The funds we have been spending on subsidies could buy us brand new refineries off the shelf.
The NNPC awarded homongous contracts for the rehabilitation or refurbishment of our four national refineries, and by the terms of the contract, all the refineries should have been delivered by now
However, all of a sudden, the NNPC, which sunk our money in the refineries contract, has decided to keep mute
They are not telling us the status of the contract and the present condition of refineries, the subject matter of the contract
Meanwhile, the payment of subsidy continues unhindered and unabated
.the marketers, importers, and the enablers in the system are smiling to the bank with every subsidy payment
The products for which the subsidies are paid have continued to be scarce, and the prices soaring higher
Yet, the NNPC maintains the full complement of staff of the refineries who have been absolutely doing nothing but collecting fat salaries and allowances, getting promoted and retired on permanent pensions for decades of complete and total inactivity in all the refineries
It’s ludicrous, to say the least, that none of the refineries we have sunk trillions of Dollars in, has refined a single barrel of crude oil for decades
Why should we be talking about subsidy at this stage, when what we expect is the free flow of refined petroleum products from our refineries?
What has happened to the contracts for the turn around of the four national refineries, about two years after it’s award?
I think that the NNPC should account for the performance of this contract to Nigerians, instead of romancing with the issue of removal or not of the current subsidy regime
We should by now be exporting petroleum products to the world, instead of suffering from the scarcity and exorbitant prices of the products in the domestic market
Something must be wrong somewhere and we all culpable for, if not guilty of the conspiracy of silence against ourselves
We should ask the NNPC: where are our refineries?
Yusuf Shehu Usman, mni, writes from
Abuja
