. Who are we deceiving? For how long will we keep on being mediocre about our civic duties?

    “If you hate Tinubu so much, then pressure the National Assembly to remove him or wait till the next elections but heating up the body polity for the last one year and attempting to remove a democratically elected government through the back door is no different from a coup.”

    Kachikwu asked the hunger protesters to give peace a chance instead of engaging in mass looting and destruction of public utilities.

    He added: “We can’t continue killing ourselves. Our streets flow with the blood of the innocent. Over 19 were killed in this scam of a protest, all for what? No child of any politician or big man was killed. Just the poor, average Nigerian. Only their family members will cry and mourn for them quietly while those who have made billions from this scam laugh at the bank.

    “We are witnessing unprecedented hardship right now. The poor can barely eat a meal in two days. Most of us can no longer afford the necessities. The population of the poor is increasing by the minute. We as leaders need to come to a table of equity, justice, and fairness to address the plight of the downtrodden immediately.

    “It is not Tinubu’s problem alone and Tinubu must stop acting like he can do it all by himself. He must show leadership and reach out across party lines to get the best and the brightest to a solution roundtable. God himself reconciled all men to him through his son Jesus Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

    “If God knows to reconcile us to him, who are you not to reconcile the aggrieved to you? (2 Corinthians 5:18-19) Our nation needs healing and for this to happen, all Nigerians must come to equity with clean hands and sincerity of purpose.

    “We don’t burn our houses because we want to kill rats and cockroaches: sometimes we just need to make our houses clean so that rats and cockroaches will leave on their own. My earnest prayer is that Nigeria will soon work for every one of us.”

    On the removal of fuel subsidy, he said Tinubu should review its government’s policy on it.

    He said the problem of subsidy was the fraud associated with the scheme.

    He asked the government to prosecute all those who abused the scheme no matter how highly placed in society

    He said: “Look at the vexatious issue of subsidy removal. Some sections of the media are now saying all the Presidential candidates agreed that the subsidy had to go. This is not true.

    “God did not make a mistake by depositing oil in our land. The problem of subsidy was the fraud associated with the scheme. I said that we should prosecute all those who abused the scheme no matter how highly placed in society and at the same time rejig the scheme and make it fraud-proof. I also said we should suspend it for a few months while all this takes place.

    “Why should over 200 million Nigerians suffer because of the crime of less than a thousand people? This doesn’t make sense. The President believes that with subsidy gone there is more money for capital projects, but he forgets that in a corrupt society like ours, a lot of that money will be looted. We are all also calling on Tinubu, the States and Local Governments have been getting much more money and they are closer to the people. What are they doing? We don’t want to hear the truth.”

  • Kachikwu: deal for OPEC+ cut extension coming

    Members and non-members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries  (OPEC+) deal to curb oil production will possibly be extended, “hopefully for another six months” beyond the end of June, Minister of State, Petroleum Resources, Emmanuel Kachikwu, said yesterday.

    The deal has stabilised the oil market and easing the curbs could bring back excess supply, he told reporters at a conference in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea. However, Nigeria, which has pumped more crude than it pledged under the deal, will find it challenging to implement its share of the cuts because of output from a new project called Egina, Kachikwu said.

    The OPEC+ agreement has “been able to get prices to a point where both consumers and producers are at least a bit comfortable. I would like to see that go on.” The deal to reduce oil output by 1.2 million barrels a day, which helped crude rise by the most in a decade last quarter, expires at the end of June. While there’s general backing within OPEC and its allies for an extension, Russia is said to remain undecided.

    Nigeria actually boosted crude production by 90,000 bpd to 1.92 million last month, according to a Bloomberg survey. Kachikwu said the country is currently pumping about 1.7 million bpd. The country agreed to reduce output to 1.685 million bpd under the OPEC+ deal. The Egina project, which started this year, will pump 150,000 barrels bpd at a peak rate but supply is “right now probably not there yet,” Kachikwu said.

    The OPEC+ group’s compliance with the cuts will improve from about 90 per cent in the months ahead, OPEC’s Secretary-General Mohammad Barkindo said. He said Kachikwu has assured him the country is doing everything possible to meet its obligations. A full meeting of ministers from OPEC and its allies is scheduled in June in Vienna.

  • Kachikwu: oil, gas tracking’ll improve transparency

    The Minister of State, Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, has said the Department of Petroleum Resources’ (DPR) Crude Oil and LNG Tracking (COLT) and other automation initiatives will improve operational transparency in the oil and gas industry.

