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Tag: MAN

  • CBN’s policy ‘ll lead to job loss, says MAN

    The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN)  has warned of massive job loss if some of the policies of the Central Bank are not re-viewed.

    The group said the new foreign exchange guidelines of the apex bank have negatively affected productivity and  increased the cost of manufacturing.

    Its President, Dr. Frank Jacobs, lamented that manufacturers are experiencing difficulties in importing raw materials, warning that if the situation is not addressed quickly, it would lead to factory closures and loss of jobs.

    He said data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), CBN and the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), have learnt credence to this fact.

    Praising part of the CBN’s policy on the 41 items barred from foreign exchange allocation, he said: “MAN has analysed the items into 680 items based on their respective sectoral and sub-sectoral groups and submitted a comprehensive list of 105 raw materials which are products of rigorous consultations with all sub-sectors of the manufacturing sector with their respective HS Codes. The association further listed 93 finished products that are produced locally with sufficient capacity which should be added to the 41 items.”

    He said while the CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, agreed to include the 93 items of finished products on the list, he, however, declined to consider the request to remove essential raw materials that are not available locally from the list.

    He said the CBN boss cited declining foreign reserves of the country, continuous fall in oil prices, and the banks inability to honour the foreign exchange requirement of manufacturers who import raw materials as justification for their insistence on the forex policy.

    On MAN’s recommendation, the association asked the CBN to remove raw materials that are not available locally from the list of items  for foreign exchange and allow reasonable time for affected manufacturers to embark on backward integration process before re-listing the affected raw materials. The group also asked for a policy statement that will assure the private sector of policy consistency, backed up with appropriate gazette that will phase the implementation of the policy over  time to safeguard the huge capital implementation associated with manufacturing.

    Furthermore, MAN urged the CBN to take action that would facilitate the disbursement of the real sector fund, saying no loan had been granted under this window despite the huge application for it. MAN, in addition, wanted the apex bank to make operational the Development Bank of Nigeria launched early in the year by former President Goodluck Jonathan and also adopt appropriate mix of monetary instruments to promote reduction in lending rates to single digit and effectively manage the duo of exchange and inflation rates.

    The MAN chief argued that if genuine cases presented by the association were not given some level of consideration it may create more socio-economic problems such as unemployment and crime arising from the closure of factories.

    “If the productive sector continues to find it difficult to procure necessary raw materials and spare parts within the next few weeks closure and retrenchment may be become inevitable,” he said.

  • Man arraigned for cables ‘theft’

    A 23-year-old man Josiah Luka, has been arraigned in court for stealing transformer cables worth N1.56million.

    The cables belong to a steel company in Ikorodu, Lagos.

    After being led to court by Investigative Police Officer (IPO), Corporal Akeem Ojesanya of the Shagamu Road Police Division, Ikorodu, Luka, an employee of Megal Steel Company, Ikorodu, was accused of cutting metal cables from transformers in the company’s premises on July 2, and concealing them across his waist and private part in a bid to smuggle them away.

    Ojesanya was caught when a security officer, Agri Oko-Ochang, mistakenly hit Luka’s while conducting a body search.

    He led the police to where he kept other cables he had stolen earlier.

    The defendant pleaded not guilty.

    Ojesanya’s counsel Mrs. A. Ali, told the court that her client had no one in Lagos to cater for him and urged the court to grant him bail on liberal terms.

    This was not opposed by the prosecutor, Police Corporal Mary Ajiteru.

    Magistrate Adejumoke Olagbegi-Adelabu granted the defendant N50, 000 bail with one surety who must be gainfully employed, properly identified and have evidence of tax payment.

    The matter was adjourned till August 27.

     

  • Man in court for alleged stealing

    20-year-old man, Friday Thomas, has been arraigned before a Lagos Magistrate’s court in Isolo for alleged stealing.

    Thomas was accused of stealing goods worth N555,920 from one Boniface Okolie at Nwachukwu Street, Okota, Lagos.

