Last week screams rent the air at the NNPC Amphitheatre that bids were transparently opened for offshore processing arrangements and crude oil term contracts. Some petroleum resources managers whose overt or covert actions over the years that smirched the NNPC also smiled broadly with smirks. They took prime airtime displacing scheduled programmes on national television networks (some on live broadcasts) for those ceremonies. Opening of envelopes for tender was what we wasted funds to beam on television and radio to the world as our achievements in the industry.

Preparing for the herald of a new year in global petroleum business is typified byanalysts retreating into the crystal ball game forprice and market projections. As a lay person in crystal gazingmy first thought for 2016wasNigeriain the quagmire of global geopolitical crossfire, and moving unobtrusively into recession.

The validity of the licence to establish a refinery or plant shall be for a period of two years after which it shall lapse.The licensing of 18 private refineries by former President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2005 could not achieve any result as they eventually constituted themselves into the Association of Private Petroleum Refinery Owners of Nigeria.

As we marked Nigeria’s 55th Independence anniversary two days ago in what was low key, we examine with introspection our journey in nationhood and how patriotic or otherwise we have been or would have been in managing our petroleum resources and assets for the greatest good for the greatest number. It is time to acknowledge the fact that management bandwidths are determined by individual capabilities.

Nigeria has now become a Buhari that is very enigmatic when we discuss how and what Nigeria should be, and in which direction she should be headed. In all spheres of Nigeria’s bureaucracy today the mention of that name Buhari conjures the image of a spirit that is everywhereand watching everybody. People now go to work early;though some on their desks actually pretend to be busy doing nothing.

As we continue our discourse on subsidy from last week, let us examine the international geopolitics of subsidies. The greatest subsidisers of energy are the greatest consumers; the United States and China. They both spend about $3 trillion annually on subsidies for their people.

For some years now the discussion had been on whether petroleum products subsidy would remain or not in Nigeria. Knowledgeable persons in the industry have made useful contributions based on their understanding of the concept. Issues of subsidies could be viewed either from the producer or the consumer side. We may also examine subsidy in the context of what it is actually meant for and who benefits.

As I write this piece on whether President Muhammadu Buhari has made the right choice in Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu to reposition the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), I remember my mentor, the late Major General Mamman Kontagora and his rescue mission at the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria.

Senior editors of the Daily Times in 1991 interviewed the then military President General Ibrahim Babangida, who in his characteristic humour in fielding questions, said that the Nigerian economy defied all logic. All manner of interpretations were given in newspaper editorials at the time; many alluded to executive carelessness in reflection.

As the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and current world oil leader the United States flex muscles, the world may be heading for a very long period of economic recession contrary to predictions that the downward spiral may abate in the last quarter of 2015.

The Willink’s Commission of July 1958 was to enquire into the the fears of the minorities and the means of allaying them in the Nigerian Federation. A mixture of governments from General Yakubu Gowon in 1967,General Murtala in 1976, General Ibrahim Babangida in 1987 and 1991 to the late General Sani Abacha in 1996 created States. Before then the civilian government of Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa created the Mid-West Region in 1963.

President Muhammadu Buhari’s four days official visit to the United States on the invitation of Washington, as a continuation of the sweet romance with the western powers, got to a crescendo last Monday when he held a parley with President Barack Obama in the Oval office of the White House.

Bravo! I have been vindicated on subsidy. President Muhammadu Buhari you indeed understand what subsidy is. We have been clamouring for transparency, honesty and accountability in running the affairs of the NNPC. Last Monday, the President aligned himself with my campaign that subsidy removal was not the issue but the management of our petroleum resources.

With the Yom Kippur War of 1973, the United States banned the export of crude oil to any part of the globe except refined petroleum products. For memory sake the Yom Kippur War also known as the Arab –Israeli War elicited an embargo of oil by Arab members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) on October 17, 1973 against the United States for its support of Israel during the war.

Call it facing the realities of change that seemed impossible before now and you may not be wrong. Let us again remind the NNPC that refineries are national assets that should be guarded jealously. With potentials for up to 6000 investment opportunities when we refine a barrel of crude, our refineries are strategic for energy, technology, employment, skills, increased GDP and government revenue.