By Pius Mordi
That Nigeria has shut down her four refineries by willfully neglecting the rehabilitation while preferring to import refined products for more than 20 years is known to all. That every administration routinely pledges to end the hemorrhaging of public funds by failing to rehabilitate the refineries by perpetrating the fraud in the subsidy regime while voting billions of dollars to fix same refineries is something Nigerians have resigned to fate.
When Aliko Dangote made good his ambitious project to wean Nigeria from the spectre of importation of petrol through his 650,000 barrels capacity facility apparently excited Muhammadu Buhari to project his withdrawal of subsidy to coincide with the refinery commencing operations by the middle of 2023 when he would have handed over power to his successor. And as Nigerians heaved a collective sigh of relief as the Dangote Refinery primed to start operations, the same federal government hedged in giving it optimum support.
From no available crude oil to supply the refinery to a suggestion that imported petrol is better than the one refined from our low sulphur blend that commands the prime segment of the international oil market to the thoughts of Dangote becoming a monopoly, it took Aliko Dangote alerting Nigerians that some highly placed people have acquired a refinery in Malta which they intend to make the prime facility to process crude oil for importation did a measure sanity and responsiveness return to decision making at the apex level of government.
Since this administration came onboard, Nigerians are being treated to unprecedented levels of propaganda on governance. Now that Dangote Refinery has beaten the odds and started refining whatever quantity of crude oil allocated to it, the new frontier for theatrics has shifted to Port Harcourt Refinery. Almost over night, the long abandoned refinery began operations.
Aso Rock’s galaxy of social media soldiers were on hand to amplify the “achievement” of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu accomplishing what his predecessors could not dare. Their social media handles were filled with photographs of a long line of oil tankers queueing to “lift” petrol from the “refurbished” refinery. The common denominator of their posts was not just to extol the wonder working Tinubu but to mock his “detractors” who wished that the refineries would remain comatose.
That was an idiotic overdrive in propaganda. Pray, which Nigerian would not want the refineries to come on stream again. It was like propagandists picked up their pattern of logic from the same script.
Having been out of commission for over two decades, nobody expected Tinubu to wave a magic wand that would get the old refineries up and running almost overnight.
Thankfully, reprieves had come courtesy of Aliko Dangote’s refinery. There was time to scrupulously overhaul the old ones and no one will deny Tinubu his due credit when the refineries come on stream. The government has a template on how things get done. So much premium is placed on propagating mere pronouncements as accomplishments. After Tinubu returned from his official trip to India, an agreement to inject $14 billion investment into Nigerian shortly was listed in Aso Rock’s claims of actual foreign direct investments.
In his 22024 Independence Day address, President Tinubu claimed that in one year of his administration over $30 billion in FDI has been attracted.
“Thanks to the reforms, our country attracted foreign direct investments worth more than $30 billion in the last year,” he claimed in the speech. Earlier, Doris Uzoka-Anite, Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, had said the country obtained about $30 billion in investment commitments from various investors. She said the commitments will be redeemed within five to eight years.
They obviously failed to take into account the fact that oil operations are not as opaque as they used to be. The social media, host communities and independent media have jointly knocked the halo effect out of such a strategy even if it worked previously. After missing its seventh production roll out deadline at the end of September three and half years after rehabilitation began, NNPC top brass claimed production peaked at 60 percent with tankers taking delivery.
It took on the spot reports from members of the host community and the independent press for the true state of the facility to be revealed.
The inspiration for the unnecessary adoption of propaganda in dealing with the Port Harcourt Refinery saga is what is unclear. The contract for rehabilitating the refinery was awarded about four years ago by Buhari. Tinubu only inherited the project. He was not under any pressure to deliver on it and will not be held accountable if the timeline is not achieved. But at the end whenever it resumes production, Tinubu will get the due credit for getting the job done.
After its claim unravelled, NNPC acknowledged that it has not yet commenced bulk sales or opened its purchase portal, as essential processes are still being finalized. NNPC’s Chief Corporate Communications Officer, Olufemi Soneye, said the products the refinery current sells originate from the Dangote Refinery and it include applicable fees by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA)!
If the Aso Rock has an idea of the damage the saga surrounding the true status of Port Harcourt Refinery has done to Nigerians’ perception of its claims, it will have a serious rethink of its governance by propaganda strategy.
• Mordi is a policy analyst and veteran journalist based in Nigeria.
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