    The prosecuting police officer, Abbass Abayomi said the accused is facing a one count charge of stealing.

    He said the offence is punishable under Sections 285 of Criminal Laws of Lagos State.

    The accused pleaded not guilty.

    Magistrate Adeola Adebayo granted the accused N100, 000 bail with two sureties in the like sum.

    She adjourned the case till September 11.

  • Re: The unpredictable heart of man

    Re: The unpredictable heart of man

    WHEN siblings commit heinous crimes against each other like cruelly depriving the other of what he worked for, i.e. his labour, an inheritance or some form of happiness or the other without caring whose ox is gored, one wonders if they came out from the same womb. I tell you if you have experienced such, then I would be correct to say the evil prevalent in this world is not new to you, nothing takes you by surprise anymore and, in fact, you don’t expect much from people. What baffles me most is when for some reason they have a change of heart some day and want to make restitution, do they think it’s easy to accept them back into our lives after causing so much pain, anguish, distress….I could go on and on. They simply forget such memories never fade and an enemy’s always seen as one. Anyway, let’s deal with Madam Ogechi’s case. She sacrificed so much for her only sibling to make a head way in life, worked hard and placed the world at the feet of her husband whom she entrusted with her investments/properties. Life was full of fun and fulfillment as her dreams of having a huge account in the bank her late father worked as a security guard came true, faster and greater than she ever imagined until her roller coaster ride threw her into a nine-year jail term in America. She just returned only to find out that her properties had been sold and her “reliable and trustworthy” husband had since gotten married to her younger sister. Both of them are living large like the celebrities we read about while she is squatting with a friend in a small apartment, stripped of all the comfort she had ever known; too stupefied to know what to do. A few readers sent in their suggestions.

    Too many questions begging for answers. Let God take control. He knows the whole truth. He also knows the end from the beginning.

    Jude Okoh

    Hmmm, this life! What a painful experience. The more we live, the more we learn. There is nothing too hard for God to do. The church should stand by Sister Ogechi and pray for her until God gives her victory.

    Debbie Idu-Ukpaka

    Let her start afresh. God will judge her sister and her husband.

    Mercy Orga

    Truly a pitiful experience but what was the offense that got her a 9 year jail term in the U.S.? Sometimes, consequences of our actions can account for the loss of all we have acquired in life. Could her husband have gone through 9 years of horror and shame due to her jail sentence? However, the moral code of taking only what belongs to one still stands. He behaved like a leech, always satisfied at sucking at her success from the very beginning. He obviously was also filled with treacherous plans to have gone on to marry her sister after her mother’s death. Why not while her mother was alive? Obviously, her mother will not live to see that happen. Her sister also displayed a heart of ingratitude and lust for ready-made success. What a pity. If she had the strength and courage, she should seek the help of some credible human rights organizations who will enlighten her on the way to go, in a bid to get her property back and address her sister’s greed.

    Debola Semako Mobee

    Dear Madam Ogechi,

    You have to be very strong at a time like this otherwise I’m afraid you may never be able to get over this wickedness and move on. I would advise you not to seek redress in court for now as you are not financially, emotionally, psychologically and spiritually capable. Your sister and husband sure know your jail term is over and have long prepared to fight dirty. Don’t forget the heart of man is desperately wicked, who can know it all? You need to get a grip on your emotions fast so you can see opportunities that lie ahead of you. You repeatedly said your beautiful fair skin attracted people to you and fetched you whatever you wanted. I don’t think it was your pretty face/skin but the grace of God which you were not aware of. This is because there are prettier women who can’t get such favours. I suggest you lean totally on God for now. Pray like you have never prayed before; sink your life into His presence and before long the grace you once enjoyed will return in leaps and bounds. For now, don’t lean too much on anyone who wants to assist you in getting justice. It may end up throwing you into more pain. Stop beating yourself about your jail term. It’s over and it belongs to the past. Hold on, be strong, allow God to heal your wounds, be patient with Him as I’m sure He’ll want to process you but when He’s done you’ll be amazed at how beautiful your life would turn out. Your sister and husband are sure to end up in total ignominy and confusion and that’s if one of them doesn’t kill the other soon. As long as an adversely affected party involves God, any relationship based on an evil and treacherous foundation never lasts and ends in doom. Take good care!

