**When Will President Tinubu Develop the Liver to Clean Up the NNPC’s Cesspit of Corruption?** (Mayor of Fadeyi writes on the perennial corruption in NNPC and the management of our oil resources)

The fact that the NNPC has been plagued by endemic and crippling corruption for years is no longer debatable. Even the President’s own lieutenants acknowledge this, with some going so far as to label the NNPC as an unpatriotic organization, one that seems to operate beyond the rules and laws of accountability in a democratic society. Everyone the NNPC gluttons agreed NNPC and other ministries and agencies managing our oil exploration and marketing needs to be held accountable and brought under transparent control 

Yet, many pro-Tinubu and pro-APC supporters who agree led in principle for a long overdue house cleaning in NNPC and ministry of petroleum resources seem to forget that the responsibility for stopping corruption and cleaning up the alarmingly unaccountable NNPC rests squarely on the President’s shoulders. They also seem to forget that the President himself is the Minister of Petroleum, ostensibly in charge of the NNPC, regardless of the confusing claims that the NNPC is now a private company.

Nigeria is one of the strangest countries when it comes to privatizing public enterprises. Often, those in power rig the process or award these companies to themselves at a fraction of their real value. Even after privatization, they continue to run them and funnel public money into them as if they were never privatized.

Take the NNPC, for instance. We’re told it’s now a private company, yet we still see government officials meddling in its administration, dictating terms, and even allocating budgets to it. It’s the same story with the power sector—allegedly privatized, yet the government still controls pricing and billing as if nothing has changed. It’s absurd. Is privatization in Nigeria real, or is it just a farce? Nigerian government should stay one place and let us breathe!

Now, back to the NNPC conundrum.

This is an organization, public or private, that controls Nigeria’s main source of foreign income. Yet, for decades, it has never been audited, lacks transparency, and, despite successive presidents making themselves Ministers of Petroleum, accountability remains nonexistent while corruption continues unabated. It’s time Nigerians start calling out our President for his seeming inability to bring this behemoth under control … or is the inefficiency or corruption serving the interests of the northern cabal that is rumored to have the President in its clutches? I personally see no evidence of any cabal controlling our President. He is too wily for any cabal to hold him down if he really wanted a change. Yet, the rumors persist in online and offline chatter in a way the President could not claim not to have noticed.

So, Daddy Jagaban, when are you going to have the last laugh against your naysayers who still call you a pawn in the hands of a powerful elite? We all watched in awe as you steamrolled your way to power against all odds, and some of us are still skeptical whether the juggernaut General Emilokan we all witnessed in action as he snatched power and ran away with it all the way to Aso Rock can be under the thumb of anybody.

Back to NNPC again.

The NNPC is right now frustrating the country’s best hope for achieving crude oil refining independence with its infantile public spat with Nigeria’s foremost industrialist.

While I’m not a fan of monopolies, and I have no personal affinity for Dangote (who, like other Nigerian elites, I believe loves to take advantage of the nation in forex dealings and constant demands for concessions), but when it comes to Nigeria refining its crude oil locally, I have to side with Dangote. Dangote is the key to sparking a gold rush of local investors creating even more refineries to compete with him, thereby leading to our complete energy independence.

Yet, the NNPC, which should be championing local refining and helping this man succeed in his refinery gambit, is busy instead placing obstacles in Dangote’s path. They are so afraid of this man breaking their glutinous orgy of mismanaging our oil that they would rather see him fail than see Nigeria achieve energy independence. I know Dangote himself is no saint (few billionaires in the world are), but the endemic corruption and inefficiency of our national managers of our oil resources make supporting the NNPC in anything against the industrialist very difficult, if not impossible, to justify.

We must recall that despite being dogged by a myriad of corruption allegations during his campaign, President Tinubu promised to tackle corruption and reorganize the NNPC into a responsible and accountable organization if he won. Many of us had hoped that, despite our skepticism of Jagaban—who is a consummate backroom politician being the candidate to clean up the rot in our system—that in pursuit of a good legacy, President Tinubu would prove us all wrong by cracking down on the untouchable NNPC cabal.

Alas, after a year in office, the NNPC remains a place even the formidable “Jagaban” fears to tread. Despite his acknowledged cunning and ability to impose his will when it mattered—(after all, he managed to snatch power and take it all the way to Aso Rock despite being dogged every step of the way by Obidients and the tireless David Hundeyin who keeps breaking news of alleged scandal and corruption every week against him)—he seems powerless to effect change at the NNPC that is directly under his control.

Sir, your lack of action in sanitizing the NNPC and our crude oil extraction and management is not adding up. We know you can do better if that is your will.

