Kyari made these remarks in a post on X, marking his 60th birthday, which coincides with the typical retirement age for most public agency heads. He was born on January 8, 1965, and was appointed CEO by former President Muhammadu Buhari in July 2019.

A seasoned oil industry professional, Kyari has dedicated 32 years of his career to NNPC.

In his post, Kyari expressed gratitude for his life, saying, “Allah, by his grace, spared my life to this exceptional day, making it my 60th year from birth, even much earlier on the Hijri calendar.”

He also expressed deep appreciation for the opportunities that allowed him to rise from his early education as an Almajiri (Tsangaya) student to becoming CEO of NNPC Ltd., Africa’s largest energy firm. Kyari specifically thanked Presidents Muhammadu Buhari and Bola Ahmed Tinubu for the privilege of serving as the final Group Managing Director of NNPC and the first CEO of NNPC Ltd.

Kyari described his life as one of both struggles and successes, attributing his achievements to divine grace. He acknowledged the challenges he had faced and sought forgiveness from anyone he may have unintentionally wronged.

Reflecting on his path, Kyari stated, “Reflecting backwards alone can’t account for the profoundly eventful life I spent to this date, walking through good and bad times, travails and triumphs, pains and happiness, fails and successes and many more that only the sufficiency of Allah will explain.”

At this milestone, Kyari committed to continuing his service with greater dedication and to the expectation of eternal rewards. He expressed deep gratitude to his family, friends, colleagues, and teachers, especially those from his Almajiri background, who have supported him throughout his journey.

Kyari concluded by seeking forgiveness from anyone he might have unintentionally offended.

The post Mele Kyari Reflects on Life Journey as He Marks 60th Birthday first appeared on National Ambassador News.

TheCable understands that this is part of the government’s plan to fully deregulate the PMS prices, eliminating monthly subsidy payments with provisions to ensure fair competition in the market.

Petrol price is currently between N162 and N165 per litre in Nigeria.

The recommendations were put forward by the NEC ad-hoc committee interfacing with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on the appropriate pricing of PMS in Nigeria. The report was presented by Nasir El-Rufai, governor of Kaduna state and head of the committee.

The committee was established last year by NEC headed by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo to look into the dwindling revenues of states.

Other members of the committee include Godwin Obaseki, Kayode Fayemi, and David Umahi, governors of Edo, Ekiti and Ebonyi states respectively; as well as Godwin Emefiele, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN); and Mele Kyari, group managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC); Zainab Ahmed, minister of finance, budget and national planning.

In May 2021, the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) had also recommended N385 per litre — but stakeholders, including the federal government, rejected the recommendation.

The recommendation has since been reconsidered and dropped by the committee.

According to the new report, the committee recommended full deregulation of PMS prices by February 2022 — raising the price by about N130/140 per litre.

It also recommended that all retailers should post PMS prices at all times on a designated website and smartphone app — and they are expected to post price changes no earlier than within 15 minutes of the price change.

With the recommendations, the committee added that the federal government would save N250 billion per month on petrol subsidy removal.

“At current rates, the PMS subsidy is reducing transfers into the federation by about NGN 250 billion per month, and could, if PMS subsidies are not eliminated, result in deductions of NGN 3 trillion in 2022,” the committee’s resolution reads in part.

“The large-scale time-limited (6-months) cash transfer proposed as a way of transferring the subsidy “directly to the people” would cost N600 billion but would by paving the way for the elimination of PMS subsidies, enable the federation to recover N3 trillion in revenues that would otherwise go to PMS subsidies.

“If PMS subsidies are eliminated by February 2022, N250 billion in deductions would have been incurred, but the remaining N195 billion in anticipated PMS subsidy deductions could be redirected towards FGN funding of the cash-transfer programme.”

The NEC committee also recommended a market-based pricing mechanism, as another option, that would ensure petrol price ceilings at least once a month.

Meanwhile, the federation account allocation committee (FAAC) will meet on Wednesday (today) for the monthly meeting to distribute revenues between federal, state, and local governments.

At the last FAAC meeting, NNPC had said it would deduct some funds as value shortfall incurred due to differentials between the current PMS retail
price and actual open market price in January 2022.

Most states are presently experiencing fiscal stress and kicking against deductions of the shortfall from FAAC remittances.

The committee further noted that NNPC has failed to keep its commitment of N120 billion per month for value shortfall at N162 per litre for petrol.

Currently, around N250 billion, it added that the development continued to shrink remittances to the FAAC and described the deductions as “arbitrarily”.

Thecable

The post PMS To Be Sold N302 Per Litre From February first appeared on National Ambassador News.

The figure indicated a decline of N107.1 billion when compared to what was generated in June.

The Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, while briefing newsmen in Abuja on the outcome of the monthly Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting, highlighted several factors that impacted negatively on the month’s income.

“Crude oil exports sales volume was 3.74 million barrels showing an increase of 0.17 million barrels when compared with the previous month sales of 3.57 million barrels.

“Despite the improved revenue, production was negatively affected in the period by shut-ins and shut-down at various terminals for repairs and maintenance of ageing facilities.

“The value Added Tax (VAT), import duty, Companies Income Tax (CIT) and Oil Royalty decreased, while Petroleum Profit Tax recorded an increase,” she said.

Adeosun, giving a breakdown of the revenue generated, said that N376.14 billion was generated as mineral revenue, while N221.8 billion came from non-mineral resources.

The minister said that Federal Government received N269.8 billion, states N136.85 billion and local government N105.5 billion.

She said that N44.96 billion was also shared among the oil producing states, representing 13 per cent of the oil revenue generated in the month of July.

The post FAAC: FG, States, LGs share N714.8 Bn in August first appeared on National Ambassador News.

Hassan Dodo, director of information at the federal ministry of finance, said the disbursement did not signify an end to the dispute.

Governors had accused the NNPC of under-remitting revenues.

“Owing to disagreement on remittances by the revenue generating agencies, especially the NNPC, the sharing of revenues for May 2018 that was meant to be distributed in June 2018 was put on hold,” a statement issued by Dodo on Friday read.

“However, the urgent need to cushion the undue hardships being experienced by workers nationwide has made it necessary to distribute the May figures, totalling N668.898 billion to the three tiers of government.

“Efforts are being intensified to address the unsatisfactory remittances.”

Dodo said that the N668.89 billion shared was made up of statutory revenue of N575.47 billion and N93.42 billion from Value Added Tax (VAT).

The federal government received N282.22 billion; state governments, N181.16 billion; and local government councils, N136.49 billion.

He said the oil-producing states received additional N53.071 billion as 13% derivation while N15.947 billion was paid to the revenue generating agencies as costs of collections.

FAAC members had said the meetings would be suspended indefinitely until issues of under remittances are resolved.

Thecable

The post Finally FAAC shares N668.8bn despite deadlock first appeared on National Ambassador News.

The FAAC committee had a slight disagreement Thursday, a development that made it impossible to share the statutory allocation.

The meeting had ended in a deadlock following disagreement about the revenue figures remitted into the federation account by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation for sharing by the three tiers of government.

But the Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun intervened by calling for an emergency meeting on Wednesday.

