Sir: Congratulations to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on the bold steps taken to revive the nation’s oil refineries. To his administration’s credit, two out of the four refineries – Port Harcourt and Warri – are back in operation after decades of abandonment by successive governments. Just like every Nigerian who wanted the best for the country, I was very excited on hearing the news and so compelled to publicly commend the administration for this giant feat. Much more, I’m convinced Nigeria will work and will be better for us if we are consistently blessed with leaders who would put the interest of all Nigerians over the interest of the few.
Now that we have two of our refineries working, there are other pressing issues begging to be addressed. As a nation, it is high time we imbibed or enforced the culture of sustainability through timely and regular attention to such critical national facilities. Things would only be better for us a nation and prosperity shared among Nigerians if we are able to keep up the culture.
Secondly, one expects the administration to take further steps to protect and prevent unauthorized exploitation of the nation’s oil resources by unscrupulous Nigerians and foreigners. In my opinion, declaring emergency on the facilities surrounding the oil wells should be the next task. Nigerian Navy and other relevant agencies saddled with responsibilities of securing and preventing illegal exploitation are seemingly overstretched and overwhelmed by the operation of illegal operators. This has not only resulted to huge loss to our nation but has adversely affected the nation’s economic drive.
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The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has on several occasions declared that Nigeria is in a bad situation over the menace of oil theft and pipeline vandalism. In the first quarter of year 2024, it was widely reported that Nigeria lost $1bn in revenue to crude oil theft and production shut-in caused by pipeline vandalism.
No doubt, oil theft has been in existence for over two decades going by several reports by government and concerned stakeholders. Indeed, several hundreds of illegal refineries have reportedly been deactivated with several illegal reservoirs and illegal oil connection lines destroyed; yet the menace seems not to have abated. It is high time the Tinubu administration take the bull by the horn to check the activities of the saboteurs. The time has come for the administration to adopt a holistic approach to address the crude oil revenue loss challenge.