  • Surgeon’s error turned me into blind man — Ex-columnist Falodun

    Surgeon’s error turned me into blind man — Ex-columnist Falodun

    Since a surgeon committed an error while carrying out an operation on his eye and caused him to go blind in 1995, things have not remained the same for Oluwole Falodun, a former journalist and public relations practitioner who wrote the popular Waka about column in the Lagos Weekend newspaper in the 1970s. HANNAH OJO writes on the travails of the 72-year-old man who once dominated public activism but now lives without a wife while his children have all gone to pursue their dreams.

    Good morning. God bless you,” his deep voice echoes through the phone. Meeting him in person, there is no doubt that Pa Oluwole Falodun, the man who wrote Waka about, a popular column in the defunct Lagos Weekend, a publication on the stable of the Daily Times of yore, is a big fish who blindness has forced to dwell in a small pond.

    He sits at his Lagos home clad in simple house clothing. For an octogenarian who would be 73 by November, his physique can be adjudged decent. Welcoming the reporter with consummate familiarity, Falodun directs her to take a big brown envelope under the centre table in the living room. Famous Christ’s School Ado-Ekiti and the London School of Journalism, appears to be burrowed in loneliness. For a man who once moved the top men of the society and nursed his own dreams, it is understandable that the cost of blindness will come in unquantifiable folds.

    The situation has put a strain on his family.  “It is a pity things are not the best they could be, but I do not want to say things about my family on the pages of newspapers. My family is still my family,” he submitted.

    Speaking on the reaction of his children to the incident, the former secretary of the Public Relations Consultants Association of Nigeria (PRCAN)  said the children played their various parts within the limit of their resources. Since the scholarship he requested from the government didn’t sail through, he said the children went through thick and thin depending on family and friends for their education.

    Down and virtually out, it is not unexpected that some friends would turn their noses at him. The old man says he is not out to criticise anybody, adding that he has left friends who failed his expectations to their conscience.

    He said: “Even if we talk about the loss from now till tomorrow morning, 25 pages of a newspaper cannot restore my sight. All the money in the CNB cannot restore my sight.  I am not the greedy type. What I want is my rights. If the government was careless with the surgery on my eyes, it is only proper that somebody should stand on his feet and repay the sorrow that I am going through,” he averred.

    According to him, losing his sight has brought him closer to God. He appears to now see things through the window of his soul as he revealed that God has been revealing things to him, including those of national significance.

    On survival and his basic needs, Falodun says the good God who feeds the birds of the sky has been sustaining him. He has benefited from the good deeds of people such as Chief Micheal Adeojo of Elizade Motors fame, who gave him a car in 2005. He also mentioned Venerable L. L. Esho, Mr. Joko Okupe, Venerable Okunuga and a retired vice admiral of the Nigerian navy in Ibadan among those catering for him from time to time.

    However, he lamented that some expectations are not forthcoming, pointing to members of the Full Business Gospel Men Fellowship, a group he said he associated with but had deserted him.

    With loneliness, he has also encountered depressing moments arising from people who tried to cheat him because he is blind.

    “So many people, even the so called men of God, still come here and try to cheat me. There was a priest who came to deliver a message from a bishop and lied about the time. I brought out my audio wristwatch and when he heard the time from my audio wrist watch, he didn’t know what to say. Several times, many people will come pretending to assist me, but to my surprise, they still go away with things from my kitchen”.

    He commended the effort of Salami Kazeem, a Muslim he said God has used to help him.

    “He takes me to places and runs errands for me. Despite being a Muslim, he drives me to church and sits down with me as far as Ilorin and Abeokuta. The time I had an opportunity to speak with Lai Muhammed (APC spokesman), he promised he would assist him on holy pilgrimage to Mecca, but that doesn’t seem to be forthcoming.”