At the meeting held at the headquarters of the Ministry of Finance, the committee distributed the sum of N647.39bn to the three tiers of government.

Out of this amount, the Federal Government received N270.8bn, states got N173.75bn and the 774 local government councils were allocated a total amount of N130.9bn.

The committee also allocated the sum of N57.35bn to the oil producing states based on the 13 per cent derivation principle while N14.55bn was returned to the revenue generating agencies as coat of revenue collection.

The post FAAC ends crisis, Shares N647bn to FG, states, LGs first appeared on National Ambassador News.

Making a presentation at a public hearing on the fuel crisis jointly organised by the Senate and House of Representatives, Kachikwu described as shameful government’s failure at getting oil sector businesses right.

He noted that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) became the sole importer of petrol because of difficulties faced by oil marketing companies, a situation that greatly affected product supply.

A committee has been set up to consider issues in the industry and by the next 18 months, a measure of progress would have been achieved, Kachikwu told the lawmakers.

“We need to address the issue of pricing. If we are going to sell at N145 per litre, we are going to put mechanisms in place, so that the private sector can go back into importation. The landing cost of the product is about N170 to N171. The price at which we sell today is N145. So, there’s a disparity between N171 and N145. What this means is that those individuals who are really there, not with an obligation like NNPC which has to meet national supply, but with a commercial bend, will not bring in products or they are going to sell at a loss,” he said.

He noted: “We need to free the marketers to do their business. To do their business, we need to address the pricing issue. One model, for example, is at the time we got the approval of N145, the exchange rate was N285 to $1. Today, it is N305. So, even at the minimum, there’s a gap. One mechanism will be to work with the Central Bank of Nigeria in terms of exchange rate mechanisms.”

The minister also informed the lawmakers that government was looking at tax reversion, stressing that fuel importers pay taxes. He asked: “Is there a possibility to capture some of the taxes they pay, to account for some of the differentials in importation that they would have before they pay their tax?”

He said: “We are looking at whether, theoretically, you could respect the N145 per litre price and have a plural pricing system, so that NNPC and all its stations and affiliates sell at N145. And at the same time, the private marketers are able to bring in product at their own cost and sell.”

“As long as prices are hovering around N350 per litre on the borders and we are hovering at N145, there is a huge incentive to export product illegally. We have not been able to police our borders properly. Trackers must be placed in every truck that is carrying product in this country.

“You also need to deal with the infrastructural deficit issues. If we cannot repair our pipes at the speed at which we want, we will need to bring in the private sector and concession some of these pipelines, so that they can repair them and put them to use, so that in moments of emergency, we will not go through this kind of problem.”

Also yesterday, the Senate was urged to ensure the immediate payment of money owed major oil marketers as subsidy claims.

The Executive Secretary of the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN), Obafemi Olawore, who made the plea, said government had not shown enough sensitivity to the plight of marketers on the matter.

He insisted that government still owed members N800 billion, being outstanding subsidy payment as at March 2016. He also called for a total deregulation of the downstream sector and passage of the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill, to enhance private participation.

The NNPC Group Managing Director, Maikanti Baru, informed the committee that diversion, hoarding and supply gap were some of the causes of the recent scarcity, even as he disclosed that a total of 4,501 trucks were diverted.

Mordecai Ladan, the Director of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), disclosed that some filling stations that sold above the official pump price were penalised. The committee ordered that the list of the stations be submitted to it by January 16.

The Senate committee raised questions on how the NNPC got money to fund the gap between the N171 per litre landing cost of petrol and the N145 pump price, saying it would conduct a special investigation into the new subsidy regime within the next few days.

The post Selling of petrol at 145 no longer feasible, may sell above N175, says Kachikwu first appeared on National Ambassador News.

The Committee Chairman, Sen. Kabiru Marafa, stated this on Monday in Gusau during an oversight assignmnet in the state on fuel situation in the country.

Marafa, who was accompanied by a member of the committee, Sen. Abdullahi Danbaba said the inspection was part of the assignment given to the committee by Senate President Bukola Saraki.

“I have directed all members of this committee to go back to their constituencies to investigate the problem at the grassroots so that we take approximate measures to address the scarcity.

“We visited NNPC zonal depot Gusau to find out the quantity of fuel supply to the depot and we noticed short supply of the commodity.

“We are going to present our findings to the senate. It is very disturbing to see the suffering faced by people due to fuel scarcity in the country.

“We question the NNPC over this issue because the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Maikanti Baru said they had doubled the quantity of daily supply of the product, but it is not available to the public.

“Another unfortunate thing is the attitude of our filling stations owners who sell this commodity to the public; they are involved in one or two malpractices.

”In fact out of the filling stations we visited only two have complied with the government directives in this regard,” he said.

Marafa commended the state Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) field office in ensuring compliance at the filling stations.

The senator urged the DPR to sanction filling stations involved in hoarding and selling above approved government price of N145 per litre.

The post Senate accuse NNPC, marketers over fuel scarcity first appeared on National Ambassador News.

In the last few days, Maikanti Baru, group managing director of NNPC, and some top officials of the corporation have been going to filing stations over the petrol scarcity being experienced in the country.

The scarcity has persisted for at least three weeks.

Writing via her Twitter handle on Wednesday, Ezekwesili wondered why the NNPC officials will be “straining” themselves touring the filling stations.

The former vice-president of World Bank (African region) said rather than make use of market forces in seeking enduring solution to the scarcity, the officials have chosen to impress the president against citizens’ interest.

She wrote: “Me: Why are officials of government & NNPC annoyingly running around fuel stations? Is there no one with basic training in economics anymore?

“Why are they straining themselves with the workload that market forces can easily do for them?

“Me: They are running around to enforce price control and impress president .@MBuhari , not the Citizens. They know he hates the words, market forces, deregulation & liberalization but loves command and control.

“He is clapping for them but the Citizens are not smiling. #VerySad.”

While observing that the fuel scarcity crisis is not abating, Ezekwesili also asked: “At what point would the federal government, @AsoRock @MBuhari @ProfOsinbajo @IbeKachikwu @NNPCgroup GMD embrace the truth of how market for goods like fuel functions?

“Only truth sets free.”

The post Ezekwesili: NNPC officials running around filling stations to impress Buhari first appeared on National Ambassador News.

Many depot owners who spoke with The Guardian yesterday complained they were not getting allocations from the NNPC, making it difficult for them to release products to retail stations.

The owners, who used to import 65 per cent of products before the NNPC assumed the role of sole importer, said they would only bring in supplies if the Federal Government resumed the payment of subsidy.

The Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association (DAPMA) members noted that the landing cost of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) in Nigeria, based on the current exchange rate of N306, is about N170 per litre, stressing they must resort to subsidy, a policy already jettisoned by the Federal Government.

The Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of NNPC, Ndu Ughamadu, however, insisted the corporation has imported more than enough products to meet national demand.

He said: “The depot owners are not importing products and they now depend on NNPC. The truth is that the corporation would have to give priority to its depots all over the country before considering private depots. You are aware that we also have our retail stations to supply.”

He assured the nation of NNPC’s commitment to importation, adding: “NNPC is on top of the situation and we believe that queues will be over in the next few days.”

