By Kola Animasaun
The question of the insurance of NNPC assets is a recurring problem.  It will have to be tackled once and for all.
Of course, the President of the Republic, Goodluck Jonathan, has given directive for the probing of the operations of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
I would expect the probe to go deep down, otherwise we would not be able to clear the cancer completely.
We should look into Consolidated Insurance Package (CIP) through which we might have lost up to $150 million.  I believe that this scam was perpetrated by CIP between 2001 and 2008.

The CIP was established to achieve government’s resolve to keep premium “under $10 million”.  Rather, the premium has increased by leaps and bonds. In two years before the consultant’s appointment, the NNPC paid $13.9 million (1999) and $8.6 million (2000).  HSBC was the international re-insurance for the two years.

As soon as the NNPC insurance consultant came on board, the CIP premium skyrocketed to $49 million in 2001 and remained consistently high.  For the next eight years they have been: $51 million for 2002; $49 million for 2003; $44 million for 2004; $42.5 million for 2005.

It went by geometrical progression to $57 million in 2006.  For 2007 it was $47.8 million and $53 million in 2008.
We would need to examine if a powerful politician with interest in insurance brokerage, risk surveying and loss adjustment has to do with this erratic premium. The situation has made non-sense of the Federal Government’s commitment to transparency and due process in their handling of CIP.

Are we surprised at the competitiveness of CIP for eight years?  We witness highly artificial prices and payment of premium of about $400 million and commission of $53 million to JLT during the period.

There was the “selection” of a lead local underwriter for CIP by the consultant without due regard to the internationally acknowledged appointment criteria of company history, capital base, national network, expertise in oil and gas insurance, depth of resources, claims performance and service reputation.

The annual invitation to tender for the CIP “was a charade” during the period “as the process is truncated midway to pave the way for arbitrary selection by the Insurance Consultant.”

We will need to look into the appointment of the Insurance Consultant who was the Managing Director of a Nigerian brokerage company with strong business links with the promoters of JLT in Nigeria.  And the NNPC claimed that it had stopped maintaining a broker on the CIP.  Records say the brokerage firm of the consultants acted as agents and collected fees on the CIP.

There is the question of the establishment of a captive company for the NNPC in the British Channels by the Consultant and his collaborators.  And these allegations of diversion of part of the CIP 2008 business to that company.

There are other things that the probe will straighten up.  We will come round to that.

We have taken note of the advertorial by the National Petroleum Corporation on NNPC Insurance Premium.  It was dubbed: The Facts, The Figures.

It spoke of “recent media onslaught ostensibly sponsored by some parties with the intension of browbeating the management of the corporation to dance to their tune.”

It denied it was overpaid the sum of $363.8 million premium but says infact that the sum of $436,503,08.85 was paid.  But it went ahead to show why that was so.It said: “The catastrophic losses suffered by the global insurance markets following the 9/11/2001 bombing of the twin towers hurricanes Katrina and Rita of September 2005 caused the dramatic increase in premiums for years 2002 and 2006 respectively.”

Let the probe bear it out.

This is America!

At the age of 89, Helen Thomas was practicing as a journalist until May, 2011.  She is older than Alhaji Alade Odunewu (at 82) and Chief Tony Enahoro (at 87) both veterans, who have hung their gloves after many glorious years.
Helen would have carried on till the end except that the long hands of Jewry said no more.

You see, Helen Thomas who worked at the White House, was a reporter.  She spent most of her career working for United Press International wire services but she had been working as a columnist for Heart Newspapers since 2000.
She thought she had made a fair comment but landed in a great controversy.  No one offends the world Jewry and goes scot free.  They had it for her.  She was asked to resign (or sack herself).

In a May 27, 2010 interview she said the Israelis should “get the hell out of Palestine.”  She even suggested they went to Germany, Poland or the US.  In a video interview with the website, RabbiLive.com she said: “Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine.”

She continued: “Remember these people (meaning the Jews) are occupiers and it is their (the Palestinians) land, not Germany and not Poland.”

White House considered the comments “offensive and reprehensible.”  Of course, the Obama administration raised hell (again) over the comments.

So you see where American administration stands on matters concerning Israel.