    Pa Falodun reminisced on the activities that blindness has denied him, saying: “I miss my activities with the Full Gospel Businessmen International. I missed the activities of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations where I was delivering lectures and writing papers from time to time at the forum of the institute to the extent that I won a merit award for that.

    “But I thank God I don’t miss any church service. I am an Anglican to the core and I go to various Anglican Church services on any Sunday.”

    Falodun, who was press secretary of the Tribune Group, the youth wing of the UPN comprising people like Wole Awolowo, Toyin Adefuye, Oladipo Jimileyin and Yemi Osinbajo, the current Vice President of Nigeria, says he spends his time as a blind man praying and fasting.

    Although he has gone to the School for the Blind at Oshodi, Lagos to learn mobility, he cannot navigate outside his house because the street is not tarred.

    “I want to buy a computer with which I will be able to do my write-ups again. It will cost nothing less than half a million naira because it will come with a software that will translate what I say. I do not want to learn brail because if I had that computer, what God has deposited in my brain could be put in black and white. Those are the areas where things are more challenging to me,” he stated.

    Speaking on his expectations from the new government of Akinwunmi Ambode in Lagos State, which he said has already reached out to him, Falodun said he has sent the list of his needs, saying he is confident of a positive reaction.

    Looking through the pictures of his heyday, Falodun was always dressed in impeccable suits, most of which he said were sourced from his travels outside the country. Agreeing with the reporter’s observation that he must have been a restless person in his youth, Falodun said he couldn’t see himself doing nothing at any particular time.

    He said: “I was a founding member of the NFA (Nigeria football association) supporters’ club with people like the late Ishola Folorunsho and M. O. Koyiki. I was the public relations manager of Boys Scout of Nigeria. All those were voluntary activities. While people went to the club to drink and do other things, I spent all my time in voluntary activities.

    “During the Nigerian civil war, I was a member of the Nigerian Civil Defence Corps, who were manning the streets at night and creating awareness that the country was at war.”

    Falodun, who is still active in the Boys and Girls Brigade of the Anglican Church, admonished people never to render themselves incommunicado.  “I do not want to envisage a situation where somebody will place a request with Jesus Christ and He will file it KIV, which civil servants call Keep in View. There’s not much human beings can do. God will do what He will do at his own appointed time,” he concluded.

     

  • Man petitions Abia police on missing father

    Man petitions Abia police on missing father

    President of Aba, Mr. Onyekachi Ogbuobulu has petitioned the Abia State Commissioner of Police, Joshiak Habila on the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of his father, Christopher Ogbuobulu.

    The younger Ogbuobulu wants the police chief to investigate the role, if any, played by the State Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), Obehie, under Ukwa West Police Station in any matter relating to the disappearance.

    The petitioner equally wants the police to determine whether or not Cobil Transport Company, for which the Senior Ogbuobulu worked as a driver, had anything to do with the incident.

    In the petition written through his counsel, Charles Eduzor, Onyekachi Ogbuobulu said his father, a trailer driver with Cobil, was asked on July 16 to deliver bottled drinks of Nigerian Breweries from Aba to Umuahia, the state capital.

    Onyekachi said that his father could not embark on the journey that day because it was late when the consignment was loaded into his truck, adding that his father moved to the consignment to Umuahia the following day, hoping to return to his base the same day.

    According to Onyekachi, his father left Aba for Umuahia with his bus assistant also called conductor.

    Both men have not been seen since that morning, Onyekachi told the police in the petition.

    Part of the petition read, “After waiting till Monday, July 20, 2015 and my clients did not see their father/relation, they proceeded to the Nigerian Breweries factory in Aba where the staff initially said they were also looking for the vehicle and goods but later said they tracked the vehicle to Ofuosu presumably in Edo State being driven by a dismissed driver of the said Cobil Transport Company with the goods intact.