Speaking with The Guardian yesterday, DAPMA Executive Secretary, Olufemi Adewole, said there were no products in members’ tanks. “If the products are offshore, then surely, they cannot be considered to be available to Nigerians,” he said.

On why the association stopped the importation of petroleum products, Adewole said: “We all know that we presently run a fixed price regime of N145 per litre for petrol. Without any recourse to subsidy claims, however, we have no control on the international price of crude oil. Current import price of petrol is about N170 per litre. NNPC, which absorbs the attendant subsidy on behalf of the Federal Government, is the importer of last resort.

“We understand that NNPC meets this demand largely through its Direct Sales Direct Purchase (DSDP) framework. However, due to price challenges on the DSDP platform, some participants in the scheme failed to meet their supply quota of refined petroleum product, especially petrol, to NNPC. This is the main reason for this scarcity.

“Some people have blamed marketers for hoarding products. Unfortunately, this is so far from the truth. Hoarding is regarded as economic sabotage and we assure all Nigerians that our members are not involved in such illicit acts.”

The Deputy Manager, Communications, Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), George Ene-Ita, told The Guardian that his agency has so far accosted over 20 percent of filling stations across the country for various offences during the scarcity. “We have been in the field to ensure there is no hoarding by retailers. The idea is not to shut down any filling stations but to ensure that products of any erring retailers are distributed free to consumers,” he said.

The NNPC is currently defraying about N1.523 billion, which is N26 per litre on 52 million litres of petrol Nigerians consume daily. The Guardian learnt from industry sources yesterday in Abuja that this has been the practice for the past two months.

Mr. Ndu Nghamadu, said daily consumption has risen above the 34 million per day displayed in the PPPRA template in 2016. He explained that the high figure might have been caused by hoarding and diversion.

Meanwhile, industry experts have faulted the claim by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo that the NNPC bears the brunt of the current subsidy.

A former Special Adviser to General Abdulsalami Abubakar and former Vice Chairman of the Oil and Gas Sector Reform Implementation Committee (OGIC), Dr. Mohammed Ibrahim, said: “Part of the crisis in the energy sector is for the country to define who owns the NNPC. Is it owned by the Federal Government or the federation of Nigeria? When the Vice President said it is the NNPC that is paying the subsidy, it is confusing. As far as I know, the NNPC is supposed to be owned by the federation of Nigeria and not the Federal Government of Nigeria.”

He added: “In 1998, when I was Special Adviser to General Abdulsalami Abubakar, we developed a policy that sought to break the monopoly of the NNPC in the supply of fuel to the country. That policy culminated in the emergence of the private sector into the system. But when the Buhari administration arrived, it came with the belief that building strong personalities is better than building strong institutions. A deliberate policy was put in place that ensured the NNPC became a monopoly. In as much as the current system is maintained, Nigeria will never get out of the present fuel crisis.”

On his part, the Director of Emerald Energy Institute, University of Port Harcourt, Prof. Wumi Iledare, identified exchange rate parity, importation of petroleum products and non-appointment of energy experts to advise President Buhari as major reasons the crisis in the downstream sector of the petroleum industry might not disappear soon.

Guardian

The post No end in sight for fuel crisis as NNPC shuns private depots first appeared on National Ambassador News.

The Sector Commander of FRSC in Enugu, Mr Edward Zamber, confirmed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Enugu.

NAN recalls that at about 11am on Christmas Day, a Mack truck had veered off its lane and rammed into six vehicles and two tricycles that were on the queues at the mega station living 15 people unconscious.

NAN gathered that the truck veered off the road after the driver had made a turn at the triangular portion of the Enugu/Abakaliki Road where the station is located.

An eyewitness, who spoke to NAN at the station on condition of anonymity, alleged that four persons must have died in the incident.

“I have not seen anything like that multiple accident in my life. It was horrifying to me as well as other people at this filling station, when it happened,’’ he said.

Zamber, however, denied that more than one person died in the incident as FRSC officials were on hand to attend to the victims a few minutes after the incident occurred.

“On the unfortunate incident, which FRSC officers and men attended promptly to, it is only one person that dead in the multiple accident involving an articulated vehicle, six vehicles and two tricycles.

“While the remaining 14 persons who sustained various degrees of injury are responding to treatment in a nearby hospital.

“The public should disregard the lies being paddled in the social media that more than one person died in the unfortunate incident on Christmas Day,’’ he said.

The sector commander, however, advised motorists to maintain one or two queues each time they needed to buy fuel during fuel shortages at every filling station in order not to block roads and prevent the free flow of vehicle traffic.

“As reported by FRSC on ground for the rescue, the truck hit mostly vehicles that formed additional lines from the single line file expected at that NNPC station, as the station is located at the middle junction of two major roads,’’ he said.

The post FRSC confirms one death recorded in Enugu NNPC mega station accident first appeared on National Ambassador News.

In an interview with newsmen in Apapa Lagos, he said since the NNPC buys the fuel, it bears the cost.

“NNPC is trading in fuel; the Federal Government is not, at the moment, paying for any subsidy. NNPC is trading. If you are buying and selling fuel, you would have to be able to pay for it. So, it’s not a question of government provision for subsidy, the Federal Government, at the moment, isn’t paying any subsidy. And don’t forget that the way that the NNPC trades is that, in many cases, NNPC is actually giving fuel; there is 445, 000 barrels of fuel. So really what you are seeing, in many cases, is more or less an exchange for PMS. So at the moment NNPC is paying the cost”.

Osinbajo spoke with journalists after visiting Oando and Total fuel depots in Apapa area, a day after he also visited stations in the Lekki-Ajah axis of the city.

He reiterated that the Buhari administration was working round the clock to end the fuel crisis as soon as possible.

The Vice President further said that one of the most important objectives of the Buhari administration is to ensure that the average Nigerian citizen is not again put through the pain of an increase in fuel price.

The Vice President, alongside the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, also held a closed-door meeting with oil marketers in Lagos in a bid to resolve the issues involved with supply of fuel nationwide and clear up the queues at filling stations.

“We have been here holding a meeting with major oil marketers and as you see everyone is at work trying to ensure that the petrol queues are cleared. We are trying to look at some of the issues and what needs to be done to ensure that things move very quickly,” the Vice President said.

“Just yesterday, Mr President tried to see how exactly he could really work on the problems that we are experiencing and how to very quickly clear up the queues and ensure that everyone is able to have a happy holiday; that’s exactly why we are here today.

“The GMD of the NNPC is up in Abuja and I’m here with the Honourable Minister (of State for Petroleum Resources), trying to take a look at what the problems of the marketers may be and also what other issues there may be getting the products to petrol stations across the country.”

“We had a very good meeting and we hope that in the next couple of days we will be able to resolve the petrol queues and l hope this rather sad episode come to an end as quickly as possible.”

Below is the transcript of the Osinbajo press interview:

Q: On the major issues causing fuel shortages, especially in the Yuletide season.

Vice President: I think that part of the reason why you find these disruptions at the end of the year is because of what we described as this winter phenomenon, where prices of petroleum products go up in the winter month in many parts of the world, obviously because of the places where we are getting the PMS from and the situations out there at this time. Obviously that gives rise to problems of those who are bringing in fuel, and we had one or two short deliveries on account of some of these problems.

