Two weeks after the announcement by Petroleum Minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke of the plan by government to sell the nation’s four refineries by the first quarter of 2014, there are enough signs already to suggest that the process is not guaranteed a smooth sail. As it appears, not even the horror of the reversal of an earlier sale of two refineries to Bluestar Consortium by the late President Umaru Yar’Adua, or the self-evident folly that flowed from that botched exercise would suffice to persuade those whose understanding of the times seems at best antediluvian to have a change of heart.
I refer of course to the latest round of opposition mounted to the planned privatisation of the refineries by the Trade Union Congress (TUC) and the newly created multi-purpose vehicle– NUPENGASSAN – an amalgam of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria PENGASSAN.
The indications are that a titanic battle lies ahead.
Not surprisingly, it would be another instance in which emotions rather than reasons would rule the roost; the same old stuff about a patrimony that needs to be preserved for some future generation. And so the argument goes that simply because those refineries were built with millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money, everything must be done to preserve them as public entities even when it amounts to pouring scarce funds into bottomless hole.
Here is how the TUC chieftain put it: “Other countries are building and maintaining refineries, what are you selling them to achieve? Is it to privatise them? What becomes of the workers and the assets? What becomes of the people whose land produces the oil? Are you going to sell to them as if Nigeria is not producing oil? Which of the OPEC countries will sell their refineries now? It is a development that workers will not accept just like that”.
NUPENGASSAN on its part could not make its point without the usual threat to shut down the economy: “This planned outright sale is uncalled for; inimical to the economy and Nigeria as a nation…If government refuses to listen to the voice of reason, we will have no option than to do the needful – shut down the sector to protect these asets for generations unborn”.
The problem with NUPENGASSAN and their likes is that they have simply refused to change. If their penchant to revert to their traditional default setting of antagonism is partly understandable given the history of their tortuous relationship with the government, their insistence on yoking the nation to the past, far from accceptable, is certainly not tenable in 2013. The point is, if only they would just take a step out of their comfort zones, they would find that the idea of elevating proprietorial issues over and above service delivery is long dated. Imagine defending such patently obsolete paradigm which puts everything other thing over above service?
So, what’s their understanding of privatisation– stripping those aged complexes – bolts and nuts – and transferring them from their present locations to some fantasyland? Isn’t it about transferring them to better, more capable hands to enable their deliver on their rationale? What could be wrong with that? Isn’t somebody getting things muddled up here? Again, so much for the paranoia, what makes privatisation of the power sector desirable and the refinery not? And where is the evidence that some future administration would do better with the management of the refineries even when the facts of government’s legendary incompetence sticks out? And why should the interest of the unions override the collective interest of Nigerians?
Imagine the costs being borne by the nation since TUC and their NUPENGASSAN fellow-travellers in the oppose-the-sale-train forced the hand of the federal government to abort what was possibly the best deal in the circumstance. It started with the $700 cheque returned to the Bluestar Consortium – a decision which although was quite popular then, was probably the dumbest, stupidest thing to do by a supposedly rational administration. Since then, the opportunity costs have grown to humonguos proportions. How many millions of dollars have been poured into the endless Turn Around Maintenance ever since? I wager that it would have exceeded that $700 million paid for the two refineries.
Six years on, can anyone guarantee that the so-called prized assets would be worth anything near that $700 million?
And now, courtesy of the presidential audit team on the refineries, we are even now learning that their performances are “sub optimal”, fit for the auction market! Yes, we have managed to poured billions of naira into the refineries for far less value all for the love of Grandpa’s piece of Oldsmobile! How about that as a fitting wage for prodigality?
Now, if you ask me, it would hardly matter if the refineries are off-loaded into the market today. And I wouldn’t even bat an eyelid if the refineries are sold for a nominal price of one naira! Why should it matter that one money-bag with more cash than business buys up the carcass so long as he/she able to put it work? Who cares whether the fuel dispensed at the pump comes from Wazobia refinery so long as quality is guaranteed? Or would rather TUC and company prefer that the country continue to throw money into the hopeless entities? Is that what they want?
Don’t ask me whether anything could be wrong with government establishing new refineries. First, it is late in the day. Secondly, its no use attempting to force an unwilling horse to drink. Moreover, the prospects of another refinery owned by the government must be seen as frightening indeed at this time. Apart from the fact that value for money at any point along the procurement chain would be a distant dream, it would most certainly end up as a museum piece – like the infamous four now locked in the battle to find willing suitors.
We can only plead that TUC and NUPENGASAN take heart. One of the great lessons of the wave of globalisation is the futility of fighting it. As the far as the issue of the refineries’ privatisation goes, it’s as good as saying that the battle is lost; time to concentrate on the minor battle of process.
