Low hanging fruits of change: Legitimise, empower and multiply illegal refineries (2)
Last week we began a series on the above title. I wanted to quickly take time off the current series on Nigeria Vision 20-2020 and particularly our ongoing analysis on the potentials of the automobile industry in Nigeria. As I indicated, I am sensitive to the concerns of many Nigerians and lovers of Nigeria who desire that we move at an economic faster space than we might be doing at the moment. I also mentioned however that I equally believe that we need time to set the economy on solid foundations, that economic growth is about focused actions that would put food on the table for all Nigerians; that would clothe all Nigerians; and that would employ all Nigerians. It cannot be rushed. Finally I said we must look both for immediate economic cushions, palliatives and short term dividends of the change we all believe in. Hence the need to pause our Vision 2020 analysis and ponder on what we can do now, immediately, in the second quarter of 2016, given that an immediate economic shot in the arm will contribute to the long-term search for attaining the status of one of the twenty (20) industrialized nations in the world by the year 2020.
As I indicated, I am sensitive to the concerns of many Nigerians and lovers of Nigeria who desire that we move at an economic faster space than we might be doing at the moment. I also mentioned however that I equally believe that we need time to set the economy on solid foundations, that economic growth is about focused actions that would put food on the table for all Nigerians; that would clothe all Nigerians; and that would employ all Nigerians. It cannot be rushed. Finally I said we must look both for immediate economic cushions, palliatives and short term dividends of the change we all believe in. Hence the need to pause our Vision 2020 analysis and ponder on what we can do now, immediately, in the second quarter of 2016, given that an immediate economic shot in the arm will contribute to the long-term search for attaining the status of one of the twenty (20) industrialized nations in the world by the year 2020.
Last week, taking a cue from a BBC World Service video documenting electricity generation in a Malawian grassroots/rural community, I suggested that we look into adopting that local Malawian technology from our brother African country towards generating relatively environmentally friendly cooking fire and electricity for millions of poor Nigerian homes.
This week, I would like to engage a probably more pressing challenge, petroleum refining. I must say I have been assailed by one thought for a few days now: “What would happen if the countries that are selling the excess of their refined petroleum to us cannot produce enough to afford selling their excess fuel to Nigeria?” But let me first represent the news item from Nigeria:
“The Commandant General of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, Abdullahi Muhammadu, has said that about 120 suspected oil pipeline vandals have so far been prosecuted for operating over 200 illegal refineries in eight states. The Commandant General said the refineries, located in Rivers, Delta, Bayelsa, Edo, Kogi, Ondo, Cross River, Akwa Ibom states, were destroyed by the special task set up to clampdown on saboteurs as part of drive to check vandalism, illegal refineries, oil theft and illegal bunkering”.
As I indicated, the commonality between the Malawian and the Nigerian stories and the reason we should be interested in them isindigenous technology, which translate to massive job creation, literally in millions instantly; energy savings; foreign exchange savings; environmental preservation; amazing and incredible leveraging of comparative advantages; opportunities for radically transforming the economy in record time. I have explained the Malawian story, especially how Nigeria can leverage it for the masses of our people. Today I want to look at the Nigerian story.
As for the second story, the Nigerian story, the part of it told above is the criminalization of Nigerian local indigenous technology that produces fuel for vehicles by refining crude, the principal product of Nigeria. Meaning we have it, crude oil, in excess, we have too much crude oil. So this local people take the crude and, unlike the elite, don’t send it abroad for refining, but refine it here in Nigeria themselves, in hundreds of small miniature refineries. Which laws have they breached? Number one, they did not collect government licence to refine the crude. Two, they stole the crude. Meaning the crude is passing by in a pipe behind these folks’ backyard and it is from there that the crude is dug, ‘stolen’. And this people just bust the pipe containing the crude, which is meant for exportation to, say, Niger or Ghana or Gambia for refining and subsequent shipping back to Nigeria. So these Nigerian locals just take the crude directly and refine it right there in their backyard and right here at home in Nigeria. I guess their greatest offence is that they have demystified petroleum refining. If uneducated local rural creek people can refine petroleum so cheaply, what is the big deal in shipping the same crude abroad for refining and re-importation back to Nigeria as fuel for our vehicles?
So what should we do? What should our change leader, President Muhammadu Buhari, do? One, decriminalize ordinary local/grassroots/rural/creek people’s refining of crude into motor spirits and other petroleum products. Stop throwing the baby out with the water. They should be seen and recognized as ingenious, not criminals. Two, Supply them with crude oil. Not free, but at a cost close enough to the amount we supply big local legal refineries in Warri, Port-Harcourt and Kaduna. They will pay. They can pay. It is a lucrative business and money-driven. So they can afford the cost of the crude oil raw material of the small scale refineries. Three, Encourage them to unionize, for discipline and best practice as well as for the purpose of their preventing further pipeline vandalization. They are on ground: they know who is vandalizing or who is capable of vandalizing. Once you make this potential heroes of our petroleum economy legitimates, they will monitor and secure the pipelines free of charge. If we don’t legitimize them, we continue to make it more and more impossible to secure the pipelines, especially in the creeks and deep forests, North and South of Nigeria. Anyone who knows the intricacy of our creeks can attest to this fact. Four, aggressively increase the number of these grassroots local petroleum refiners and help them to improve on their existing technology, which costs nothing to the government. Instead of shutting them down in hundreds, let us increase them in thousands.
Next week, I will attempt to end this series on the urgent reason to legitimize and multiply grassroots petroleum refiners. I will close with financial projections of such legitimization, which projections include the instant inflow of billions into the national and state coffers, in addition to instant availability of excess refined fuel for local and export purposes, between now and year end.
