President Muhammadu Buhari, has come under scathing criticism for the continued destruction of “illegal” refineries in the Niger Delta while setting aside N5 billion to assist illegal miners from the North.
The criticisms are coming as Nigerians grapple with economic hardship and acute fuel scarcity which has lasted for over one month.
The Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Anti-Corruption and Mr. Buhari’s ardent supporter, Itse Sagay, strongly opposed the destruction of small-scale refineries in the oil-rich region.
Mr. Sagay said he has consistently advised the government to bring young people involved in the small-scale refining of crude into a cooperative and empower them to imbibe environmentally- friendly approaches to doing the business.
“I am one of those who have advocated again and again that the government should not destroy those refineries but gather the young men, make them form companies or cooperatives and assist them to run legitimate refineries for the country,” Mr. Sagay told this newspaper.
“Government should give them monetary advances and loans so they could import equipment. They can have small modern refineries and that would benefit the country.
“We will not be short of petroleum products anymore. The government should help set them up and let them get crude oil legitimately, refine and sell. I am against this destruction that is going on.”
Mr. Sagay would not, however, agree the Federal Government showed partiality by supporting illegal miners especially in the North while unleashing terror on their counterparts in the Niger Delta region.
He said there was no basis to compare what the government is doing in the North and the Niger Delta, adding he strongly recommends young people in the oil-rich region be allowed to make money from the resources in their land.
“What is happening is wrong but is has nothing to do with the fact that in the North, something else is happening. I don’t agree with that,” he said.
“I reject that linkage because what we are talking about in the Niger Delta happened before the new mining policy. That is why I reject it.”
When told the complaint is based on a fact of injustice, Mr. Sagay replied, “I reject this comparison of people being treated differently because if the government now stops the new policy that favours the North and begins to destroy what the illegal miners are doing and arrest them as they are doing in the Niger Delta, will that be good?
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“We have to move forward. We have to stop imputing motives for goodness sake. Let us advocate and I am ready to sign a petition raised by people like you or NGOs and CSOs to the president saying that it is our view that those illegal refineries in the Niger Delta should be legitimaised and government should intervene massively and allow them to procure petroleum products legitimately and make profit and become rich too after all it comes from their land.
“We will support it. What is happening in the north is good and should be replicated in the Niger Delta,” Mr. Sagay said.
On his part, a former Chairman of the Niger Delta Technical Committee, Ledum Mitee, questioned the rationale for destroying small-scale refineries when the country is grossly unable to meet domestic need for petrol.
Mr. Mitee accused the president of pursuing discriminatory policies against the people of the Niger Delta region.
“It is a part of the long process of discriminatory policies of this government against the people of the Niger Delta region,” said Mr. Mitee.
“Now that there is shortage of petroleum products, why should the NNPC not buy from all these artisan refineries here to augment the ones they import because it is the same thing they are doing in the North.
“Some people are illegally tapping resources and you say you want to buy from them but you come to the other side of the country where people are also illegally tapping resources and you use guns to repel them.
“Now there is shortage of petrol that affects the whole country and some people are doing something. Instead of them looking at how to reform it, control their operations and integrate it into the production and supply system, they want to quell it with guns.
“I think it is part of the whole process of discriminatory policies that have been ongoing. I was stunned last week when I heard FEC approved N155 billion for the Kaduna/Kano Road project. And for the whole of the East/West Road, throughout this year, not even a kobo has been released to anybody.
“Instead, the minister of the Niger Delta is saying the design of the road was meant to fail and they want to review it. He is taking time to review the project while others are thinking of getting more money for their own projects. I see this as part of the discrimination that has been going on.
“If you look at the East/West Road from Calabar to Port Harcourt in the 2017 budget, they only set aside N400 million out of which nothing has been disbursed. However, all other places are getting more.
“Over N300 billion is to be spent for the expansion of the Lagos/Ibadan Expressway. It is something we should not allow as a people because we are entitled to the same treatment whether it is solid or liquid or gas mineral. We should be entitled to the same treatment,” Mr. Mitee concluded.
Also speaking, the Executive Director, Niger Delta Budget Monitoring Group, George-Hill Anthony said the process of mineral extraction in the country promotes social and economic inequality.
While communities and local governments share in the 13 Percent Derivation for solid minerals, the same does not apply to oil producing communities and local government areas in the Niger Delta region.
He scolded Nigerian elites who he said rode to power on the promise of restructuring the country but turned around to oppose it after they got into office.
“Let us hope that political hypocrites will not one day in their life time sit down to discuss the restructuring of the country when oil the Niger Delta has been exhausted. Now that oil is involved, people do not want restructuring and when the oil is exhausted they will be disposed to restructuring.
“In a few years to come, oil will cease to be relevant in the international market. When the pipelines are no longer yielding the oil, what will the government do? Will they transfer the burden to the next generation of politicians to keep postponing the evil day because we don’t want to call a spade a spade?
“The policy as canvassed by the minister of solid mineral promotes inequality and lack of social justice. It is sad that citizens in one part of the country are treated differently from others.
“We want the world to see how people of the Niger Delta are being treated. As a people, we have taken note of what is happening and we are observing all they are doing in the solid minerals sector,” he said.