This is what short sighted sentimental Nigerians wanted. Now they have it!

Don't mind them my brother. We are so short-sighted in this country, and the unfortunate thing is that those short-sighted and ignorant individuals make the loudest noise. Lets wait and see whether the refinaries will start working. The people have refused to move forward. And we have the most unprofessional journalism here in Nigeria, where Journalists ONLY support and report doom, anarchy, retrogression and corruption. This country don tire me sef.

@ Johny na wa for those dumb people wey full Nigeria. Even if Dangote & co got a sweet heart deal its better than NNPC which has shown itself time and again to be incompetent. Just look at how its running the LNG projects and how serious it takes its obligations to it Joint ventures. Very appalling. Yet we have all these "know it all" making noise. Just look at the power situation. Men we need to sell all these wastes and allow the govt to focus on roads and other infrastructure.

@laudate
Government owned businesses that 'thrive' are most likely not government managed.  And in most(if not all?) cases, as would have been the case with Bluestar and the refineries, the govt. is not the majority shareholder.  

The British govt. does not currently have any shareholding in BP, they sold off most of their remaining stake in 1987 and by 1995 were out. http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/globalbp/STAGING/global_assets/downloads/F/FOI_2002_2006_Introduction.pdf.  And they actually seem to be in a rush to dispose of their remaining parastatals including the Post Office(this has been 'sabotaged'  so far by the Unions)!  

Unless we know something they don't know, this surely is the way to go!

@Jonny
They are going to have to offer Dangote and Co a 50% discount to take it back in a year's time!

laudate its true that they work in other countries, but this government that cannot provide water should hold the whole economy to ransom again? They tried to run them for 8 years and failed, why should they still be in government hands??

I don't care if Dangote 'owns' everything as some people claim, who is stopping you from importing your sugar or making your rice?

The inefficiencies must not be carried forward, and all this issue of 'undervaluing' smacks of a poor understanding of cost vs value, here is an interesting article

COST VALUE AND BAD BELLE - Mike Ekunno THE PUNCH

"T HE moment the Federal Government referred the Organised Labour to the Bureau of Public Enterprises over the question of reversing the privatisation of the refineries, I knew we had a deferred battle on our hands. And no sooner had Labour called off the nationwide industrial action than it trained its guns on the privatisation of the refineries. It may be just as well that Labour is reopening the debate on privatisation of the public sector Leviathans so early in the day. It was the Master who said “But I have a baptism to be baptised with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!” Therefore, this fresh debate may benefit the new government by having the matter settled once for all so that it can I carry on with the onerous task of national governance.

The issues at stake in Labour’s grouse with the privatisation of the refineries are fairly well set out.[b] Labour claims that the refineries were under-valued, using as yardstick the amount spent on their Turnaround Maintenance over the years. They also claim that the refineries were sold in a hurry in the twilight of Olusegun Obasanjo’s tenure. [/b]Third, they say a 10 per cent share of each refinery at Kaduna and Port Harcourt was to be reserved for the respective workers which were not done. Beyond these major grouses are other garnishing ones which are going on as talks and whispering campaigns. These have to do with the identity of the buyers of the refineries among whom are some new-generation businessmen who are considered ‘OBJ Boys.’ Then there is the old fuzzy talk about the impropriety of selling ‘national assets’ to a few individuals.

I am really attracted to the canard about the undervaluation of refineries on professional grounds. As a valuer, my earlobes twitch whenever certain words get bandied about in national discourse. Labour’s reasoning points to the age-old confusion by lay people about cost and values. The concepts and theories of cost and value are so wide as to be the subjects of many books and whole bibliographies.

Suffice it to say in the current circumstances that cost hardly equates values.

While the cost of a product refers to the sum total of the individual component and elements that went into it, the value thereof refers to the price which a willing buyer is ready to pay for the product as one entity.

There is therefore bound to be a natural disparity between cost and value with the latter being greater if all things are equal.

But tell me what things are equal about refineries that were usually sabotaged just after TAM and repairs.

Therefore, to say that the Obasanjo administration spent $1.1bn to repair Port Harcourt and Kaduna refineries only to sell them for $721m may sound like bad economics to the uninitiated. It is certainly bad economics if all things were equal.

