TEN FACTS ON FUEL SUBSIDY

FACT ONE: Even if all NNPC refineries were functioning optimally, importation of petroleum products would still be required to augment local production.

FACT TWO: Even if FG allocated 450,000BPD of oil free of cost to NNPC for local refining, the subsidy is the loss of USD value of the allocated oil to Nigeria.

FACT THREE: Building more local refineries to meet local demand will still require allocation of more oil that would otherwise be sold for USD.

FACT FOUR: Even if NNPC had refining capacity to meet Nigeria's petroleum products needs, its refining and distribution costs will be built into the fuel subsidy.

FACT FIVE: FG pays the bridging costs of all the trucks that come from various parts of Nigeria to lift petroleum products from Lagos.

FACT SIX: The total annual cost of NNPC repairing or replacing its vandalized petroleum products pipelines is part of the fuel subsidy.

FACT SEVEN: The quantity and cost of petroleum products smuggled out through Nigeria's porous borders is part of the fuel subsidy.

FACT EIGHT: The loss of revenue to FG of not charging any customs duty on imported petroleum products is part of the cost of fuel subsidy. 

FACT NINE: The costs of all the government agencies, consultants and security agencies overseeing the importation of petroleum products is part of the fuel subsidy.

FACT TEN: NNPC is allocated 450,000BPD of oil, refines 25% locally and sells the balance to fund its petroleum importation and pipelines repairs.

WHAT DO YOU SEE?

What Do You See?

On the wall of my office is a picture of what one barrel of oil (42 gallons) yields, i.e. the different value added products that can be obtained from refining one barrel of crude oil. It includes Gasoline 43%, Distillate 21.5%, Residual 11.5%, Jet Fuel 6.9%, Feed Stock 4.7%, and Still Gas 3.8%. 

Others are Asphalt 3.1%, Coke 2.6%, LPG 2.3%, Kerosene 1.3%, Lubricants 1.3%, and Miscellaneous 0.67%. That picture serves both as a source of despair and encouragement. Despair because I an amazed that a country with such huge reserves of oil and gas is filled with poor people.

Encouragement, because I can see what Nigeria can be transformed into when we are able to harness these huge reserves of oil and gas for the benefit of the people. Presently, Nigeria has the capacity to produce 2.5 million barrels of crude oil a day with reserves expected to last another 40 years.

In the case of gas, Nigeria is actually a gas producing nation with crude oil, but much of the gas is flared as at date.Therefore, whether we are talking of crude oil or gas, we are like the owners of a farmland who cannot even farm or are too lazy to learn how to farm. 

First, we invite interested farmers to bid for the right to farm our farmland on either a shared cost basis or sole cost basis.The bid and acceptance fee initially paid by these farmers is supposedly used to train our own people to become good farmers in eternity. 

Second, we engage persons who hardly go to the farmland, to make sure that those farming our farmland actually are doing the right thing.Third, those farming our farmland declare to us their farm yield, after which in some cases we allow them to deduct the cost of farming before sharing the proceeds with us.

Fourth, those farming our farmland take their share of the farm produce to their homes in distant locations using their own transportation, and add value to it.They have perfected many means of getting various byproducts from the farm yields that are worth more in value and productivity than the original product.

Sixth, we take our share of farm products, sell them in their raw state and call a monthly meeting, and share the income on some strange formula among artificial entities.The artificial entities are under the control of few people and are legitimate avenues to corner the bulk of the farm produce for their personal and related uses.

Seven, to add insult to injury, those who originally owned and occupied the farmland before the start of the farming exercise, have no direct access to the proceeds of the land. Even when the proceeds are channeled to them, it is routed through several artificial entities with nothing going directly to these communities.

Then finally, the income derived from selling our share of the farm produce is used to import valued added products from those who we hired to farm our land in the first place.The result is lack in the midst of plenty, and the absolute poverty that has held Nigeria in a stronghold and made corruption the status quo.

In my minds eye, I see a Niger Delta bustling with refineries, plants, processes, and operations that add value to the oil and gas we have in abundance. I see unemployment as disappearing, and the Nigerian productivity index rising to unimaginable heights.

I see the financial, manufacturing, and agricultural sectors as complimenting one another and working at full capacity. I see an educated, skilled, and robust Nigerian workforce that rises to meet the challenges presented by increased development.

I see a nation where we allow the Niger Delta communities to collect 50% of the rent from the use of their land for exploration and production of oil and gas. We can do this because much more revenue will be coming into our coffers from taxation and being shareholders of the companies adding value to oil and gas in the Niger Delta.

Imagine our ports bustling with vessels some of which belong to Nigerians and employing Nigerians, shipping these finished products worldwide.Then we can use what some have called a curse to transform Nigeria by generating wealth that endures long after the oil and gas is exhausted.

Then we can ensure that every Nigeria becomes a homeowner as happened in Singapore that gave people in a multicultural society a sense of belonging. Then we will no longer have slums in our cities, and everyone gets a fair chance at succeeding in life.

Then we will be a nation where all the communities live together in peace and harmony because all are well provided for. Then we will be a nation that points the pathway to other nations that some call underdeveloped and developing.

To achieve this, we can start by overcoming the small mindedness that has overwhelmed our ruling class and the spirit of selfishness that rules in the average Nigerian heart. We need leaders who are visionary and can make us elevate our sight from our limitations to see the big picture.