    Speaking during a ministerial briefing on key achievements of the DPR on COLT and other automation initiatives of the oil and gas regulator in Lagos yesterday, he said some of the automation initiatives include the Automatic Downstream System (ADS), Accelerated Lease Renewal Programme, and forensic examination of questionable vessels bringing petroleum products into the country.

    The initiative will track transparency in operations such as licensing of petrol stations, track actual oil production volumes, royalty recovery and production cost reduction, among others.

    Kachikwu said his clear mandate as a Minister of State is to try and change the oil industry, because it was looking like a value dip in terms of the reputation of the industry and some of the issues of corruption that were all over the place.

    He said: “Whilst we are celebrating a whole lots of things that we have done, the 7-Big Wins, NNPC Restructuring, the cash call issues, subsidy removal at some point, the reality is that DPR has been a regulator that has been working very hard and when they eventually got to the milestone that we have today, I said it should let people know what they have been doing over the last couple of years.

  • Kachikwu gets award

    Minister of State for Petroleum Resources Dr. Emmanuel lbe Kachikwu has received the Petroleum Training lnstitute’s (PTI’s) Life Recognition Award for his leadership, achievements in nation-building and initiatives to sustained growth of the oil and gas sector and the advancement of qualitative training of technical manpower and infrastructural revolution of the institute.

    In a statement, the institute’s Deputy Director, Public Affairs, Mr.Brown  A. Ukanefimoni, said PTI’s Principal/Chief Executive, Prof. Sunny E. Iyuke  presented the award to the minister during the launch of Project 100 of the Petroleum Technology Development Fund ( PTDF) in Abuja.

    He added that Kachikwu was honoured for his hard work, selfless service and efforts to reposition PTI to be on the global map of technology institutions.

    In his response, the statement said, Kachikwu dedicated the award to President Muhammadu Buhari for giving him the opportunity to serve the nation.

    Kachikwu praised PTI for living up to expectation, noting that Iyuke had done well. He urged lyuke to transform the institute to become a global player in the sector.

    The Minister said Buhari had never complained about PTI.

  • Kachikwu mulls duty waiver for Project 100

    The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, yesterday dropped the hint that the ministry would consider ways of securing import waivers for the implementation of the Project 100, where it is necessary.

    The government, according to him, has already approved import duty waiver for importation of modular refineries equipment.

    He however noted that the ministry may intervene with the application of the executive order when it becomes expedient.

    Although he said it is the responsibility of the Nigerian Content Development Monitoring Board (NCDMB) to raise the fund, there is really nothing like the government paying for the project because the companies already have their financing structure in place.

    The minister, who spoke to reporters at the launching of Project 100 by the NCDMB in Abuja, said the nature of government’s intervention makes it impossible to guess how much the project will cost.

    He said: “I won’t put a number because I have not done an analysis but it is multibillion terms of amount of work required in the project. We are basically saying we have reached a point when we can take the leadership in the industry.

    “NCDMB is going to house this now. It is not like we are going to be paying money to the companies. They already have their capital structure down their financing.

    “We will support them when they need input from us to help and work with various governments. We will look at accessing  all the executive order advantages that have been issued. We will look at accessing quickly in terms of import duty waivers. It will depend on the project, it depends on the company.”

    He earlier said the project is founded on the basis that Nigeria has the capacity to go to the moon.

    Also speaking to the reporters, the NCDMB Executive Secretary, Dr. Simbi Wabote, said the board will generate a source of funding for the project, stressing that there is no end to funding possibility.

    Wabote said: “We will generate another funding possibility for this particular project such that those who are part of Project 100 will also benefit from it. There is no end to funding possibilities. We will also look at the sustainability of this project itself and we will make sure it does not fail.”

    He had earlier explained that over 80 per cent of the intervention that is required for the project implementation is non-financial but the board is already finalising its financial model with the Bank of Industry (BoI), which will be launched in the next couple of months.

    The ministry’s Permanent Secretary,  Folasade Yemi-Esan said Project 100 is targeted at identifying 100 indigenous oil and gas companies, and provide them with the support to contribute to national development.

    She however noted that so far, 60 companies have been identified for the flag-off of the project which is also a continuum.

     

  • Kachikwu: EFCC begins oil vessels’ tracking

    vessels lifting crude oil from the country are being tracked,  Minister of State, Petroleum Resources, Dr.  Ibe Kachikwu has said.

