OPINION: No work no pay, except in the NNPC refineries

PUBLIC intellectual and a commentator on national issues, Dr. Nnaemeka Obiaraeri, recently reportedly said that members of Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria [PENGASSEN] and Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas WORKERS [NUPENG], two key unions of oil workers in Nigeria consume about N120 billion in salaries, allowances, and wages every year. The two unions in various incarnations have been the dominant players in Nigeria’s oil industry for about 60 years, and especially since the commissioning of our first refinery in 1965 in Alesa, Eleme, near Port Harcourt, in Rivers state. This refinery, a joint venture between Shell and British Petroleum, was then known as Nigerian Petroleum Refining Corporation [NPRC]. It was initially built to process crude oil into products like gasoline and diesel. It had the capacity to process 38,000 barrels of crude oil per day. About 24 years later, in 1989, another refinery was founded by the federal government close to the first plant, the so-called second Port Harcourt refinery. Two more refineries were subsequently established by the government, one in Warri in today’s Delta state, and the other in Kaduna, Kaduna state. In theory, the four refineries have a combined capacity of 450,000 barrels.

These four government – owned refineries were all that were of note that operated here until the ‘commissioning’ of the Dangote Refinery and Petrol-Chemical Company in 2023, long before it was completed. In reality, the refinery came on stream in January last year with the production of diesel and aviation fuel. The production of petrol followed eight months later, one year ago last month. At its commissioning, and up till now, the Dangote refinery is the largest single-train refinery in the world. But with its current capacity of 650,000 barrels per day, it is ranked as the seventh largest refinery globally. India’s Jamnagar Refinery sits atop the pile worldwide with an output capacity of 1.24 million barrels per day. We will return to the travails of the Dangote refinery shortly.

In 2007, in the twilight of the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo [1999-2007], Blue Star, a consortium led by the business man, Aliko Dangote, had bidded and and won majority shares in two of the four government-owned refineries in Port Harcourt and Warri. There was disquiet in the land with allegations of underhanded dealings and specious, self-serving arguments about national energy security. So when the successor administration of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua took office that same year, it revoked the sale and refunded the Dangote consortium about $700million. It has to be said that before the consortium moved in, the refineries were at best epileptic in their operations, and at worst moribund. In fact, to all intents and purposes they were dead. They had become bottomless pits and a cesspool for the corrupt and unscrupulous government officials and their outside collaborators.

The unions, PENGASSEN and NUPENG, and their fatcat leaders orchestrated the protests and strikes against the partial sale of the two refineries. The unions were not alone. There was a cabal in the background of those who import petroleum products into the country on behalf of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation [NNPC]. The deal was that they bring in the products and then make a claim on the government including payments for subsidies. It was a racket that bordered on daylight robbery. Many of the authorised persons and companies brought in zero petroleum products, and yet claimed humongous subsidy payments. There were cases of forged shipping documents and discharge of millions of phantom metric tons of petroleum products in ghost tank farms in Lagos, and elsewhere. And the ghost importers got payments. The racketeering was widespread, corrosive, and deadly. It stretched from individuals to corporations, to government agencies, to the ports, to the national legislature, and the presidency. It was a bazaar. The greater tragedy was that unsuspecting Nigerians were used as fodders to oppose the partial government divestment from the moribund refineries.

For as long as it lasted, and it has not really ended, the four government refineries presented a story of the near hopelessness of this country. Some persons were employed in each of the refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna and retired in the same after 35 years or on attaining 60 years of age without doing any meaningful work, without really earning their pay. And in-between their employment and retirement, they attended trainings at home and abroad; were promoted as and when due; got pay raise; received hefty allowance; collaborated and connived with the petroleum products import cabal to fleece the country; and, then went home with hefty gratuities and pensions. To crown it all many of such people were not, ab initio, qualified for the jobs for which they were employed. They were beneficiaries of nepotism in recruitment into high-paying government agencies and parastatals such as the refineries, NNPCL, central bank, NIMASA, among others. If, according to Dr. Obiaraeri, about N120billion is expended annually on salaries, wages, and allowances of members of PENGASSEN and NUPENG, then it will be safe to assume that about N250bn was being used as overhead for the personnel of the moribund refineries. And if the refineries have not worked effectively and efficiently for about 30 years, and they indeed have not, it means that this country has been pouring N250bn on average down the drain every year for 30 years. Or N7,500,000,000,000 [N7.5trillion]. In which sane country does this happen, and be allowed to linger for about one generation?