But it is only the uninitiated that will make his judgement based on just cost price and selling price. In the Nigerian conundrum, these figures are deceptive. They tell nothing about refineries that have never worked at full capacity, nothing about the drain pipes they have become; nothing about how they have become national liabilities instead of national assets; and nothing about the massive inefficiencies and sleaze they sustain under public sector management.

To many Nigerians who suffer the mental agony of knowing their country has refineries yet fuel cannot be readily available because it is imported, privatisation is like euthanasia. And before mercy killing can be ordered in forensic medicine the subject would have been better off dead. That is the situation of our refineries – better off in private hands and at whatever price. The sentiment about ‘our national assets’ is certainly meant to bring out the protective and conservatory instinct in us. But pray, while those national assets were under public management, how much value did we derive from them? Did they make fuel available or affordable? Did they give value for the taxpayers’ money sunk into them? Did they provide better pay and professional fulfilment for the workers who left their gates every 4 pm? If these questions will be answered in the affirmative by having the refineries privatised even to the enemy, so be it.

I know one former ‘national asset’ that we were told had to be kept alive at all cost because it flew our national colours and ferried the football team to tournaments. But while it survived, it was a cesspit of complimentary air ticket racket for London-bound mistresses of the ruling class. Its services were the hallmarks of delayed flight, race across the tarmac for boarding passes by passengers, delayed take-off for some VIP to catch up, and stale in-flight snacks. Today, Nigeria Airways is dead like dodo. Air travellers are the better for it.

As for the charge of selling the refineries in a jiffy, the BPE has come out to remind us that the process spanned about four years – years during which the proposed sales were advertised and re-advertised in both local and foreign media.

During all this time, the BPE had cause to bend over backwards to accommodate more bidders and cast the dragnet farther ashore. Then scheduled inspection of the plants by would-be buyers got serially disrupted by the local labour unions leading to shifts in the privatisation timetable. If after all these the final payment and handover co-incided with the exit of Obasanjo’s government, how does that translate to bad faith?

The Organised Labour, which is at the vanguard of the opposition to privatisation, should avail neutral onlookers the sacred facts that will make comments free indeed. "

http://www.e-punch.com/default.aspx#

The only reason I supported the Sale of these refineries is because I felt that giving them away free may cause a lot of controversies.

How can I buy half of a refinery producing 0 barrels per day for $160 million. That's 0 x 49% = capital zero.
Not to mention those thousands of redundant staff with their counter-productive unions and demands.

Capital zero+redundant unionists = -35%.

Bluestar just bought one of those moneyholes for $160,000,000.

Yet Nigerians are weeping that we have been shortchanged. Now that Dangote is pulling out, I hope those that want to be longchanged can go ahead and better their $160,000,000.
So were are they?

Yar'adua should give Bluestar back their $751m, listening to labor and senators on valuation of assets, why hasn't the professional asset valuers (whatever name they are called) come out to comment on this issue? Labor is just interested in keeping workers on the payroll - getting paid every month while the refineries produce NOTHING, getting salaries and all that- where is that money coming from? after they retire these same people will be crying for pensions after doing little or no work in all their time in the companies.

All drain pipes should be cut off, Lets see what Kupolokun and his goons will do.

@ denex & debosky I couldn't agree with u more. The so called Labour unions are just protecting their do-nothing jobs. These people are really holding this country back. "Due Process" I thought ads were put out long ago for the refineries and everyone had a chance to bid. debosky did a splendid job when it came to explaining cost & value but it appears the mumu's amongst us just don't get it.

What needs to be done is for all these valuers to be given the job of marketing the refineries. Let them advertise it worldwide and see if they can sell the Kaduna refinery for $160,000,000 any amount they make on top of that is theirs.

So if they can sell the Kaduna refinery for $1 billion, they get to keep the $840 million on top of it.

Yes! Let it be an open market. Let everybody freely partake. Where are all those Yahoo boys? This is their opportunity to put their skills into practice and make a whopping $840 million legally.

Let's see which other maga in the Universe will pay $160 million for a scrap-yard of waste metal dubbed a refinery.

All the jobs the refinery would have created if sold out!

Now the have withdrawn, let the people shouting foul go for it.

Dangote this, dangote that. Would they have rather nnpc was sold to an indian firm?

Capital nonesense!

debosky:

laudate its true that they work in other countries, but this government that cannot provide water should hold the whole economy to ransom again? They tried to run them for 8 years and failed, why should they still be in government hands??

I don't care if Dangote 'owns' everything as some people claim, who is stopping you from importing your sugar or making your rice?