So clearly, what has happened here is that on account of some of the short deliveries that we have experienced, panic buying, hoardings in different places started. So those are largely the issues. So we are also trying to ensure that these sorts of disruptions won’t happen in the future and that’s one of the reasons why we are spending a bit of time to look at some of the issues.

There’s a premium on products. That’s what it usually would happen at the end of the year, but if you notice it didn’t happen last year at all. We had a very smooth December 2016, there was no disruption whatsoever; it all went very smoothly. So we can actually take care of those situations. It is when you have a problem, a disruption that you usually would find the hoarding. That’s what you are seeing today, we are seeing a bit of hoarding and the DPR has been going round the stations trying to regulate that and, in some cases, have to close down the stations and force the petrol stations to continue to sell.

So really all that can be done is regulation, and more enforcement by the DPR, which is what the DPR has attempted to do. But l think the ultimate solution is to have adequate supply going everywhere. Once you have adequate supply everywhere, the hoarding and disruption will stop.

Q: On rumours on social media about a possible increase in the price of fuel.

Vice President: We are certainly not expecting to increase oil prices at all; the government has absolutely no intention of increasing fuel prices and that’s it.

Q: Shortfall in supply and NNPC as sole importer of petroleum products could not sustain supply, the unavailability of Forex, what are you doing?

Vice President: First let me explain that you are right because NNPC is doing most of the importation. But don’t forget that NNPC also relies on the independent marketers and, in some cases, the IOCs, to bring in the fuel. NNPC itself does not go and do the deals, as it were. So, it really does lie on the marketers to bring in the fuel on a contract basis.

What the independent marketers would rather do is to bring in their own products. So that is another issue, because we have to look at the pricing and we have to be sure that we are able to deal with the issues of pricing.

I think that over time, in fact if you look at the past few months, NNPC has been importing and they have been doing a very good job because we didn’t have a shortage in October and November, it’s only in December that we had a disruption. So, l think it is fair to say that NNPC did a very good job of its importation all the way up to when we have this winter disruption.

But, of course, in the long term, we are going to be reviewing some of these issues and we are going to take a look at how it is that a better balance can be struck. I think the fair thing to say though is that all the way up to the past couple of weeks, NNPC has done an excellent job, and they were actually importing most of the products.

Obviously we have to keep fine-tuning and reviewing to be sure that we are doing the best that is possible in the circumstances. But l think that for government, one of our most important objectives is to ensure that the average citizen is not again put through the pain of an increase in fuel price, that’s a very important objective for government. And we have to keep creating that balance, and we will ensure that we create that balance.

NAN

The post NNPC not FG bears the cost of fuel subsidy- Osibanjo first appeared on National Ambassador News.

Maikanti Baru, group managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), said this at a press conference in Abuja.

Baru said the landing cost of petrol is now N171 per litre.

• WHAT IS LANDING COST?

The post FG to pay N40.70 on every litre of petrol to retain N145 first appeared on National Ambassador News.

Vessels statistics released by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) at the weekend showed that some of the vessels are expected to arrive today and tomorrow.
The products, which come in four vessels (petrol); four vessels (diesel), one aviation fuel and gas, are expected to bring relief to the ordeals of petroleum consumers whole have been wasting useful man-hours to queue for fuel at filling stations.

Petroleum consumers across the country are yet to heave a sigh of relief from the fuel supply brouhaha, notwithstanding the series of promises by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to flood the market with fuel.

The Guardian investigation showed that some of the filling stations have continued to ration products by selling from only one or two pumps, leaving other pumps shut. The product (PMS) is now sold for about N250 per liter against the N145 per liter official pump price.

The NPA statistics revealed that another three vessels laden with petrol, aviation fuel, base oil and ethanol, have been waiting to berth at the ports, but were yet to be cleared as customs release is not yet applicable (CRNAPP).However, 28 other vessels would also arrive Lagos between now and 31 December. The ships were laden with general cargo, wheat, sugar, steel products, ethanol among others.

NIPCO Plc, a major downstream operator said 24 hour-loading of trucks had begun in earnest at the company’s depot in Lagos.NIPCO spokesperso, Taofiq Lawal, said the trucks were being dispatched to all parts of the country with immediate effect.He commended the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) as well as that of its subsidiary Company, Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC) for boosting petroleum products supplies, disclosing that Nigerians would soon feel the impact of NNPC intervention immediately.

“Our terminal is already burbling with activities, with the marketers feeling a sigh of relief which the consumers would soon feel positively,” Lawal said.
For the umpteenth time, NNPC has assured Nigerians to remain calm and not to engage in panic buying, as the end of the hiccup has come. Appropriate sanctions, by the security agencies working together with industry regulators, await any Marketers that may risk engaging in hoarding.

The six major marketers that recently received consignments of NNPC petrol imports and are trucking them round the clock to all parts of the Country are: Total, Forte Oil, Oando Plc, MRS, 11 Plc and Nipco Plc.

The supplies are mostly from Cargoes of PMS imported to by NNPC which are daily berthing and immediately being made to discharge their products to stem the supply hiccups.

The imported products are also being supplemented by supplies from the local refineries.Earlier in the week, NNPC GMD, Dr. Maikanti Baru, had stated that the Corporation’s 1billion litres PMS cargo imports had started to arrive, saying supplies to parts of the country had been doubled to 80million litres per day since the current hiccup in the supply chain was noticed a few days back.

The post ‘We are expecting Petroleum products in 40 vessels’ first appeared on National Ambassador News.

The governor called for the immediate resignation of President Buhari as the Minister of Petroleum, noting: “It is obvious that the president has failed in all ramifications and he needs to do Nigerians a favour by relinquishing the portfolio of Minister of Petroleum.”

Fayose who reiterated his position that the All Progressives Congress (APC) federal government was punishing Nigerians with fuel scarcity so as to achieve its planned increment of petrol pump price from N145 to not less than N185 per litre, added; “Already, fuel is being sold officially at between N180 and N200 at petrol stations across the country.”

In a release issued on Friday, Governor Fayose’s Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, quoted him as saying that “it is sad that this government had to choose this Christmas and New Year period to ground Nigeria with the fuel scarcity that it deliberately orchestrated.”

Fayose said: “Like I said a few days ago, what the federal government is doing is to create scarcity so that Nigerians will be willing to buy at any price, provided the product is made available.

“It was to achieve this planned increment of petrol pump price that they restricted supply of petrol to NNPC alone.”

The governor, who sympathised with Nigerians for the hardship they are being made to go through by the APC government, said: “I warned Nigerians before President Buhari was elected and I am telling Nigerians now that the only option to rescue our country from being brought down completely is to vote out Buhari and APC in 2019.”

Guardian

The post Fayose charge president Buhari to resig as petroleum minister first appeared on National Ambassador News.

A source highly placed in the Presidency told our correspondent that the said consultant had taken the duo to court for non-payment of the 5 per cent consultancy fees due to him.

According to the source, the suit may stall further withdrawals from the account; an account which most state governors had banked on to pay workers’ salary before the Christmas celebration.

The Source said that the case had been filed at the Federal High Court Abuja.

The person explained that before this new court case, efforts were in top gear to release the balance of the Paris Club refunds to states to pay workers salaries all over the country before Christmas.