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Between $15-20bn may have been expended on repairing and recovering the moribund refineries in the last 30 years, to no avail. Of course, much of the money may have been stolen. It was not unusual to read bizarre stories about the stewardship of some leaders of the NNPC, owners and operators of the refineries. About $9million was once found in a steel cabinet in a nondescript house in Kaduna of one of NNPC’s former group managing directors. He claimed it was a gift, and if my recollections are correct, the courts sided with him. He went away scot free. The immediate past group chief executive officer of the corporation, as they are now called, was recently quizzed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission [EFCC] ostensibly over allegations of fraud in the repairs of the refineries. He denied any wrong-doing and has been moving about freely. Not much is being heard about the probe. Sooner than later, the investigations will grow cold. As we say here in local parlance: the probe will ‘enter voicemail’. In one-third of the years we have allegedly spent about $20bn in repairing refineries that have literally produced zero petroleum products, Aliko Dangote, had built a refinery that dwarfed the combined capacity of the four government refineries. The cost of the ultra-modern Dangote refinery is about $20bn. The irony should not be lost on us.

Another cruel irony was the report in the news media a few weeks back which said that the staff of the moribund refineries were threatening to embark on a strike action because of delayed payment of their salaries and allowances. For real? From people who have enjoyed no work for full hefty pay for about 30 years. The strike threat was coming from people whose predecessors were employed and retired from the refineries without doing any genuine work even for one day. From staff who are still likely to retire from the moribund refineries this year and in subsequent years without doing any worthwhile work because the refineries are not producing, and are not likely to produce in the near future. The new CEO of the NNPCL, Bayo Ojulari, said on assumption of office that the refineries would be sold. But he has since changed his mind. ‘Repairing’ the refineries is a veritable channel for slush funds. And the 2027 elections are around the corner. The decision to keep pouring money into the bottomless pits is in spite of the assertion by a man who should know, Dangote, that the refineries may never work again, at least, not optimally.

The death of our refineries is not a stand-alone story. It came with other implicit costs. The resources used to train professionals including engineers were at a loss to the Nigerian state. Some have gone to their graves with skills that never benefitted the country. Others have moved on to other refineries or related corporations or to private and personal endeavours. This will be looking at the big picture. There are other smaller but devastating and crushing losses. When you aggregate these so-called smaller losses in Nigeria’s economy which is about 70% informal, they would amount to so much. We will retell a story told by a national newspaper in the course of investigating the moribund refineries last month. “This place [Kaduna refinery] used to be alive. You would see flames from the furnace, hear the noise of work going on. Now, nothing. They kept saying ‘maintenance’ but we have heard the same story for years with no end in sight”, said Paulina, a bar attendant in Kapam, a community bordering the refinery. Aisha Mohammed was another resident. She reportedly said, “Even if the refinery starts operation at 60%, that will be good. Last time, they promised similar targets, we saw flames, then silence. We are tired of promises”. The closure of one refinery translates to the closures of tens or even hundreds of small scale businesses and services providers operating in the vicinity. Jobs and livelihoods suffer. Families become poorer. Out of school children increase. Young girls drift into prostitution. Idle youngsters become drug addicts. Crime spikes. Security agencies are stretched. Sadly, our rulers do not, or they willfully refuse to see the big picture. And we suffer.

On the reverse side, we are about to experience yet another strike by the academic staff union of public universities in Nigeria (ASUU). The extant regime and its predecessors have neglected to implement agreements reached with the lecturers since 2009 or thereabouts. In fact, this administration recently denied the existence of the 2009 agreement. And then quickly recanted. But unlike the refinery workers, the government will soon announce the policy of ‘no work no pay’. And then proceed to implement it. The regime did so not too long ago. The quick resort to ‘no work no pay’ as it concerns university teachers speaks to the store our rulers set on education. That’s why our country is where it is – a bad place.

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