The inefficiencies must not be carried forward, and all this issue of 'undervaluing' smacks of a poor understanding of cost vs value, here is an interesting article

@Debosky, I understand your concerns but we have failed to ask the relevant questions. What expertise or track record do Dangote & co. have in running or maintaining an oil refinery?

Oil is critical to our economy, and everyone needs to be interested in how it is managed. A 1 or 2 percent increase in the price of fuel, triggers off a 50 per cent increase, in the prices of goods & services nationwide, because our entire transportation system depends heavily on the constant and affordable supply of petroleum products. Why didn't we sell the refineries to companies that actually had technical expertise & core competencies in managing a refinery? Isn't Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) what we have been clamouring for? Refining capacity has fallen in other parts of the world.

Kindly read this story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4296812.stm

So why didn't we call those who have the expertise to put things right, to buy, manage or run the refineries? No, we decided to sell it off to those who knew zero about the way a refinery works. Yet, we want to make progress. Kindly recall what happened when African Petroleum (AP) was sold to Sadiq Oil, instead of British Petroleum (BP), which had expressed an earlier interest in buying it. Sadiq went up and down after the sale, claiming that the liabilities of AP were under-stated. At the end of the day, they sold off AP again, without adding value to the business.

Forgive the digression. Let's go back to the topic.

The refineries worked until a certain point in time, when those in power decided to ignore the TAM programme for a couple of years. By the time, they woke up to put things in place, what did they do? They awarded the TAM contract, to those who knew next-to-nothing about it, instead of the original builders of the refineries. What happened next? We all know the story.

The breakdown of refineries and lack of TAM – turn-around – maintenance between 96-98 under late General Abacha's regime may have reduced local processing of crude oil to about 75,000 bbls/day. Refineries-Warri and Port Harcourt presently operate at 30% capacity. Kaduna refinery is still out, due to unsuccessful TAM, awarded to Total International in 1998.

In august 1976, NNPC begun an offshore crude processing scheme designed to complement local refining and reduce frequent product outages – Contractor’s to NNPC were: Shell Caracao; BP-Total consortium, Socap (elf) Stinnes, Interoil, Petrograd (brazil) Total international (France and Bermuda-based Basic Resources Services Ltd.

In 1991, NNPC undertook N1 billion refinery rehabilitation programme (under Gen. Babangida's regime, with Professor Jibril Aminu as petroleum resources minister). NNPC also spends about N400 million per annum for TAM on the four refineries.

In the early 1990s – the NNPC also spent about N12 billion to upgrade part of existing petroleum products pipeline from 6" diameter to 12" (inch), and build a 3-phase pipeline system. It also spent N1 billion to revamp the Apapa Jetty, a strategic fuel loading point, and N1.5 billion on the expansion of the storage and handing capacity of the major fuel import receiving facility, the Atlas Cove Marine depot in Lagos.

Source:
http://www.nigeriabusinessinfo.com/nigerian-oil.htm

http://www.independentngonline.com/?c=82&a=29158

http://www.thisdayonline.com/archive/2001/06/07/20010607com02.html

Let us go back and find out where the rain started beating us. Selling off the refineries to Dangote & co. is not the answer.

If we must sell, let us do so to those who have the expertise & technical capability to turn things around, in a way that would promote the common good.

Laudate granted they don't have expertise running a refinery, what Nigerian firm has?

Dangote had no expertise running cement plants before they bought BCC Cement, now they have moved on and recently completed one of the largest cement factories in Africa, and are building more - obviously they have sound management and they always bring in advisers to help them run their plants

BP wanting to buy AP? not very important example, all they do is buy and sell products, indigenous companies do that well and good, I don't see BP as better than Conoil or Oando in that regard,

Concerning bringing in the foreign multinationals to buy the refineries - none of them, thats right NONE of them would touch them with a ten foot pole! The same way foreigners refused to buy BCC Cement that Dangote has now turned around. Dangote has a track record of turning ailing enterprises into profitable ones and building and expanding on them, that is what in my view qualifies him to buy the refineries, with BPE oversight of course.

you talk about the mismanagement of the refineries' TAM maintenance, what makes you think things will change now? was the NLC not there when all these happened? or it is a recent development? because those actions didn't threaten their status quo, we heard less noise.

No foreign oil company with the so called experience expressed interest, cos they are too afraid to invest their money right now. the only one by the chinese valued the refinery at much less than the reserve bid price which Dangote exceeded!