“The payment of the Paris Club refunds were at the final stages to be paid to enable the workers enjoy the Christmas and New Year festive seasons,” the person said.

In a releated development, the earlier scheduled Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting was put off till Saturday because stakeholders had not received the component statement from NNPC.

One of the state Commissioners of Finance, who pleaded anonymity, told NAN that for the second time, the NNPC is late in remitting funds into the Federation Account.

“NNPC is the major cause of all these things, they have not brought in money just like last month.

“Last month, the state governors insisted that they (NNPC) must bring in money before they later brought out N30 billion from Excess Crude Account (ECA) before the last FAAC could hold.

”Again this month, the CBN and Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) said there was no component statement available from NNPC, they have not received component statement from NNPC.

”This indicates that NNPC had not paid money into the Federation Account. Without that money we have to wait till tomorrow for FAAC meeting to hold.

“If the component statement is sent from NNPC it will take about six hours before the stakeholders can go through it” the commissioner said.

President Muhammadu Buhari last month had urged all state governors to utilise the balance of 50 per cent Paris Club refund to settle unpaid salaries owed workers before Christmas.

To remove any hitches he had directed the CBN, Ministry of Finance, and the Budget Office of the Federation to work out how the outstanding fund would be paid before 2017 ends.

The payment began in December 2016, with the release of about N522.74 billion to all 36 states in the first tranche of the Paris Club refund.

The federal government later in July 2017, released the sum of N243.8 billion as second tranche in the repayment of Paris club refund.

The funds were released following protests by states against over deductions for external debt service between 1995 and 2002.

NAN

The post Paris Club: Dec. pay threatened, FG, states in Court first appeared on National Ambassador News.

The committee has threatened to issue warrant of arrest on the Managing Diretors of the companies of they fail to appear before it on Thursday.

Mr Jerigbe Agom, the Chairman of the committee, issued the warning at its sitting in Lagos on Wednesday.

The Chairman berated the companies, including, Aiteo Energy, Neconde Energy, Frontier Energy and seven indigenous oil companies for allegedly not showing interest to remit the fund.

Agom also ordered the Managing Director of the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) to appear before the committee in Abuja on Dec. 19 over Operating Mining Lease (OML) 119.

The company is to explain why the block was producing 5,000 barrels in spite of its capacity to deliver beyond.

He said the subsidiary arm of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) failed to remit $10 million accrued debt in line with the agreement it reached with the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR).

The Chairman said that NNPC had, on many occasions, shunned the committee’s invitations to explain the infraction.

He wondered why the NNPC, which efforts should be instrumental to government drive to block revenue leakage in the oil and gas sector, turn down his committee’s sitting for no reason.

He also spoke on ExxonMobil Nigeria’s Gas-To-Liquid project, saying that same was illegal because it had no licence from the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR).

Agom added that the committee observed the infraction and would not allow the illegality to linger without addressing the situation.

The committee, in the meantime, gave the IOCs two weeks to tidy their grey arrears in the remittance of fund to the Federal Government.

The Deputy Director, Planning, DPR, Mrs Folashade Odunuga, said International Oil Companies (IOCs) had shown deep interest to pay their debts to the government but was constrained by fiscal price disparity.

She also said though the NPDC promised to remit 10 million dollars to narrow its debt, but it failed to fulfil its pledge.

Odunuga said the agency would play its watchdog roles very well and make rigorous moves to block revenue leakages in the nation’s oil and gas sector. (NAN)

The post 10 firms in trouble over $250m oil money first appeared on National Ambassador News.

Mr Babajide Soyode, the Technical Consultant to Alhaji Aliko Dangote, said the project would add value to the economy as it would also create 145,000 indirect jobs.

He said that the refinery would lower the prices of petroleum products in Nigeria and save some costs on importation.

“ The refinery will have the capacity to refine 650,000 barrels of crude oil per day while the petrochemical plant will produce 780 KTPA Polypropylene, 500 KTPA of Polyethylene while the fertiliser project will produce 3.0 million metric tonnes per annum of Urea.”

Soyode made the submission on Wednesday when the House of Representatives Committee on Local Content paid an oversight visit to Dangote refinery and petrochemicals in Lekki Free Trade Zone in Ibeju Lekki, Lagos.

Lauded the lawmakers for supporting indigenous companies, Soyode said that Dangote was committed to local content development.

‘‘As you are aware, we are currently building the world’s largest single line Refinery, Petrochemical Complex and the world’s second largest Urea Fertiliser plant.

Soyode said that the company would also build the largest sub-sea pipeline infrastructure in any country in the world, with a length of 1,100km, to handle three billion SCF of gas per day.

The plant, according to him, will generate over 100,000 employment opportunities and revive over 11,000 filling stations that had been shut due to shortage of products.

Soyode urged the Federal Government to pursue the diversification programme to wean Nigeria from heavy reliance on crude oil export.

According to him, the best way to diversify the economy is through agriculture and “our fertiliser plant is in line with that goal”.

“By the time we finish out gas pipeline, it can generate about 12,000mw and we can export gas to other African countries.

“We would have the capacity to store four billion litres of products and can load 2,680 trucks per day.”

“This is the single largest refinery in the world. The petrochemical that we have is 13 times bigger than the Eleme Petrochemical built by the government,” soyode TTNAN)

Mr Emmanuel Ekon, the Chairman of the Committee on Local Content commended Dangote for the huge investment on the refinery and petrochemical industry.

He said that the refinery would improve socio-economic development of the nation.

He assured Dangote of lawmakers’ support to indigenous companies, while also promising to create enabling environment for businesses in Nigeria to thrive.

“We are going to work with the management of Dangote to ensure that local content implementation is deepened.

” We commend Dangote multi-billion dollars investments in the refinery and his vision for the growth of the country.

” We urged others to imbibed the giant strive taken by Dangote in the oil and gas industry,”” he said.

Ekon said that the National Assembly would provide adequate legislation to deepen the implementation of the local content law in the oil and gas sector.

He said that this was necessary to change the outlook of the nation’s oil and gas industry.

The lawmaker said that the local content law would be beneficial to all Nigerians if implemented appropriately.

“Local content has the capacity to turn around the fortunes of Nigeria for good.

” It has the capacity of transforming our economy to any level that we want to, but again the implementation lies with us all.

“We must realise that Nigeria is our country. We do not have any other country to call our own.’’

NAN

The post Dangote refinery to create 4,000 jobs, crash prices first appeared on National Ambassador News.

The FAAC meeting was last Thursday, called off due to discrepancies in the oil revenue receipt reported by the NNPC.

The corporation has insisted that it remitted all the required funds to the FAAC, saying the challenge has to do with the interpretation of the data it submitted.

Confirming the re-scheduled meeting, the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division GGM/GPAD of the firm, Ndu Nghamadu told The Guardian, yesterday, “The NNPC is meeting FAAC on Monday. The NNPC remitted what was expected. There were issues that were raised on the data that was submitted. Hopefully, it would be resolved next week.”

In announcing the postponement, Chairman, Forum of Finance Commissioners in Nigeria, Mahmud Yunusa, said the meeting was postponed after state governors endorsed the move to allow for figure reconciliation.