    Kachikwu, who spoke at the ongoing Nigeria International Petroleum Summit (NIPS) in Abuja, said the government now has the capacity to determine the volume of oil produced in-country.

    The government has acquired the capacity to monitor vessels operating in the country and through its monitoring of these vessels, it has observed irregularities in the movement of some of the vessels mandated to lift crude oil from the country.

    The data observed from the activities from the movement of vessels, Kachikwu said,  would help determine the various loading points of the vessels, their deadweight and the volume of crude lifted from the country by the vessels.

    The tracking will be extended to the downstream sector, to determine the volume of  petrol imported into the country; the quantity brought in by each vessel; the depots the commodity are stored, up to the points of retail to motorists.

    Said the minister: “For the first time,  we know what we are producing in this country. As to when it is being produced, barrel to barrel, we can tell. We can see even vessels that are coming into Nigeria and their activities. We have seen some vessels go to a location and pick some cargoes, leave that point, go to another point pick something else and return to the first location, when they should be heading to Port Novo or the United States (U.S).

    “What we are trying to do with the EFCC is to gather data and track these vessels, to determine the owners; why did they leave this point? What happened along the way? What is the dead weight of the vessels at the time they were leaving Nigeria? And many more.

    “So, for the first time, we are going to soon  be able to tell on a day-by-day basis all the activities that took place in the sector and those of the players. We are even going to extend it to the downstream.”

    Speaking in another session,  the panelists of experts and a member of the legislature, identified lack of implementation of key policies and lack of transparency among others, as issues hindering investment and development of the oil and gas industry.

    Director, Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) Mr.  Mordecai Ladan, said the  sector lacks synergy between policy development and implementation.

    Represented by his Technical Assistant, Mr.  Nuhu Habib, the Director said: “I strongly believe that transparency and accountability of doing business is a critical issue needed to be addressed for the industry to move forward. Why is this?  We must set a clear differential between what should be business and policies. Government must be very proactive in ensuring it operates also as a business entity and not just as a regulator.

    “Also,  there must be a collaboration between the government and operators. Though, steps are already in place and more stakeholders are been consulted for some policies,  but more is needed to be in place if we must scale through.”

    interference? It makes no sense for the industry and our economy. Government should hands off the business and focus on regulation,” he said.

    While arguing what should be a priority in the industry, Soji Awogbade, Principal Partner, AELEX, hinged on adequate government structures to drive the sector.

    He said, “I will say that until we have a good government structures in place, timely delivery on responses to operators on projects, there is still no light at the end of the tunnel for the industry.

    “The invisible barriers of how to do business in Nigeria has to be addressed.  We cannot have people chasing regulators to do their job or paperwork. The petroleum industry is done writing policies and laws, without addressing the key issues confronting it.”

     

  • Osinbajo, Obaseki, Kachikwu task youths to drive inclusive devt

    Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo has urged youths to imbibe the virtues of diligence and hard work, noting that the South-South Innovation Hub presents opportunities to contribute to societal growth through innovation.

    Prof. Osinbajo gave the admonition at the Edo Youth Leadership Summit 2019, tagged Imagine, which held at SIO Event Center, in Benin City, the Edo State capital.

    Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki also called on youth to be productive and take charge in defining a new narrative for development through the use of technology as provided for in the Edo Innovation Hub, which houses the South-South Innovation Hub.

    Speaking on the need for youths to be innovative and diligent, Osinbajo said the path to failure and success are the same across the globe, urging participants at the event to be of good character, work hard and be committed to legitimate dreams.

    “No matter how talented and well-connected or your status or the wealth of your parents, you will soon discover that the difference between failure and success is character, hard work and diligence, which are all you need to achieve success in life,” the vice president added.

    Osinbajo noted that these are fundamental principles of success as lack thereof makes it extremely difficult to succeed in life.

    He commended the organisers of the Summit, noting that participants must ensure they put into practice the lessons from the Summit to make headway in life.

    Governor Obaseki on his part, reiterated the need for integrity, transparency and hard work to succeed.

    “Life is about certain core values and if you don’t have such values you will be limited in life. As a government, we want to refer to the values of transparency, integrity and hard work as no system will survive without these core values.”

    Obaseki thanked the Vice President for setting up the South-South Innovation Hub, as it has helped transform the lives of the youths in the state.

    Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, said the focus of the President Muhammadu Buhari led-administration is to reduce corruption in the country.

    He said the Federal Government has shown that political position is for service and not for self agrandisement.