It is similar to the GSM thing when all the Vodafones of the world refused to invest, only for the African/Nigerian firms to make good of the market. The foreign firms are not interested in refining in Nigeria, the oil producing margins are a much better bet for them.

Dangote has a track record of taking risks in the economy and turning them into successes, which is all we want. I don't see any gain in returning to the NNPC and its obvious ineptness at handling the refineries. We cannot wait for them to put their act together before moving forward.

We have waited for over 8 years, still no positive results on the refineries, only excuses. why continue the wait? at least we have examples of companies the bidders have turned around, and their willingness to build new ones once they have garnered experience. I see no reason to allow a corrupt and inefficient NNPC take us for another ride, which will inevitably end up in the excuse of higher prices again.

I understand the reduced refining dynamics in the world market, which is precisely why none of the majors are interested in taking on ours, we need to sort out our act internally,

debosky:

It is similar to the GSM thing when all the Vodafones of the world refused to invest, only for the African/Nigerian firms to make good of the market.

And MTN is what? and CELTEELL? come on man.

i said African/Nigerian - MTN is African isn't it? before its rapid expansion in Nigeria and other African countries was it known as a 'world leader'?

and mentioning CELTEL. when did they come in? wasn't it after the Nigerian/Zimbabwean shareholders of Econet/Vmobile had done all the initial ground work to show profitability?

Bottom line, the major telecom players worldwide refused to touch our GSM with a ten foot pole, and we are getting the same reaction for the refineries.

so who go take over?

so who go take over?

na NLC and NNPC - within the past 60 days, both organizations have been
flooded with competent, dedicated, and patriotic management and staff - at
least the speed with which the two organizations performed due diligence
and re-appraised the true value of the refineries should give you a hint! So
you didn't know all you needed to run a refinery was spare parts(which was
thrown in as jara to BueStar Consortium to begin with)?

@debosky

with the rate at which you're speaking my mind, I will soon not have anything left to post on Nairaland.

@topic

Dangote is good, he's just good. He's not going to be situated in the refinery loosening bolts and nuts, he'll employ those capable.

Foreign investors came to buy the refineries and they dropped out. Should government now tactically corner Bluestar out of the deal?

NLC is a body comprising millions of workers who earn salaries. If each one should contribute just N20,000 they will be able to buy the Kaduna refinery and run it profitably. So I really hope they do so that they will know why they are civil servants and not CEOs of multi-national corporations. There's got to be a reason.

Iyke-D:

na NLC and NNPC - within the past 60 days, both organizations have been
flooded with competent, dedicated, and patriotic management and staff - at
least the speed with which the two organizations performed due diligence
and re-appraised the true value of the refineries should give you a hint! So
you didn't know all you needed to run a refinery was spare parts(which was
thrown in as jara to BueStar Consortium to begin with)?

Stop being sarcastic. Since when has NNPC been given a free hand to run the refineries or the oil sector, the way it should be done?? If those at the head of govt. are not interfering with the TAM or refusing to approve funding for it to be done, they are busy awarding the contract for TAM to their cronies in crime, instead of those who know the job. Ever heard of Emeka Ofor and the multi-million naira TAM contract, that was not done? Abeg, don't let us open a can of worms.

@laudate

that is why Bluestar is telling them that they should take the next one year off, acquire as much "free hand" as they would need, use up all the magnificent spare parts they have and let's see if they can make the refineries function at optimum capacity.

Only the engine oil needed to lubricate those refineries back to life will cost Bluestar up to $3 million.

@ laudate

why was the same man in charge of the NNPC - Kupolokun singing a different tune of selling off refineries during Obj's time now singing a different tune of 'We can fix the refineries ourselves' now? or is Monsieur Funsho not part of the NNPC again? or he cannot decide or make up his mind?

What of the 'millions of dollars of spare parts' that they claim to have in store? surely the 'head of govt' did not hold down the workers - both in NNPC and the NLC from using these spare parts, or did Obj keep the key to the store under his pillow?

We know of some of the scams involving TAM, but we also know of the Bigger in house NNPC scams to import refined products and claim 'subsidy' - no one knows at what price they import, how much is shipping cost, local transport, maintenance or profit - NOTHING! we have no idea how much subsidy there is on one litre of petrol, no idea of the cost of production of this same petrol in Nigeria - after all these years! Or wait - did the 'heads of govt' steal all the calculators from the NNPC accountants?