    “Later the vehicle with goods were recovered ostensibly with the assistance of the police and brought down to Abia State, including the vehicle and goods, the said dismissed driver of Cobil and another staff of Nigerian Breweries Plc described as a Tracking Manager were handed over to the SARS at Obehie, but sadly, neither Mr. Christopher Ogbuobulu nor his conductor has been seen till today.”

    Onyekachi said the immediate family members of the missing man have been worried about the manner in which police at Obehie hurriedly released the vehicle and the goods inside together with those arrested with them without bothering to find out what happened to their breadwinner and the bus attendant.

    Abia command police public relations officer (PPRO), Ezekiel Onyeke told The Nation on the phone that he was yet to be briefed on the matter.

  • Man who attempted suicide with acid need help

    Man who attempted suicide with acid need help

    A 30-year –old man, Taiwo Eko who attempted suicide by drinking a raw motor battery acid in 2011 over what he described as helpless condition, is now urgently in need of medical attention to survive the damages done to himself.

    He bought N400 acid from road side mechanic whom he lied that he was going to use it for important experiment and ended up using himself as the experiment material with an excuse that he had no parent or anybody to assist him in life.

    Taiwo, after attempting to take his life damaged his throat and his voice cracked. His tongue was also affected which made him not to speak louder to the hearing of anyone in the same room with him except the person draw closer.

    The Delta State born Taiwo who now eat through the assistance of naso -gasgric tube (GNB) and artificial oxygen for his breathing, said he had been treated both in Nigeria and India yet his condition is getting worse on daily basis.

    He said Apollo Hospital in India treated him to the extent that he no longer breath with artificial oxygen or eat through tube, adding that he was surprised and confused that when he returned to Nigeria everything got worse.

    Taiwo pleaded with the State and Federal government to return him back to India where he had contacted a doctor who promised to save his life. He noted that his major problem is fund since he has no parent or working to earn income.

    Narrating how he attempted to take his life, Taiwo said “I drank acid; I wanted to kill myself because I was not happy with my condition. I have no parent and I have being suffering for many years without help.  I went to mechanic workshop to get the acid with N400 but the acid didn’t end my life the way I wanted.

    “The people who rushed me to the hospital said I was already dead, that the first hospital rejected me. I was referred to Eko Hospital in Delta State and nothing happened. They took me to University of Benin Teaching Hospital where I stayed a year and six months.

    “But later the Hospital management changed their mind to perform surgery on me. As God want it, I met Dr. Richard Okonye, a man of God who volunteered to take me to India where I got treated.  But when I came back to Nigeria my condition got worse.  I called one of the doctors in India and he said I should come to India, but I don’t have money to travel abroad. I am begging Nigerians to help me.”

     

  • Stolen car returned to S/African owner after 22 years

    A South African man has been reunited with his car 22 years after it was stolen, thanks to a dogged police investigator.

    A Pretoria businessman, Derick Goosen on Monday said he got a surprised call from warrant officer Kwakwa Ntokola two weeks ago about a gray 1988 Toyota Corolla.

    He said he had reported the car stolen back in 1993.

    Goosen said that only in 2014, police seized a vehicle at a roadblock in the northern province of Limpopo after noticing that its engine number had been scratched off.

    He said that the stolen car was returned to him after 22 years with everything inside still in perfect order.

    “I can’t believe it, everything inside is still in perfect order. “I’m going to wash it and drive around in it.’’

    Police Col. Ronel Otto said that Ntokola managed to reconstruct the number and eventually traced the owner to Pretoria.

     

  • Nigeria ‘ll lose N210tr to EPA, says MAN

    The President, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Dr Fran Jacobs has warned that signing the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) would cost Nigeria about N210 trillion ($1.3trillion).

    Speaking with The Nation, Jacobs said apart from this loss, EPA would have a negative effect on local manufacturing range from the shutdown of local industries and job losses due to unfair competition.

    He said this is because Nigeria is mainly a commodity-goods-producer country.

    He said: “The EPA is a reciprocal preferential trade agreement being promoted by the European Union (EU) to create a Free Trade Area (FTA) between the EU and the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP) through six regional economic communities into which the ACP is divided.