We also need leaders who are developmental, and can set us on the path to that which we have envisioned.

THE THRESHOLD OF CHANGE

The Threshold of Change 

A question that has repeatedly been asked is this; at
what point does the concept of life of a community,
society, nation or its people change and advance for
the better?

Is the point of change a realization that there is
need for a new concept of life to guide human affairs?

Is it based on the acceptance of warnings by far
sighted ones in a society who understand that the
present concept of life is no longer workable?

Or can it be said that by virtue of being persuaded
and reasoned with, peoples or nations can change their
concepts of life for the better?

To Leo Tolstoy, the life of humanity changes and
advances, like the life of the individual, by stages,
and every stage has a concept of life appropriate to
it.

It is the same with the changes in the beliefs of
peoples and of all humanity as it is with the changes
of belief of individuals.

He adds that: “If the father of a family continues to
be guided in his conduct by his childish conceptions
of life, life becomes so difficult for him that he
involuntarily seeks another philosophy and readily
absorbs that which is appropriate to his age”.

To paraphrase a popular saying, ‘when I was a child, I
behaved like a child. But when I became a man, I put
away childish behavior’

The principle is that the need to change a society’s
concept of life is usually brought about by the
experiences of life itself.

In other words, a society will abandon a concept of
life which is inappropriate to its present stage of
existence and invariably submit to that which is
appropriate.

So, change is directly related to the difficulties
being experienced in a society and whether such
difficulties become intolerable.

The threshold of change becomes the intolerable
conditions of life that threatens the very existence
and wellbeing of society.

The reason for a forced transition may not be
unconnected with the fact that most nations,
societies, communities and humanity itself are usually
not driven by a core vision.

Tolstoy identifies three broad concepts of life; these
are the primitive concept of life, the social concept
of life and the neighbor concept of life.

The primitive concept of life caters primarily for the
interest and the need of the individual, where the
guiding principle is the survival of the strongest.


The social concept of life recognizes the limitations
of primitive existence by putting the interest of the
wider society first.

The neighbor concept of life is the highest concept of
life, where everyone sees the neighbor in everyone
else.

The underlying principle of the neighbor concept of
life is in treating other people as you would want to
be treated.

The nations of the earth are locked into the first two
concepts of life, with the undeveloped nations in the
primitive, and the developed nations in the social
stages.

Remember the issues here are in respect of concepts of
life and the underlying philosophies that drive human
existence.

The major short coming in the primitive concept of
life is in the heightened state of internal conflict
within a society, as individuals pursue what is in
their best interest.

For the social concept of life, it is in the
heightened conflict between nations, as each nation
promotes only what it regards as is in its best
interest.

The neighbor concept of life is centered on love for
God and man. This is different from the love of
humanity, which is an advanced operation of the social
concept of life.

Where do you place a society where funds meant for the
execution of public projects are tied down in bank
fixed deposits while government officials get kick
backs?

How do you describe a society where investors rush to
acquire shares of publicly quoted banks who utilize
public funds meant for the people in the first place?

What would you say about a society where government
officials predominantly utilize public funds for their
private purposes?

How do you define a society where funds allocated to a
tier of government that is closest to the people, are
diverted to other purposes?

What will you call a society where the easiest means
of getting news reported by the new media is to pay
for it?

What do you call a society where over 75% of its
citizens are mired in deep poverty in spite of huge
earnings from natural resources?

What will you say about a society whose leaders take
regular trips abroad for medical check ups and
holidays, while its citizens resort to alternative
sources?


What if I told you that I know of a society whose
leaders and elites have their own power supply, water
supply, security, and whose children attend only
private schools?

What if I mentioned the conspiracy in a society
between government officials and the professional
class on the use of consultants to siphon public
funds?

What if I told you that I know of a society that is
least interested in the wellbeing and welfare of its
hen that lays golden eggs?

What if I told you that there is a society where legal
disputes take an eternity to be resolved and that
suspects awaiting trial serve their sentences even
before conviction?

What if I said that there is a society where
regularly, people commit killings due to land
disputes, religious, cultural, and other differences?

Where individuals can influence electoral votes due to
meeting the basic needs of people, otherwise the
responsibility of government?

Where you consistently pay for public services that
are seldom rendered by near comatose public utilities?

Where government, corporate and powerful individuals
impose half baked ideas, policies, concepts, programs,
promotions etc on ordinary people?

Where the ordinary man is made to carry the burdens
and yokes of others and told to his face that that is
a privilege and honor?

Where the most profitable businesses are those
operated by middle men, who add no value to anything
and yet rake off all the profits?

You would clearly call such a society worse than
primitive, and you will be right to say that such a
society will be characterized by high levels of
internal conflicts and crises.

Ladies and Gentlemen: Welcome to Nigeria, a nation in
which we have felt the value of the social concept of
life, but are still locked in a primitive concept of
life.

Nigeria is a nation that has to transit from a
primitive concept of life to a social concept of life.
To do otherwise is to push the self destruct button
all the way.

The corollary of this is that to hasten the pace of
change, then things have to get progressively worse in
order to get better.

So what does this trend portend for Nigeria and its 170,000,000 citizens? Your
guess is as good as mine