Clark Blames Army Generals for Nigerian Oil Theft

Chief Edwin Clark

By Chuks Okocha and Onyebuchi Ezigbo

A former Minister of Information and Ijawl leader, Chief Edwin Clark, yesterday blamed both retired and serving army generals for the continued oil theft in the Niger Delta region.

Clark passed the blame on them as delegates to the National Conference yesterday continued with their committee report on public revenue, calling for the building of more oil refineries in the country as a solution to the importation of petrol and the reduction of the price of the product.

This, they argued, would stop the funding of importation of fuel and also automatically remove fuel subsidy by the federal government.

Clark, who spoke during the debate on the report of the Committee on Public Finance and Revenue, chaired by Alhaji Adamu Aliero, said the military officers were neck deep in illegal crude oil bunkering in the region.

He said he reported his discoveries to the then President Olusegun Obasanjo who directed his Minister of Defence,  General Theophilus Danjuma, to investigate the issue.

According to the Ijaw leader, “The military officers in Niger Delta region are connected with crude oil theft. I made this point to President Obasanjo and he asked Danjuma, who was the minister of defence then to look into the allegation and he went and found out that it was true.

“So, because of these military officers, either retired or serving, I will suggest that the troops in the region be changed from time to time. In doing so, you will find out that crude oil theft will be reduced.”

Clark who called for the total removal of fuel subsidy, explained how in 1972, as the Commissioner for Finance in the defunct Mid-Western State, travelled with former President Shehu Shagari who was then the Federal Commissioner for Finance to Forcados terminal where Nigeria crude oil was being exported, and discovered that government officials were just interested in what comes to them than protecting the interest of Nigeria.

The Ijaw leader who said it was not known what quantity of crude oil was produced in Nigeria said: “We discovered in 1972 that the government officials, who were there, were more interested in what they could get than protecting the interest of Nigeria, which made it hard to know how much oil was taking away from our shores. It was published in the newspaper; till today, I believe that if you go to Forcados terminal the same story will also be told.”

The Delta State-born elder statesman who noted that the youths of the region only embarked on ‘bucket bunkering’-a small scale bunkering-because they don’t have the technical know-how required for such operation, said the real crude oil thieves are those who came from oversees.

“Secondly, we are talking about crude oil theft, I have always said our young men at home do bucket bunkering. They have no facility and they also lack the technology to operate, but those who steal large quantity of the crude oil are people who come from abroad. Have we forgotten the case where three naval admirals were involved in the deal and were court marshalled?” he asked.

Clark also advocated the inclusion of youths in the communities to protect oil pipelines, saying he once approached President Obasanjo with such proposal.

“Some of our pipelines are 50 years old and when they leak, oil spill everywhere.
In his contribution to the debate, former Secretary to the Government of Federation (SGF), Chief Olu Falae, while defining oil subsidy, said it was what government paid to make the product affordable to Nigerians.

Falae explained that oil subsidy revolved round the domestic price of crude oil and the price at the international market.
He said fuel subsidy would no longer be necessary if Nigeria refines more of its crude oil at home, adding that it will reduce the price subsidy.
Falae told the chairman that: “There should be a recommendation that we refine our crude oil at home and within nine months and use it here at home, this can actually be done and it must be done.”

Also, a South-west delegate, Ayo Adebanjo, said the bottom line of oil subsidy was corruption, stating that subsidy should be removed gradually while efforts should be made to refine more of the crude oil by building more refineries and also making them efficient.

According to him, “It is a shame that a country that has crude oil is importing petrol from other country. I think the government should be bold enough to deal with people who are causing this problem. But unfortunately, some of the people causing the problem are people in government. Mr. Chairman, we must withdraw oil subsidy gradually and then build our capacity to refine oil for our consumption.”

In own contribution, the Chairman of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Ibrahim Waziri, said the bottom line to the oil subsidy was nothing but an efficient management of the public finance and revenue of the country.
He cited the case of some government officials with large convoys, which he described as absurd.

Waziri said subsidy was not sustainable, but should be retained with a view of gradually removing it over a moratorium of years, and also with adequate arrangements and preparations which would lead to the phasing out of the petroleum subsidy.

A civil society delegate, Festus Okoye, said any attempt to remove the fuel subsidy now would incite Nigerians against President Goodluck Jonathan.

According to Okoye, “This is because in 2012 when the oil subsidy issue came up, some of the people who advised President Jonathan abandoned him midway, the same people are now advocating for the removal of oil subsidy, in the process, trying to incite the people as the general elections approach. As they also know that the removal of oil subsidy is an emotion and emotive issue which may likely lead to general unrest.”

Another delegate, Col. Tony Nyam (rtd), during the debates of the public finance and revenue, asked the federal government to hands off the collection of Value Added Tax (VAT) as it amounts to “hijacking revenue,” which it has played no part in creating.
Nyam, a delegate of the federal government, said VAT, being a consumption tax on goods, should as a matter of necessity be collected solely by the states from where the value was obtained or the consumption made, particularly when it is the states that bear the cost of infrastructure and other burdens arising from consumption of such goods.

“The federal government needs to discontinue the bad example of not putting to practice, the virtues of the principles of fairness. The government needs also to discontinue its encouragement of sharing rather than baking as it were, the national cake,” Nyam said.

He argued that some  goods, such as alcohol, from which VAT is derived, has been banned in some states of the federation while the VAT collected on them were brought into the general pool to be distributed across board.
According to him, it would only be fair for those states where VAT is derived to collect and utilise such tax.

Nyam also criticised the over dependence of the Nigerian economy on petroleum resources and advised that a deliberate attempt be made to diversify the economy to open up other sources of wealth.

He attributed the alleged high level of corruption in the oil sector on conflict of interest, arguing that the federal government remains an “interested partner” in a strategic national business activities which it was supposed to be a regulator.

Nyam urged the federal government to emulate other countries which have made taxation the main source of generating revenue for public finance. He proposed that rather than the continued dependence on a non-renewable resource like petroleum, the government should make the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) the main  sources of revenue for the country.

Culled from THISDAY NEWS