BY HENRY UMORU

WORRIED by the pains Nigerians have been going through in the last couple of weeks following the scarcity of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, otherwise known as petrol, which has led to long queues at filling  stations  and panic buying, the Senate, last Tuesday, played host to the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu.

After the Senator Jibrin Barau  Committee on Petroleum Resources( Downstream) carried out an  oversight visit to some filling stations  in  the Abuja metropolis, the  committee decided that it was imperative to ask the Minister to appear before it and explain why there was no end to the fuel crisis.

During the visit to the stations, members of the committee, however, expressed  anger  when they discovered that many of the stations were not selling petrol  due to alleged lack of supply from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Depot in Suleja.

The committee’s Acting Chairman, Jibrin Barau, who had said that the Petroleum Minister must  appear before the committee to explain what led to the situation and possibly proffer a lasting solution, however, described the situation as pathetic.

Barau had said: “ This situation is very bad and unacceptable, hence, the need for the Minister to appear before us and unveil his plan on the  way out to us. Even if he doesn’t have any plan yet out of the lingering problem, the Senate President and the entire members of the committee are more than ready to rub minds with him for that needed purpose. “

Last  Tuesday, Kachikwu appeared before the Senate Committee on Petroleum Resouces  (Downstream).

Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu

With him before the Senate Committee were the Acting Executive Secretary, Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, Mrs Sotonye Iyoyo; Group Executive Director, NNPC Ventures, Dr. Babatunde Adeniran, among others.

Before that Tuesday, the Minister had, after leading the leadership of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas (NUPENG) and Petroleum and Natural Gas  Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) to a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari,   said that motorists would continue to remain on  long queues at filling stations till late May.

Kachikwu, who doubles as the Group Managing Director, GMD, of NNPC, said  he was not a magician to make the queues disappear overnight, adding that it was even a “magic” that the stations were still getting the volume of products they dispense to the public, judging from the prevailing circumstances at the NNPC.

He revealed that NNPC’s import rates had moved form 50 percent to all- time  high 100 percent, saying that the 445 barrels allocated to crude swap now service 50 to 55 percent importation of refined products. “One of the trainings I did not receive is that of a magician but I am working very hard to ensure some of these issues go away . And let’s be honest, for the five, six months we have been here, NNPC has moved from a 50 percent importer of products to basically a 100 percent importer. And the 445 barrels that were allocated was to cover between 50 and 55 percent importation,”Kachikwu stated.

“So, it is quite frankly sheer magic that we even have the amount of products at the stations. We are looking to see how to get foreign exchange imput. The president and I discussed extensively on how to get more crude directed at importation. His excellency will rather have less crude but have individuals in the society suffer less with inconveniences than have more crude and have them continue to suffer”.

The interactive session with the senators was an apple opportunity for the Minister to explain to Nigerians what the issues were and  apologise to the people on his position that he is not a magician in his  statements to reporters at the Presidential Villa.

Kachikwu, who assured Nigerians that the long fuel queues across the country would disappear by  April 7,  apologized  for saying that the scarcity would remain till May.

He said, “We expect that between now and about the 6th to 7th of April, the fuel queues will disappear. The refineries will be working and the volumes they would be producing will be sent to the strategic reserves to address difficult times.

“In April, we are expected to get 150 percent of the volumes that would be needed. A lot of that will go to storage tanks. Hopefully, that should sort out the problem.

“I  share the pains of Nigerians. I feel that pains  every day. I walked the streets and those who are following my trajectories since I assumed duty 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 attending to the problem in this industry which are unbelievable. I have continued to work with one purpose in mind, which is that every problem will have a solution.

“I do apologise if a comment I made jocularly with my friends in the press about being a magician offended some Nigerians, it wasn’t meant to be. It was a side jocular issue and I did go ahead to explain what needed to be done. I didn’t intend to create this kind of hyperbole that it did. Let me admit that I am not a typically experienced politician. I am a technocrat, I came to work.”

The Minister, who blamed the scarcity on pipeline vandalism, faulty refineries and lack of foreign exchange, said, “We were faced with the challenge of ensuring supply of petroleum products without the need for a subsidy regime. As of January 1 this year, the country is no longer paying subsidy, saving us a cumulative of over N1tr in a one year period. That was the first major issue.  The second major issue was that once the N600bn subsidy money was paid, the ability of marketers to import the product became a challenge because they could not raise letters of credit and up to this point that still remains a major issue. So even if they wanted to import, they needed letters of credit and adequate foreign exchange cover.

“The third issue is that of pipeline vandalism. We met pipelines that were in comatose, for instance Mosimi was not working. This morning (Tuesday) after a three month intensive work with private partners, we were just been able for the first time, to recover the Escravos to Warri pipeline and about a month ago, we recovered the Brass to Port Harcourt pipeline. For the first time, we will be able to pump crude to the refineries without the need to use vessels which are extremely expensive and which I stopped as soon as I came. For the first time in six years, we are trying to recover the pipeline.”

He  told the  committee that 90 percent of the country’s depots were not in use and had not been maintained, saying, “They have been abandoned for years. Money was needed to work on them. But we have advertised for joint partners to come in and work with us to put in the required facilities to get depots working and get pipeline repaired.

“NNPC was losing N40bn every month when we came, but this has been reduced to N3bn by December last year. We met a company with a debt profile of N4trn and with that of NPDC which is about N1trn. The access to open up letter of credit continues to be a challenge.”

Kachikwu, who told the committee that he was coached on  what to say when he appeared before the Senate Committee, said: “ I was thoroughly coached before coming to this meeting. But there is a potential answer to this question, first is a political answer which says we are doing our very best to go away from this situation but the training in me never attempts to be very exact because I set the  goal post.

“All I can say as an amendment to that is that in the month of April, within the first two weeks of April, we would have this issue completely resolved and you will not have this problem anymore. I  am working very hard to make it the first week in April, it’s not going to happen in March and all I  am doing right now is logistics arrangements to try and cushion the pains as much as I can and Nigerians can help me by not double buying.

“But, once we begin to get into the 5th, 6th of April you will see a dramatic change in all this. Sometimes it is difficult to change your skin at an old age so I tend to tell the truth the way it is even if I get into trouble in the cause of doing them.

“But the reality, distinguished senators, is that we are doing everything humanly possible; nothing is out of the table; no solution is thrown into the trash bin and we have gotten to a point where we can confidently say we are bound to see the last days of some of these occurrences in our history. ‘’

Many Nigerians hope that with the Kachikwu promise, it will not be a replay of Samuel Beckett’s absurdist play, Waiting for Godot, where two  characters, Vladimir and Estragon, waited  in vain for the arrival of another character named Godot.

It is also hoped that, with the assurance of the Minister and, given the terrible development, Nigerians will no longer continue to  live, work and sleep under pressure, just as the productivity level in every sector of the economy, which has been systematically reduced, would pick up.

We watch as events unfold  ahead of April 7.