However, experts have submitted that the rancour between the Federation Account and NNPC would continue until the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill is passed by the National Assembly.

Director, Emerald Energy Institute (EEI) of the University of Port Harcourt, and President of the Nigeria Association of Energy Economics (NAEE) Prof. Wumi Iledare, insisted that Nigerians do not know what Federation Account stands for.

He also accused some former governors of frustrating the Federal Government’s efforts at saving when the price of oil was above $100.

His words: “Petroleum Industry Governance Bill should be passed by the National Assembly so that the NNPC will cease collecting monies on behalf of the federation. NNPC should be an operator and not a revenue collection agency of the federation. The FAAC is not an investment body, but a sharing body. Why is the FAAC not disputing revenues from the Custom, FIRS and other revenue generating agencies? The country is in this crisis because we failed to save when the price was high. The Obasanjo government saved and that is why we were not in trouble when the price of oil tumbled in 2008 or so. Our inability to save then was caused by some former governors, who were in opposition then, but are ministers today. The whole thing was politicised by the political class. Norway has more than one trillion dollars in its sovereign wealth fund, while Saudi Arabia has close to that. Nigeria has slightly above one billion dollar.”

Iledare said that the expectation that NNPC should remit its gross earnings into the federation was wrong saying, “what the NNPC Act says is that net profit be remitted into the Federation Account, but most Nigerians lack this understanding.”

On his part, the Director, Centre for Entrepreneurship at the Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA), Prof. Ayodele Ajayi said the NNPC should comply with the provisions of the constitution.

He also decried the long silence of the Federal Government on the allegations and counter-allegation of non-remittance.

He said: “I think the Federal Government should come out and say something about this matter. Most of the things we are hearing are at the level of rumours. I do not think there is an activity that cannot be determined. NNPC should tell the country how much oil it produces for us to determine how much is due to the Federation Account.”

He also submitted that the NNPC should not be selling crude oil or engage in the importation of petrol and kerosene, but concentrate on crude exploration, which is its core mandate.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun will today offer explanation for the botched FAAC meeting, where revenue generated for the month of October was to be collated, approved and distributed to the three tiers of government.

The minister’s Special Assistant on Media, Mr. Oluyinka Akintunde, told The Guardian last night: “Expect the minister’s clarification on the botched FAAC tomorrow (today). It’s true that the minister was billed to issue clarification today (yesterday), but due to unforeseen circumstances she was unable to do that. But I can assure you that the clarification will be made tomorrow at all cost. Just exercise patience because the Finance Minister as the FAAC Chairperson is the only competent authority to offer the clarification,” Akintunde said.

A member of the FAAC and the Cross River State Finance Commissioner, Asuquo Ekpenyong, while reacting to the botched meeting told The Guardian that it was postponed because the FAAC principal actors were held back at the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting, which held on the same day at the Presidential Villa.

Ekpenyong said: “We had to call off the FAAC Meeting because the Finance Minister and the Accountant General and other officials were held back at the NEC. And since there was readily no information about revenue collected, we had to postponed the meeting till sometime next week (this week). Since there was no information available to us I cannot confirm to you whether indeed there was any discrepancies in the revenue reporting. Let’s wait till we get the information.’’

guardian

The post NNPC, FAAC to parley on Monday over discrepancies first appeared on National Ambassador News.

Speaking at the grand finale of the 2017 National Quiz Competition, Group Managing Director of the corporation, Mr Maikanti Baru, said the partnership would help in deepening knowledge in science and technology

Baru said that the NNPC prized education, dearly adding that the corporation was working with its partners to ensure that the best standards of its competition were maintained.

He said that it was in realisation of the importance of science and technology that the NNPC decided to promote Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, (STEM), education as a key element of its Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR, and strategy.

This, he said informed the establishment of the annual quiz competition.

“In this respect, our arc tilts towards Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, STEM, branches of knowledge, given the great roles they play in nation-building.

“For a reason, STEM education creates critical thinkers, increases science literary, and enables the next generation of innovators. Innovation is the pillars of any progressive economy.”

Baru said the 2017 edition was the sixteenth in the competition’s history, stating that it had been expanded from the previous editions, while the prizes had been improved upon also.

He noted that the 2017 edition took place in all the 774 local government areas of the country and also featured in states in the North-East, that were affected by insurgency.

“Beginning from this year, the corporation will be providing a one-off educational grant of N100,000 each for all state winners of the competition.

“This means that everybody on this podium today, regardless of his or her final position is assured of N100, 000 from the NNPC to help defray the costs of their tertiary education.

“For the overall winner of the competition, a scholarship award of N300,000 will be granted per session, while the second and third place winners will receive a scholarship award of N250,000 and N200,000 respectively per session for the duration of their tertiary education,” he said.

He said the prizes were redeemable by the winners upon presentation of evidence of the admission into tertiary institutions whenever it may be.

Also speaking, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr Ibe Kachikwu, commended the NNPC for its contributions to the growth of the Nigerian educational sector.

He said that the competition was unifying and bonding as it was conducted across all the states and local governments in the country.

Kachikwu assured the finalists that the competition presented a veritable opportunity for them to further brighten their future.

He called on the governors of the various finalists to make contact and mentor them as that would help them in their future endeavours.

In his remark, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Yakubu Dogara, commended the NNPC for taking educational development as a crucial part of its CSR programme and also for sustenaning the programme for 17 years.

He stated that the NNPC’s contribution to education, especially for STEM was critical going by the fact that the country still had a lot to do in deepening science and technology.

He expressed the support of the National Assembly in the progress of the contestants and students in general.

At the end of the competition, Delta State took the first position with 75 points, Abia, second with 70 and Ondo third Position with 65 points.

NAN

The post NNPC, WAEC partners to promote technical education first appeared on National Ambassador News.

The house is located in Asokoro, Abuja.

The fire started in his bedroom as a result of a suspected electrical fault to the air conditioners, sources in the know said.

“Kachikwu was not at home when it happened, but thankfully the fire service reacted quickly and put out the fire before things could go out of hand,” a source told TheCable.

Details are scanty on the extent of damage to the house but TheCable understands nobody was hurt in the incident.

The minister has been in the news recently over his letter to President Muhammadu Buhari in which he complained about insubordination and humiliation by Maikanti Baru, the group managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

Thecable news

The post Kachikwu’s Abuja house catches fire first appeared on National Ambassador News.

In an interview with PUNCH, the elder statesman attacked the minister over a petition he wrote to President Muhammadu Buhari.

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Kachikwu had accused Maikanti Baru, group managing director (GMD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), of insubordination.

He also alleged that Baru of awarding contracts to the tune of $25 billion without consulting the corporation board, but the GMD maintained that he acted in order.

David-West supported Baru’s position and accused Kachikwu of embarrassing the country.

“Actually, Buhari should be the chairman of the NNPC board and not Kachikwu, who is a minister without a portfolio in reality. It would be better if we scrapped the ‘minister of state’ which is superfluous and redundant,” he said.

“When you say that a minister of state is the boss of the GMD of NNPC, it is wrong. That cannot be. People are making those claims because of misconception. The minister of state in the first republic was a minister without a portfolio. He cannot be a boss of the GMD of an oil industry, who is the livewire of that sector.”