    “Signing the EPA in its present form, would cost Nigeria alone $1.3 trillion revenue losses from finished goods coming from the EU while the negative effects EPA would have on local manufacturing range from shutdown of local industries and job losses due to unfair competition.

    “Nigeria is mainly a commodity-goods-producer country and would trade same in an EPA free trade arrangement. It has very limited capability to produce and export industrial goods. Most of the industries in the country are undeveloped and are plagued by lack of supportive infrastructure. The production plans of industry players are constantly distorted by the interplay of macroeconomic variables such as inflation, exchange rate and interest rate variations.  EPA, therefore, may appear to be a good course in the document proposal but may be catastrophic if implemented, as it will stifle the slowly recovering manufacturing sector in the country.

    “This will therefore lead to untold hardship to the country as the unemployment situation and the standard of living of the people will worsen. EPA will also confine the Nigerian economy to a mere market extension of the EU since we cannot compete with Europe on all grounds. It is on these grounds that we believe that Nigeria does not need EPA now until it has been adequately industrialized and be able to trade industrial goods competitively.

    Moreover, after 30 years of preferential market access, the ACP countries still export just a few basic commodities to the EU.  At the same time, the ACP share of the EU market is steadily declining.  The existing trade preferences have not had the intended effect of helping the ACP countries diversify their economies into higher value products. Today, the ACP countries attract only a small portion of the world’s foreign direct Investment.

    “Nigerian manufacturers are not averse to free trade cooperation but such should be better done in a situation of equal economic development. Any attempt to coerce the country into a free trade arrangement will only succeed in killing the fledging manufacturing sector which has just started to recover from a long period of comatose.”

    Jacobs said manufacturers  have serious constraints, which will make their products uncompetitive not only in the European countries but globally.

    He added that Nigeria, as a commodity-goods-producer country, can only export agricultural products to Europe while Europe will export industrial goods such as machinery and so on, which Nigeria lacks the capacity and capability to produce. Consequent upon the above challenges are also constantly distorting interplay of macroeconomic variables such as inflation, exchange rate and interest rate variations.

    “EPA will stifle existing manufacturing industries as they will be uncompetitive as cheaper finished products from European countries will flood Nigerian markets. The ECOWAS region, especially Nigeria which is more industrialized, will witness unbridled importation which will lead to accelerated shut down of the few surviving industries in the region. This will further de-industrialize the region and would have catastrophic implications on employment generation thereby worsening the poverty situation in the region.

    “The various initiatives to develop input materials locally will be killed as the EU, being the world largest producers of industrial chemicals, steel, etc will have a more competitive edge,” Jacobs said.

    Recently, the EU offered a 6.5billion Euro (about $8.94 billion) package over the next five years (2015-2019) to Economic Community of West African Countries (ECOWAS) under the EPA Development Programme. The ultimate objective of the EPA is that ECOWAS would open up 75 per cent of its markets, with its 300 million consumers, to Europe over a 20-year period (2000-2020).

     

  • The man who would clear NNPC’s mess

    The man who would clear NNPC’s mess

    The hammer finally came down on the former Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Joseph Thlama Dawha early in the week. In his place, President Muhammadu Buhari announced the appointment of the former Executive Vice Chairman/General Counsel of ExxonMobil (Africa), Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu as the new boss of the corporation.

    The termination of Dawha’s appointment no doubt marked the end of an era in the all important organisation in whose hands the financial fate of the nation literally lies, but which, unfortunately, has been bedeviled by mega corruption. Only on Tuesday, an international governance watchdog, the Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI) released a report in which it accused the NNPC of failing to remit $12.3 billion (about N2.46 trillion) into the Federation Account, being proceeds of sales of one of Nigeria’s crude oil grade over the last 10 years.

    In the report titled ‘Inside NNPC Oil Sales: A Case for Reform in Nigeria,’ the NRGI said its research found no evidence that NNPC forwarded to the treasury any revenues from sales of Okono crude between 2005 and 2014, totaling more than 100 million barrels with an estimated value of $12.3 billion.