It is an extremely nebulous situation everywhere you look - inaccurate/unavailable oil production statistics, no information on how much we use for subsidies or for importation. and it is this same NNPC that you expect will perform with 'free hand'?

lets wait and see who they will blame next.

Some are saying that the spare parts are worth $1 billion. Let them go and collect their spare parts and sell to recoup the $1 billion. Bluestar is not in the market to buy spare parts, they are in the market to buy a refinery.

Senators are complaining that there is already some crude oil at the Port Harcourt refinery worth $800 million. Let them go and carry the crude oil and sell. Bluestar is not pricing crude oil. They are there to buy a refinery.

I wonder how somebody will open their mouth to lie that there are 13 million barrels of crude currently in the Port Harcourt Refinery. In fact, if it is there, they should go and remove it and sell to get the $800 million into the Federal Account.

Person come buy bend-down-select, them dey tell am say the hanger cost pass the cloth. Rubbish!

Are you listening to the senators? some of them are probably angling for ways to get their own importing licenses

even if there are 13million barrels of oil (for a refinery that can process only 100,000 barrels a day = 4-5 months of storage capacity!!)

why is the crude simply sitting there when it can be sold? some sharp NLC/NNPC workers have probably siphoned most of it and bunkered it by now i'm sure.

I hear Yar'adua says they'll be at 70-80% capacity utilisation by the end of the year under NNPC management. For his sake I hope its true, if not that may turn out to be the first monumental failure/broken promise of his regime

So that Yar'Adua has finally fallen into the trap of NLC/Kupolokun. There is no government agency that can run the Refineries. If they could, they would have done it since.

NNPC, NITEL and NEPA are the same plague hydra headed plague.

I am afraid that Yar Adua is about to commit his first major blunder if he truly subscribes to this. In about a year,
these NNPC jokers will clean out and he will be left looking like a fool. I am still waiting on the Niger Delta master
development blueprint, NEPA state of emergency declaration. We will see.

I hear Yar'adua says they'll be at 70-80% capacity utilisation by the end of the year under NNPC management.
For his sake I hope its true, if not that may turn out to be the first monumental failure/broken promise of his regime

Kupolokun is just perplexed because the era of sinking billions of dollars into refineries ended just before he became GMD he wants his share of the refinery "cake" and he wants to use Yar'Adua as a tool to catch Nigeria mugu.

denex:

Kupolokun is just perplexed because the era of sinking billions of dollars into refineries ended just before he became GMD he wants his share of the refinery "cake" and he wants to use Yar'Adua as a tool to catch Nigeria mugu.

Do you know Kupolukun? Why are you so eager to cast aspersions on him?

Iyke-D:

I am afraid that Yar Adua is about to commit his first major blunder if he truly subscribes to this. In about a year,
these NNPC jokers will clean out and he will be left looking like a fool. I am still waiting on the Niger Delta master
development blueprint, NEPA state of emergency declaration. We will see.

Well having a National Petroleum Corporation works in countries like Venezuela, Iran and Saudi Arabia.
But for me I dont subscribe to the idea, though I am not suprised he chose such policy cause he is very left wing.

i wonder whia militia,angel 101 re with their patriotic ignorance are-cat got ur posts?

deboski-God bless u with that excerpt form the punch, it has really done me a lot of gud.

like u, i pray for the stars of yardua to shine on him and pray an herd of angels re in nnpc becos if not- he his goin to loose his supposedly gained credibility base

@denex & debosky,

You guys are all blaming NLC & NNPC staff as if they were the alpha & omega, of all that went on within the oil industry. That is what the federal governmnt wants you guys to believe. They were bloody civil servants, if you must know, with little or no authority to go against instructions from above, despite all the technocrats they had in-house.

The truth is that the staff of the NNPC have never had a free hand to run the corporation, the proper way it should be done. I saw with my own 'koro koro' eyes in 1998, signed letters from Abuja, from the powers-that-be in Aso Rock, giving instructions to the MD of NNPC, about who he should sell certain allocations to, with immediate effect. I had gone on a visit to the corporation's HQ, to see a youth corper friend of mine. As she was leaving the office, she asked me to help her carry some files, so that she wouldn't have to walk up and down the staircase a 2nd time. Some of those files fell down. As we were packing them up. . . .ah, omo some of the things I saw made me open my mouth in shock!