David-West, who disclosed that he had vowed not to comment on NNPC again, said was angry when he read Kachikwu’s petition.

“When I first read it (the petition) in the newspaper, I was flabbergasted. It is out of the question completely. I have said I will never comment on NNPC, but it would be irresponsible of me to keep quiet,” he said.

“It is dangerous. Despite the fact that I am no longer the oil minister, I know what is happening in the oil industry every day. I am still in touch with the system in Nigeria and even the North Sea Oil, Brent, I get the price every day.

“I am interested in the oil industry just like any other Nigerian, for obvious reasons. Oil accounts for 80 percent of the Nigerian budget and 90 per cent of its assets outside. The money we have outside and foreign reserves are mainly from oil. As someone from an oil-producing state, I am interested in what goes on in the industry. Thirdly, I have been there before and I know what is happening there.

“I don’t know the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, or the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Maikanti Baru, but what is going on is very embarrassing to Nigeria. This has never happened before.

“Each time I read the newspapers about this issue, I am upset. An editor called me and asked me, ‘What is the duty of a minister of state?’ Some of these problems are caused by personality problems. Some of them have both bloated and ballooned egos. No one is indispensable in Nigeria because for every Nigerian holding a position, there are many others who are better qualified. No public servant can threaten the country. Nigeria is bigger than anyone, so whoever is in a top position should thank God and the country for the opportunity to serve. One million Tam David-Wests cannot threaten Nigeria.”

Thecable

The post NNPC contract: You are a minister without portfolio, David-West hit Kachikwu first appeared on National Ambassador News.

It is increasingly becoming obvious that the President Muhammadu Buhari government is chafing under the affliction of a one-week-one-scandal syndrome. Unless they are irrevocably befuddled by their partisanship, Buhari’s loyalists who have been consumed with the notion of his unrivalled integrity would not fail to observe the dark atmosphere of corruption in which the administration is immersed. But of course, while most of these loyalists are apologising for allowing themselves to be used to pave the way for the Buhari presidency, there are some who would counter that those who accuse the government of corruption are the shellacked members of the opposition. After all, the Kachikwu-Baru affair which is the latest scandal in the Buhari government has not been declared by a competent court as an unimpeachable case of corruption.

But the evidence of financial sleaze such unalloyed believers in the integrity of the Buhari government may not be able to dispute is no longer from the members of the opposition and other citizens whose moral sensibilities are daily affronted by corruption cases. Now, the evidence is from an unlikely quarter. It is from Aisha Buhari, the wife of the president. Just a week after the nation was scandalised by the $25 billion heist in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) which has no rival in the alleged financial misdeeds committed by the Goodluck Jonathan government, Mrs. Buhari alerted us to the possible mismanagement of over N4 billion at the Aso Rock Clinic in less than two years. She was shocked that despite this allocation, the clinic did not have a single syringe. Mrs. Buhari’s alarm came shortly after her daughter Zahra was outraged at the lack of syringe and common drugs like paracetamol at the clinic.

Thankfully, Mrs. Buhari was not oblivious of the multi-levelled grave implications of this development. As she told the wives of the 36 governors who were at a programme organised by her pet project Future Assured, if this could happen at Aso Rock which is the central seat of power, then the misappropriation of official funds at the state level that may be outside the radar of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFFC) could be worse. But the only exception in this regard is Ekiti State where the Buhari’s anti-corruption agencies could perceive the smell of financial recklessness from a long distance and swoop on the officials of the government wherever they are – in the state or Abuja.

The clinic is supposed to cater to the medical needs of the president and his family, his ministers and other close aides and their families. Yet, these people do not use the clinic because they do not have confidence in it. It was because the aides of Mrs. Buhari realised that the clinic was not functional that they advised her not to use it but to rather take the first flight to London. But she was confronted with the lack of direction, wastage and apparent fraud in the Buhari governance when she insisted and went to the clinic. The x-ray machine was not working and there were no drugs. She had to get her treatment in a private medical facility owned by foreigners .Yet, the authorities of the Aso Rock Clinic were busy with a remodelling of the facility. They were more concerned with the contract of construction obviously because that is a more convenient way of stealing the funds meant for the clinic.

The body language of Buhari does not deter the officials from mismanaging his official clinic .If this could happen in Aso Rock, right under Buhari’s nose, it gives a clear picture of what is happening in other government establishments that are far from the president’s focus. And if Aso Rock Clinic is not functional, how do we expect any other government medical facility to be functional and meet the health needs of the citizens who cannot afford private treatment? The fact that there is the misuse of funds in the clinic at a time the government tells the citizens that they should reduce their governance expectations because of recession provokes the suspicion that the president might have liberalised corruption among his cronies . As long as they are his appointees they are at liberty to deviate from their governance responsibilities and misappropriate their official funds. When the aides of this government serenade the citizens with the notion that the Buhari government is the best thing that has ever happened to the nation since independence in 1960, is it not possible that they are excited at the freedom they have to do whatever they like with their public office?

The tragic irony that we must not ignore is that it is Mrs. Buhari and not the president who has become so intolerant of corruption. While it is true that it is only in the post-public office era of Buhari that we can get a clear picture of how much Mrs. Buhari shielded herself from the corruption of the government of her husband, it is safe to presume that she is different from other first ladies that have gone through the state house. She is not like previous first ladies whose apparent complicity led to their husbands emptying the treasury and stashing state funds in numerous private foreign accounts. Mrs. Buhari has been the one prodding her husband to the path of probity. Last year, she was the one who warned her husband against the danger of allowing people who were not actuated by the same vision of governance like him to hijack his government. She underscored her seriousness by declaring that she would never campaign for her husband if he kept on maintaining his bad company. Again, it was Mrs. Buhari who returned this year from London where she had gone to see her sick husband and assured us that Buhari would deal with those who appropriated the reins of power while he was away.

Buhari is failing in his battle against corruption and on other fronts not because he has no home support. He does not have a first lady who looks away as the president is being cheered on to his own doom by his close aides who are in power for their own selfish gain. No, Buhari does not have to contend with an Imelda whose obsession with opulence, underscored by her possession of over 3,000 shoes, blinded her from the danger the abject poverty in the Philippines posed to her husband Ferdinand Marcos until he was forced to flee into exile by the people’s revolt. He is not saddled with an Eva who left no record of checking her husband Adolf Hitler’s delirium of power and Aryan supremacy. He does not have to contend with a Queen Marie-Antoinette who did not appreciate the plight of the people and reportedly declared that they should eat cake until it was too late and her husband Louis XVI was guillotined. He does not have as a wife a Rachele who was so far removed from state affairs that she did not warn her husband Benito Mussolini of the dark consequence of his dictatorship until he was executed by oppressed Italians.

Buhari neither heeded the first warning last year nor the second one when he returned from London this year. Thus, there is no likelihood of Buhari heeding the third warning against the rapacity of his appointees. Fixated on the notion of his wife being consigned to the other room instead of being eligible to offer an opinion on the matters of state and his political party, Buhari would not see the need to put in place a mechanism for making his appointees to do the jobs for which they have been appointed instead of being obsessed with how they would divert their official funds into the awards of contracts that would not benefit the citizens.