    “In other words, the corporation has provided no public accounting of how it used a decade’s worth of revenues from an entire stream of the country’s oil production,” the report stated.

    The report further disclosed that the NNPC’s approach to oil sales suffered from high corruption risks, adding that the company had failed to maximize returns for the nation. According to the report, over the last 38 years, the NNPC has neither developed its own commercial or operational capacities nor facilitated the growth of the sector through external investment. Instead, NRGI noted, it has spun a legacy of inefficiency and mismanagement.

    The governance watchdog lamented that in spite of the failings of the NNPC, especially in its debilitating consumption of public revenues, successive governments have made no effort to undertake a reform of the corporation.

    NRGI said: “We find that management of NNPC’s oil sales has worsened in recent yearsand particularly since 2010. The largest problems stem from the rising number of ad hoc, makeshift practices the corporation has introduced to work around its deeper structural problems.

    “For instance, the NNPC entered into poorly designed oil-for-product swap deals when it could no longer meet the country’s fuel needs. Similarly, it began unilaterally spending billions of dollars in crude oil revenues each year, rather than transferring them to the treasury, because NNPC’s actual budget process fails to cover operating expenses.

    “Some of these makeshift practices began with credible goals. But over time, their operation became overly discretionary and complex, as political and patronage agendas surpassed the importance of maximising returns. “These poor practices come with high costs.

    “Average prices for the country’s light sweet crude topped $110 per barrel during the boom of 2011 to 2014. Yet during that same period, treasury receipts from oil sales fell significantly. While volumes lost to oil theft explain some of the decline, NNPC’s massive revenue withholdings and an increase in suboptimal sales arrangements are also to blame. “Mismanagement of NNPC oil sales also raises commercial, reputational and legal risk for actors worldwide. The sales involve some of the world’s largest commodity trading houses, are financed by top banks, and result in the delivery of crude to countries across the globe.”

    The alarm raised by NRGI was a corroboration of earlier ones by concerned Nigerians, including Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State who, advocating a radical solution to the menace the NNPC had constituted to the nation’s progress, said the corporation should be abolished and replaced with a new one.

    “NNPC must die! If you don’t kill NNPC, it will kill Nigeria,” he said at the 7th Wole Soyinka Centre Media Series in Abuja on July 13.

    According to the governor, in three years between 2012 and 2015, the corporation failed to remit the sum of N3.670 trillion, which he said amounted to 42 per cent of the moneys it earned during the period. He explained that NNPC made about N10.463 trillion in the period but remitted only about N6.793 trillion and could not showcase proper record for the rest.

    He said: “The long and short of the situation of our oil industry is best exemplified by the parallel government called the NNPC. In 2012, it sold N2.77trillion of ‘domestic’ crude oil but paid only N1.66 trillion to the Federation Account. In 2013, it earned N2.66 trillion but paid N1.56 trillion to FAAC, in 2014 N2.64 trillion but remitted N1.44 trillion, while between January and May 2015, it earned N733.36 billion and remitted only N473.2 billion!”

    “That means that the NNPC only remitted about 58 per cent of the monies earned between 2012 and the first half of 2015. A company with the audacity to retain 42 per cent of a country’s money has become a veritable parallel republic.”

    But the party appears to be over with the appointment of Kachikwo as the new GMD. His pedigree as a First Class Graduate of Law from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and the Nigerian Law School, with master’s and doctoral degrees in Law from the Harvard Law School to boot, seems to testify to the quality that is being brought to the management of an establishment that is clearly the nation’s economic nerve centre. So also is his record of service with the Nigerian/American Merchant Bank from where he moved to Texaco Nigeria Limited before he joined ExxonMobil where he functioned as the Executive Vice Chairman/General Counsel before his appointment as NNPC’s GMD.

    He has already wielded his winnowing fork, sacking the eight group executive directors of the company and merging the eight directorates into four, less than 72 hours after his appointment. Nigerians definitely expect more.