By Chris Otaigbe
In a moment of RECKLESS talk, the Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of NNPCL, Mele Kyari, said, during his very recent interview on Arise tv, that the NNPCL made over N687 TRILLION in 2021 ALONE!
By CBN exchange rate that is over ONE ($1) TRILLION DOLLARS!
So, NNPCL has been making no less than a TRILLION DOLLARS in the last two years plus and the federal government on behalf of whom it KEEPS that money has been looking for a mere 13 trillion naira plus or thereabouts to fund the 2023 budget.
NNPCL has, therefore, as you read this, over ONE TRILLION DOLLARS and Nigeria is GROANING over less than a BILLION DOLLAR-DEBT!
Are these people well or human at all!
The TRUTH of this matter is that THERE IS NO SUBSIDY ON FUEL! PERIOD!!
The PAINFUL part of this is that, the ELITES know this. Yet, they keep promoting it; either IGNORANTLY or MISCHIEVOUSLY! Have you EVER bothered to ask NNPCL to OPEN their books so we know the PROCESS?
To help out here, the ONLY cost INCURRED by the NNPCL is the cost of taking the crude from the ground or Well Head to Tank. Every other cost is BORNE by the REFINER who PROVIDES his ship; which is LEVERAGING on their EXISTING infrastructure.
NNPCL even MAKES money in the MIDSTREAM process of this arrangement; as they FORCE the Refiner to use NNPCL maritime subsidiary to take 50% of the crude to their refinery and fifty percent of the REFINED product to the Ports in Nigeria. Every other cost in between- from shipping, ship to ship loading of products, insurance among others, is TAKEN CARE of by the Refiner on the Direct Sale, Direct Purchase (DSDP) arrangement.
Not a DIME exchanges hands in this whole process. Rather, NNPCL makes ADDITIONAL revenue.
The FRAUDULENT products distribution pricing template they made, to arrive at different prices for taking the products to all parts of the federation had ALWAYS been taken care of by the PETROLEUM EQUALIZATION FUND ( PEF). Have you asked Mele Kyari what happened to that funding platform?
With all due respect, after having a knowledge of this process and UNDERSTANDING the fact that NNPCL does NOT SPEND A DIME let alone SUBSIDIZING any part of the process with ANY CASH whatsoever, ANYONE, who still joins in chasing the SHADOW thrown up by these CABAL in power, doesn’t mean well for the country and its people.
So, the question we should be asking; is who is getting the yearly $11 billion plus these people say they spend on their FANTHOM subsidy.
As a matter of fact, there’s a lot we all need to learn about the CRIMINALITY going on in the nation’s hydrocarbon industry. Do you know that as you read this, crude is still being supplied to the DEAD refineries?
Some VAMPIRES are drinking that daily and SMILING to the banks in foreign lands, DAILY! Oil theft is not just the BUNKERING they make you to know ooo…
Knowing that a barrel of crude produces over 22 derivatives, have you ASKED why it is ONLY Petrol, kerosene ( aviation and domestic) and Diesel that they retire to us here in Nigeria
Have you ASKED why a Refiner would ACCEPT payment by CRUDE rather than outright cash payment? It makes more FINANCIAL sense for the refiner to take payment by crude because, he can REFINE and SELL the DERIVATIVES for a hundred times what he would have gotten in cash…
The criminality and corruption going on in Nigeria oil and gas industry, particularly, the downstream, is ENDLESS and virtually LIMITLESS!
The next issue is the INTERNATIONAL INTERFERENCE in subsidy removal. Why are the IMF and World bank not asking Nigerian government to TACKLE the corruption in the sector, before REMOVING SUBSIDY?
Why are they not talking about Nigeria LEVERAGING on a Dangote refinery for instance?
The DESTRUCTION of the Nigerian economy, currency and the purchasing power of the Nigerian is WHAT THEY ARE AFTER; and Bola Ahmed Tinubu HANDED it to them on his inauguration day! Another STUPID narrative they are throwing around now, is that Nigerians should NOT expect a Dangote fuel to be CHEAPER!
In fact, this demonic N500 plus per liter is MEANT to PREPARE your mind for an eventual price for dangote fuel. That is CRIMINAL and UNACCEPTABLE!
On a lighter note, my Conspiracy Theory Oracle (CTO) tells me that…
Knowing that with a Dangote Refinery in place, the CABAL will no longer have a fuel subsidy, fuel smuggling excuse to continue STEALING trillions of Nigeria’s money, they may have DECIDED to take their SHARE FROM EVERY LITER of Dangote fuel… And the LIST of these illicit SHAREHOLDERS may be LONG.
So, perhaps to ACCOMMODATE all these interests, they had to tell the LIE that
Dangote would SELL at INTERNATIONAL price to Nigerians! When he is NOT REFINING even in Niger or Cameroon, here! Nawa ooo!!! But I sincerely hope and PRAY this hypothesis of mine is WRONG. The Nigerian government can give Dangote and any other private refineries CRUDE from its Domestic Crude Allocation (DCA); because it is Nigeria’s to USE as she wishes. It’s the same as you are a garri seller and a member of an OPEC Garri cartel. As a member, you have a particular QUANTITY of your Garri, you are ALLOWED to sell to CUSTOMERS!