Yet, if Buhari must not continue to depart from the course of probity he has supposedly set for himself, he must listen to his wife whose voice apparently gives expression to the wishes of the generality of the citizens. In this regard, he should listen the more to the voice of his wife than those of his close aides who are obviously around him for what they can get. Ultimately, this is the path to salvaging Buhari’s calamitous fall triggered by corruption and misgovernance.

This article was first published in Guardian Newspaper

The post Corruption and Aisha Buhari’s testimony first appeared on National Ambassador News.

I’ve said it before and it bears repeating now, President Muhammadu Buhari is an incurable ethno-religious Jingoist and a fulani supremacist with a feudal mindset. As far as he’s concerned, the North, specifically the Fulanis, owns Nigeria with the whole South as a conquered territory.

When a Fulani Muslim or any Northerner is involved in corruption, Buhari views that the exact way a man views the action of a son who takes his father’s money which is his by right as the son of the father. But when a southerner is suspected of corruption, Buhari sees that with the anger a slave master feels when a mere slave steals from him.

Examples abound:

Till today, Buhari has continue to swear that Abacha did not steal. Dasuki is not in prison for any 2billion dollars arms fund. He’s in jail for his role in booting the Daura born ex-soldier (Buhari) out of office in 1985. In Olisah Metuh’s trial, he was handcuffed and his request to go treat a spinal cord problem abroad denied even when former Kano state governor, Attahiru Baffarawa, facing the same charge, was allowed to go pray in Mecca for one whole month.

The case of Ibe Kachikwu is a further testament to the criminal disdain which the Sons of Danfodio hold for all Southerners.

Make no mistake, Ibe Kachikwu’s humiliation in the hands of the Feudalists IS NOT an isolated case. If you think it is, then you are mistaken.

As I type this, vice President Yemi Osinbajo is going through worse indignity at the hands of Abba Kyari and co. Most of the things he says like when he described those asking for Restructuring as hungry people looking for appointment etc, were not his thought. Ngige, Ogbonnaya Onu and every Southern minister in Buhari govt is passing through one humiliation or the other in the hands of Arewa men who ordinarily are not qualified to hold their bag.

They were all given an unwritten option which is to either be in office as obedient slaves creating the impression that there is a regional balance in appointment and be collecting salaries with the attendant humiliation OR resign. And because they are all integrity-challenged men with no principle, they accepted the former.

The only reason Kachikwu is still in office is just to keep maintaining the lie that Niger Delta is represented in Buhari’s govt so the Creek boys will keep being deceived.

The day Buhari took the AK47 assault rifle from Kachikwu (NNPC Director) and handed him a catapult without even a stone (junior Petroleum minister) was the day he should have resigned if he had any honor in him.

Buhari is the Petroleum minister. Baru is the NNPC boss. As I type this, a mega power project has been launched in Kaduna for the Northern region. Rail-lines connecting the North to even Niger Republic are in progress. Northeast Development Commission is heavily funded. VAT, which is sourced mainly from Alcohol, has a special % going to the North even when alcohol is banned in the Sharia North. Last week, there was a report in the Guardian that NNPC compels firms to pay a monthly sum of 100million to fund Northern projects.

Meanwhile, in the Niger Delta region, Ibe Kachikwu’s region, the main region producing the oil, what you will be greeted with is an environment unfit for even non-living things. No good water for fishing or drinking, no clean air to breathe, no land to farm on, no nothing!

All because of oil exploration in the region.

Nature blessed you with oil. But all you have to show for it are pains, miseries and death while those who do not have even a litter of “condemned” oil in their land are the ones owning all the oil wells in your own backyard and using them to develop their place and still treating your sons and daughters like subhumans.

An Ibrahim from Sokoto can own oil blocks in the Niger Delta and make billions without doing any work but if a Tompolo from Niger Delta gets contract to secure oil pipeline in the same Niger Delta, he will be hunted like a common thief and his father brutalized, leading to his death.

Yet, we are all busy chasing shadows.

How far about Ogoni Clean-up, the same Ogoni struggle for which Ken Saro Wiwa and others were hanged?? After deceiving the people with noise about cleaning up Ogoni, the Oligarchs simply turned to their own region.

If the Niger Delta youths do not force the Caliphate to clean up their region now and develop it with the same zeal with which Lagos and Abuja were developed, is it when oil looses its value that they will do it??

In no distant time, even if oil hasn’t dried up then, it will no longer be the beautiful bride it is today, considering that most countries are turning to alternative source of energy far removed from oil. When that time comes, you can be sure the Core North will have finished developing her region. The question is, what will be the condition of the Niger Delta region then?? We can all guess correctly, can’t we?

Those of you sitting quietly and waiting for Nigeria to be restructured so you can all take control of your resources, you are on a very long thing. The North WILL NEVER allow for any genuine Restructuring without a well coordinated RADICAL push from the South. And you can NEVER get Restructuring through the existing constitutional framework. Even if you borrow lawmakers from 2 or 3 states in the North and add to the entire federal lawmakers from the South, you will not get up to the 2/3 required to change the atrocious apartheid manual masquerading as the 1999 constitution.

So I ask, how does the Restructuring group intend to get it?

Those of you who think Buhari’s unsettled but unsettling grudges and unmitigated hatred is for the Igbos alone, you are grievously mistaken. Down South, we are all Dwarfs in the eye of the “Giant” Fulani supremacists even when “Height Enhancer” is ours by right. Ndigbo are not even the shortest of the Dwarfs.

Any southern tribe boasting of having a better deal in Nigeria than the other is as criminally moronic as a Dwarf boasting of being taller than a fellow Dwarf instead of striving to be the Giant which he’s created to be.

Shame, isn’t it??

The post IBE KACHIKWU, NIGER DELTA AND THE SCIONS OF DANFODIO first appeared on National Ambassador News.

Baru, a lead discussant at one of the sessions, came‎ first at the venue of the programme, while Kachikwu walked in about 15 minutes later. As soon as the Minister of State entered, Baru stood, approached him and exchanged pleasantries. Kachikwu also offered that he be represented at the second session of the dialogue by Baru, a request the organisers politely declined, because Baru was to chair a session and it would affect his participation. However, Kachikwu left before the end of the programme and Baru represented him. However, Kachikwu returned and joined Baru in chairing the event.‎ After the session, both men held brief chat before departing.

Speaking on the opportunities in the Nigerian oil and gas industry, Kachikwu said Nigerian petroleum industry has immense potentials which are growing on a daily basis. He agreed that the operating environment is tough, but stated that the Federal Government was looking at areas where it can provide incentives to boost returns for investors, so as to attract more investors into the industry. He explained that the Federal Government is putting in place machineries to increase the scope of its earnings in the industry.

He also noted that the environment is improving, adding that companies that had suspended their big ticket projects are beginning to look at the potentials of reviving the projects and are set to take Final Investment Decision, FID. Baru, on the other hand, highlighted the opportunities in the forthcoming marginal oil fields bid round, stating that the successful completion of the process would present a veritable opportunity for Nigeria to grow its crude oil output and create employment.

The post Kachikwu, Baru discuss better ways in petroleum industry first appeared on National Ambassador News.