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A former Senate Committee Chairman on Petroleum
Resources, Senator Lee Maeba has insisted that
government is not in a position to run the refineries
efficiently, following the announcement by the Group
Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, that the
nation’s four refineries would not be sold.
“Government does not run refineries anywhere in the world.
For the eight years I was in the Petroleum Committee of
the Senate, I said that without the sale of the refineries
we will not make any headway in the industry.
“Have we been ever told how much government has made
from the refineries all this while? We have always been
regaled with the issue of subsidy. In fact, by now, we
should be talking of having more refineries,” he said.
Commenting on the unbundling of the Pipelines and
Products Marketing Company (PPMC), Maeba said that
the best measure to take is deregulation, as the private
sector is in the best position to run the business of
petroleum products.
On his own part, former Board Chairman, Nigerian
Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI),
Mr. Ledum Mitee advised that the government opted for
commercialisation of the refineries, instead of privatisation
due to distortions peculiar to Nigeria in the privatisation of
government assets.
“There is always a clear distinction that is almost always
distorted in the Nigerian situation between
commercialisation and privatisation of public assets. When it
comes to the refineries, I would always go for
commercialisation which most often times, approximates in
practical terms to giving our common wealth to cronies at
ridiculous prices
“As I always ask rhetorically to the assertion that these
refineries cannot be run profitably or viably unless sold, are
those buying them going to run them on charity?” he asked.
On the unbundling of PPMC, Mitee said that there is
always unanimity of views that NNPC needs to be
unbundled. “I think the current GMD is right in giving
priority attention to that process. However, I am sure that
the process of NNPC reform should be mainly driven by
NNPC itself “I would also add that instead of one PIB,
we should be looking at a couple of laws so that needed
reforms are not held down by disagreements on one area of
proposed reform,” he said.
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