The idea is to CONTROL and REGULATE quantity and pricing for the product on the global or community market as the case may be. So, as the person PRODUCING the garri, are you going to be SELLING garri to your family to make Eba for you niiii…😄
Thank God we are only talking about oil. Can you IMAGINE if we were actually talking about cassava and garri… Can you think, what they would have DONE to create DOMESTIC hunger for Nigerians to DIE on a NONEXISTENT subsidy?
Another IMBECILIC narrative they vehemently try to FORCE down our minds is the fact that smugglers of the products to neighboring countries are the major problem.
This argument is so SPURIOUS, it makes me want to puke.
What the HECK are they talking about? Under Sani Abacha, was there NO SMUGGLING going on? What magic did he do, to KEEP PRICE DOWN and even had ENOUGH, from the DIFFERENTIALS he made from only one or two PRICE INCREASES he made to fuel, to CREATE a PTF that made so much IMPACT; for almost five years his government lasted? Ok.. if you are an Abacha-Hater, and you would put up the LAME argument that he was a military head of State…
How about Umaru Yar’Adua, who REMAINS the ONLY President and Head of State, ( civilian or military), dead or alive, to REVERSE pump price of fuel from where his PREDECESSOR, Olusegun Obasanjo, took it.
If the federal government and its SECURITY AGENCIES and ARCHITECTURE are so HELPLESS, that they can’t handle ORDINARY criminals called SMUGGLERS, why is it that Buba Marwa’s NDLEA, unlike his predecessors, is USING the SAME federal MIGHT to go AFTER the BIG DRUG BARONS (rather than the SMALL FRIES) his corrupt predecessors in the SAME OFFICE, celebrated in their day?
Is Marwa not WINNING the War against Drug in Nigeria today; at least RELATIVELY?
I insist, ANY MIND that BUYS the argument, that because the government is HELPLESS in handling smugglers, is an EXCUSE as to why FUEL SUBSIDY exists at all; let alone, be REMOVED, is himself, a POTENTIAL smuggler; WALLAHI One other NONSENSICAL narrative SEEPING into the conversation, like the ODOUR from a septic tank, is the PUERILE argument by some Nigerians living in Western countries.
One particular Nigerian, in a viral video I watched bought fuel at a filling station in her host country. To convince Nigerians, at home, why fuel is EXPENSIVE everywhere in the world, she said she just bought fuel for less than three dollars or so; and that is the most expensive it’s ever been.
No problem. But has she thought of the fact that…
1. She has the OPPORTUNITY to WORK and MAKE MONEY to COVER it; in a STABLE and ORDERLY society?
2. Has she thought of the fact that, if fuelling her car will DRAIN her purse, she has MULTIPLE transportation OPTIONS?
Bottom line…
If after READING this and getting SIMILAR information from ANY OTHER CREDIBLE sources, you still BELIEVE the politicians who are lying to you, then I am sorry for you.
Finally, although I wished the NLC could find other more IMPACTFUL less punishing method to DRIVE home their DEMANDS for the Nigerian Worker, instead of the planned SHUTDOWN of the economy, I totally SUPPORT their PROTEST against this BRAZEN ROBBERY against the Nigerian people.
To the REGIONAL LABOR UNION LEADERS, allowing themselves to be CONFUSED; by corrupt politicians to SCUTTLE the planned STRIKE, I say to them, when your eyes become CLEARER, I hope your REPRIMAND does not begin with members of your family… Because you will SUFFER your SABOTAGE of this battle to RESCUE Nigerians, I tell you.
However, what I cannot UNDERSTAND is the fact that in all its narratives, I am yet to hear from the Labor Unions that fuel subsidy is a HOAX and therefore, it can NEITHER stand NOR be a basis to negotiate ANYTHING! So, they SHOULD SIMPLY DEMAND the government REVERSE the pump price; while they get READY to ENTER the Dangote fuel matter; on behalf of Nigerians. As I have ALWAYS maintained, SALARY INCREASE will NOT SOLVE the problem.
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What is the USE of EARNING N100k as minimum wage, for instance, but its purchasing power is LESS THAN the N30k minimum wage pre-Tinubu fuel subsidy removal. Don’t forget, LESS THAN 20% of Nigerians are in the Labor Force.
So, if you increase salaries of GOVERNMENT WORKERS alone, what happens to the Private sector staff, whose Employer CAN NO LONGER sustain salaries because ‘ FUEL SUBSIDY IS GONE! Lol!
For me, it is TIME to PROBE this FANTHOM SUBSIDY and Nigerians should see the BATTLE, to ENSURE NNPCL reverses the pump price of fuel and most importantly EXPLAIN what it has been doing with over $11 billion of Nigeria’s money all these years, as one that MUST be done!