By Omofolarin Bamidele

WITH the gargantuan problems bedevilling the downstream segment of the oil sector, only the novice would have lived under the illusion that they would take a little time to resolve when the Buhari administration assumed office in May 2015.

The sector was comatose with diverse challenges, ranging from near collapsed refineries, controversial subsidy claims running into hundreds of billions of naira, pipelines vandalisation that resulted in loss of products with the attendant environmental pollution, and a workforce with doubtful patriotic credentials.

The sector needed a surgical operation, with the best of hands to do the job. After all, this is a ‘change era’ that promises to improve the lot of the masses. The fact that the sector gives the nation the bulk of its revenue made it imperative that the petroleum sector should be fixed, and quickly too.

President Muhammadu Buhari, with some knowledge of how things work in the sector, having been the Minister of Petroleum Resources before (in a military regime), opted to take charge. But he needed a competent hand, with cognate experience, to drive the process. The intimidating credentials of Dr. Ibe Kachiwu, the Vice Chairman/General Counsel of ExxonMobil, came into focus.

A government anxious to get the oil sector back on its feet couldn’t have settled for anything less than a man of Kachikwu’s calibre. He was a first class material in school, an attribute he carried on to all the places he has worked since leaving school.

Kachichwu’s patriotic credentials are also not in doubt as it is on record that, as ExxonMobil Vice Chairman, he influenced over $10billion investment to Nigeria and other African countries. He was first appointed the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), and later the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources. He combines both offices.

The President himself is at the head of the pyramid as the Minister of Petroleum Resources. Kachikwu has shown the capacity that the challenges in the downstream sector of the petroleum sector are not insurmountable since assuming office, such that things are now looking up.

But there are no pretences that clearing the rot that took years to mount will not go in one day. It is a step-by-step process to ensure that the right things are done, so that the challenges are permanently resolved. Had the nation’s four refineries been working optimally, and new ones built, the issue of subsidy claims that has robbed Nigeria of hundreds of billions of naira would have been avoided.

In essence, the money, now obviously frittered away, would have come handy to fix our decayed infrastructure. Kachikwu has made it severally known that fixing the refineries, and even building new ones, is top on the agenda of the Buhari regime. The issue of subsidy is tied to the current scarcity of petrol in some parts of the country. Because the low price of oil in the world market has sort of eradicated subsidy on imported refined petroleum products, marketers have stopped importing.

Subsidy stoppage

In other words, subsidy was the main attraction in importing the products. The subsidy stoppage, according to Kachikwu when he appeared before the Senate Committee on the Downstream Segment of the Petroleum Industry, will fetch the nation N1trillion in one year.

While speaking on the efforts to address the challenge during the Senate Committee sitting, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources said, “I share the pains of Nigerians. I feel that pain every day. I walk the streets and those who are following my trajectories since I resumed office would see that even on Christmas day, I was at the refineries. On Easter Day, I was in Lagos monitoring fuel distribution at the depots. “I have given 24/7 attention to the problems in this industry, which are unbelievable. I have continued to work with one sole purpose in mind, which is that every problem will have a solution.”

The onus lies on patriotic Nigerians to help him achieve the feat and say no to those attempting to sabotage the recovery process.

• Bamidele, a development economist, wrote from Abuja