Abeg, don't let me go into details. Make we leave matter for Mathias.

laudate:

@denex & debosky,

You guys are all blaming NLC & NNPC staff as if they were the alpha & omega, of all that went on within the oil industry. That is what the federal governmnt wants you guys to believe. They were bloody civil servants, if you must know, with little or no authority to go against instructions from above, despite all the technocrats they had in-house.

The truth is that the staff of the NNPC have never had a free hand to run the corporation, the proper way it should be done. I saw with my own 'koro koro' eyes in 1998, signed letters from Abuja, from the powers-that-be in Aso Rock, giving instructions to the MD of NNPC, about who he should sell certain allocations to, with immediate effect. I had gone on a visit to the corporation's HQ, to see a youth corper friend of mine. As she was leaving the office, she asked me to help her carry some files, so that she wouldn't have to walk up and down the staircase a 2nd time. Some of those files fell down. As we were packing them up. . . .ah, omo some of the things I saw made me open my mouth in shock!

Abeg, don't let me go into details. Make we leave matter for Mathias.

So you are now suggesting that the refineries weren't mismanaged by the NNPC but by the "government"? Are you suggesting that the NNPC managers and directors weren't corrupt or stealing public funds meant for the upkeep of the refineries but were "instructed" to be corrupt and steal money by the government? Is this really what you are trying to suggest?

laudate that is simply buck passing, the government, the government, the government

if Funsho Kupolokun is a man worth his salt, then he should resign if he is not being allowed to do his job! to blame the government for his changing tunes is escapist and highly irresponsible

the staff of the NNPC are the major source of the problem itself, many of them being members of NUPENG, PENGASSAN and NLC. I have seen some of the goings on in NNPC too, with old useless hands just sitting down passing files left right and center, no productivity, no usefulness - NOTHING

only recently when they retired some of them, all we heard was more noise from these same labor people.

so the 'instruction from above' was: sabotage the refineries and don't do your jobs eh?

they will always blame someone else as responsible and never do their jobs. I repeat, if you are not allowed to function, quit and have some integrity!

even if we were to accept your argument, what automatically makes you think they will get the so called free hand now? WHy should we keep repeating the cycle over and over again? At least Dangote and co would have to make the refineries work, since most of the cash came from their banks and financial backers, is that not better than some thieves who don't have anything to lose running things down?

the NNPC/NLC are selfish, only looking out for their jobs while promoting inefficiency for the most part.

@ Debosky,

Go and check your records. Every MD of NNPC from the seventies till date, has been sacked, compulsorily retired or sent packing from that top position in the corporation, by the powers-that-be in our country. Why? Some stepped on the toes of the master by refusing to carry out certain unethical durties. Others were asked to leave via radio announcements, simply because they were not dancing to the government's tune.

And you keep wondering why we are calling 'the government's' name? For the record, the government consists of the Head of State and C-in-C, the VP, his ministerial council, his top advisers, special assistants, SFG, and now the house of reps & Senate. Comprende? Now, these guys believe that the NNPC and its' staff is there to give out contracts to them & their proxies. Even the change in petroleum prices, is done by the government, through its' agency - the PPRA. The directive to increase prices comes from from Aso Rock. NNPC's job is to implement! chikena!

As for your last post, _{please note:} You only accused the NNPC staff of lethargy, laziness and lack of initiative. If you have evidence of corruption, kindly  post it here.

Am not saying the NNPC staff are saints, or may not have aided or abetted others in carrying out some corrupt acts. But it is nothing compared to the massive looting perpertrated by those at the helm of affairs in this country. The oil windfall under IBB, how was it spent? Why didn't they plough it back into the refineries? Please, kindly stop villifying the NNPC staff, as if they are the sole agents responsible for running down the refineries, and creating the mess in the oil industry. It would be like villifying the CBN for the free-fall of the naira since 1985, without taking into cognisance the total economic situation in the country from that time, till date.

evidence of corruption?

as you said, let us leave matter for Mathias

it is very convenient to blame it on the powers that be, and yes the position of the MD of the NNPC has always been a rocky seat, does that explain Fusho's double speak?

the problem is the NNPC's unwillingness to do its job, it is playing the blame game to always revert all the fault to the powers that be, while they are just angels who have been prevented from doing their work.

I ask again, what is going to make them function with 'free hand' this time around?