NNPC is at a
time when, due to various factors, its popularity was arguably at its nadir.
Prominent among those factors were allegations of massive corruption and chronic mismanagement. And since we would naturally like to survive together with our country and be rid of things that pose a fatal threat to our joint existence (as the call implies about NNPC), we believe the politician in question expected us to accept the kill-or-be-killed scenario he created and act like people who understand that self-preservation is the first law of nature. An instance of the instigation or blackmail to kill for supposed self-preservation couldn’t have been more subtle or effective to the discerning mind.
Prominent among those factors were allegations of massive corruption and chronic mismanagement. And since we would naturally like to survive together with our country and be rid of things that pose a fatal threat to our joint existence (as the call implies about NNPC), we believe the politician in question expected us to accept the kill-or-be-killed scenario he created and act like people who understand that self-preservation is the first law of nature. An instance of the instigation or blackmail to kill for supposed self-preservation couldn’t have been more subtle or effective to the discerning mind.
Now, one of
such public commentaries is Moses E. Ochonu’s “Dr. Kachikwu’s Blunders” –
published recently in Sahara Reporters and Premium Times – which more or less
sums up the predicament of the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources in
managing the current fuel scarcity in the country thus: “Whatever he is doing is not working… The man thrives on deception and
propaganda…. He deserves whatever opprobrium is heaped on him.” Let us
say en passant that this sort of criticism is too harsh and demoralising. The function
of the responsible social critic is to build hope while identifying problems,
and not to demoralise. Ochonu’s criticism demoralises by its unjustified total
condemnation of its target and his efforts and by spreading despair.
And by other
forms of reactions, we refer to such call made by the leaders of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU)
on the Network News of the Africa
Independent Television (AIT) on April 11, 2016, asking for the minister’s
resignation. Well, we argued in our response to the call to kill NNPC that,
whatever the problem with NNPC, our interest as a nation is better served by
reforming rather than killing it. In fact, we were convinced that killing NNPC
would amount to turning the organisation into a corporate scapegoat,
sacrificing the life of one institution to “atone” for perennial sins plaguing
our entire nation like corruption, short-termism and poor maintenance culture.
And we do not see how such scapegoat syndrome can solve any of the problems to
which it has become a habitual reaction with some of us. Rather, it has always
seemed to me like slaughtering a sacrificial victim to appease some fetish of
activist hypocrisy that would rather not take cognisance of the complexity and
resilience of such problems because it serves some vested interests while
pretending not to do so.
We also see
the call for Dr. Ibe Kachikwu’s resignation by Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, which serves as a background for Ochonu’s
unsparing criticism of the former – and the similar call by the ASUU leadership
– as fresh instigations to lead yet another sacrificial victim, a human
scapegoat rather than corporate one like NNPC, to the altar of the same fetish.
We wonder if Ochonu and the ASUU executive recognise how long the problems
leading to the current fuel scarcity have lasted with our tolerance as a
people, like a pustule growing under the skin of a negligent person who only
begins to take note and complain after it has grown into a big boil and
ruptured, causing them serious discomfort. Thereafter, they blame the physician
who may well be doing his best to bring them relief or cure that he is “making
things worse” and not acting fast enough.
For
instance, in the past 16 years before Dr. Kachikwu assumed office as Minister
of State for Petroleum Resources, billions were spent on the “turn around
maintenance” of our refineries by successive governments. Specifically, $1.6
billion (about N251 billion) was reportedly voted for the turnaround
maintenance of the four refineries across the country by the end of
2014. Yet, nothing seemed to have been achieved by way of truly turning
the refineries around to refine enough fuel for our local consumption. Hence,
we have remained stuck with the shame of fuel importation – for our shores are
practically awash with the natural resource from which fuel is refined. And we
have continued to expend huge sums to subsidise the product, while putting up
with allegations of corruption by entities involved in fuel importation, some
of which border on economic sabotage.
Indeed, if
anyone were to succeed in resolving this situation that has defied previous
governments for nearly two decades in the roughly seven months Dr. Kachikwu has
been in office, we would perhaps consider that person not as a magician – which
Kachikwu rightly but tactlessly said he is not, and for which he has apologised
– but as a miracle worker or superhuman.
And we are
at a loss as to why some of us fail to appreciate that the current difficulties
in turning our fuel situation around are worse than before, considering the
harsh economic realities due to the drastic fall in oil prices, and the
proportionate decline in forex earnings to support fuel importation or finance
the maintenance of our refineries even in their current states. The solution, especially
if it must be long-term, lies in thinking creatively and taking radical
measures which I believe the current government is doing despite serious
handicaps.
To adapt
that famous quote by Albert Einstein,
it would be madness to expect to be doing the same thing about our fuel
situation and not remain in the same dissatisfactory position. The current
situation requires supportive action, understanding, patience and sacrifice
from the generality of Nigerians, as one would expect from good members of a family
whose breadwinner suddenly lost their job or had their wages reduced
drastically; and who, not of their own making, lacks the savings to cushion the
resultant hardship for the family.
Since the
NNPC, our entire oil sector and the way business is done in it are undergoing
reform, we must understand that the fruits of reform, like every other fruit,
can taste sour until it ripens with the possibility of tasting sweet. The real
question should be: What should responsible and patriotic citizens do at a time
like this – “a time that tries men’s souls,” to quote Thomas Paine?
We think the
least should be to offer suggestions as to how the problems can be solved for
the general good and we do not see how calling for the resignation of Kachikwu
without guaranteeing that the problems will suddenly disappear with his
resignation and replacement or criticising the government without suggesting
better steps than those being taken by it qualify as solutions to the problems.
Curiously,
some of these calls are coming even after the minister of state has unveiled a
holistic blueprint for reversing the current situation and working towards a
lasting solution.
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