From appointing a cabinet of misfits to failing to address the deep-seated corruption in the NNPC and the petroleum sector, our President Tinubu is acting as if he is unable to bring about the generational change Nigeria so desperately needs in several key industries, especially the oil sector.

We hear daily of illegal refineries being discovered in the South-South, yet no high-profile individuals are ever held accountable. It’s ridiculous to believe that the low-level workers like Musa the driver, Ugochukwu the mechanic, or Mutiu the office manager that they arrest once in a while are the real masterminds behind these illegal operations. Any average-thinking person knows that these workers are merely pawns, while the real players are protected by the security forces and most likely known to the President since they all probably live close to him in their Ikoyi dens or Asokoro extensions of Ikoyi that are literally walking distance from Aso Rock.

Recently, and to the amusement of the nation, security forces announced the discovery of 69 illegal refineries and 16 illegal pipelines in the nation—a self-indictment of their incompetence and complicity. Instead of joining the apologists of the grossly underperforming APC govt in celebrating this ‘discoveries’ by our compromised security forces, I want to ask them how  did these operations exist for so many years without the knowledge of the government or the security forces charged with protecting our oil ? Who is deceiving who?

Those who knew that this is just another cruel joke on the country simply laughed and switched channels. We have seen this kind of motion without any forward movement before. We KNOW that after the dream and news conference dies down , it will be back to business as usual for the real movers and shakers behind these oil thieves . We have seen this macabre dance of shame by our security forces too many times to be impressed.

It’s the same way they “discovered” an illegal vessel carrying one million barrels of oil a day from our shores for years, with no big man prosecuted for it. They spoke to us about the ‘discovery’ as if such a huge ship was an tiny paper ship like the type we often created and floated in the dirty waters of the Fadeyi of my youth, rather than one of the largest vessels on our shores.

Nobody ever fired the top-level officers handling our security at the ports for such a glaring failure of responsibility that apparently went on for years. For all we know that same ‘illegal’ ship is back to being ‘invisible’ on our shores after the right people have been ‘settled’ . So we know they are winding us again with their ineffectual ‘arrests’ and theatrical press conferences. It’s all so tiring and triggering .

With these recent ‘discoveries’ of 68 illegal  refineries and 16 illegal pipelines again , I at least expected the new President, who has been under siege for more incompetence and who recently endured a ‘Days of Rage’ protests that almost went out of hand, to seize the opportunity to clean house, fire those involved, and demand a thorough investigation into the leadership of our security forces. That would have been a great way to signal a new dawn in n the nation in his promised fight against corruption

Unfortunately, and as many critics expected, Nothing of the sort has happened so far and that’s a big shame and let down of the people. When is Great Jagaban and the Lion of Bourdillon going to finally prove to his doubting thomases that he is not a paper lion caged by his past comprises as the godfather ?

In fact, knowing Nigeria and our penchant for giving the most corrupt among us national awards, President Tinubu will probably give national awards to these security chiefs for their “good job.” We are watching and will point this out when it inevitably happens.

So, back again to the issue of the NNPC.

I honestly and sincerely think it’s time to ask the President: Why is he afraid to confront this NNPC monster? Why did he take on the role of Minister of Petroleum when his closest experience with the oil industry was a brief stint as an accountant at Mobil?

If the President, as Minister, cannot tackle the NNPC and its lack of transparency, is Lokowbiri—who knows even less about our corruption-ridden oil sector—expected to do it? The President should either step up and do his job as Minister of Petroleum or concede that he is a portfolio misfit  for the role, like many of hai ministers, and appoint someone who knows what they’re doing. There is no shame in doing the right things.

As Commander-in-Chief, he must enforce accountability and clean the NNPC’s Augean stables.

Frankly, and I say this with respect to the President as an elder to me by tribal affiliation, and as our defacto and de jure President, it’s time our Ashiwaju develops the intestinal fortitude to confront this evil Goliath that mocks our very existence as a nation. This will go a long way in silencing those who claim that the President doesn’t have the guts to confront the allegedly cabal-controlled NNPC.

The president ans his handlers cannot claim to be oblivious to the fact they many are now openly saying that the President cannot do anything about the NNPC because it’s a no-go area controlled by powerful cabals.

As the Mayor of Fadeyi, I would like to remind the President again that he is ASHIWAJU—a huge title in Yorubaland that means the “SUPREME LEADER,” the “PERSON IN THE FOREFRONT”—and that it’s time he starts acting like it on this issue of the NNPC and the management of our oil commonwealth.

I, therefore, with profound respect, call on the President to do us proud as a presumed Omoluabi by the culture of his Yorubaland tribe demands, by launching an all-out attack on the NNPC ‘stronghold’ and proving to everyone that he is nobody’s stooge, that he meant it when he promised to tackle corruption in Nigeria. A self respecting Ashiwaju cannot concede the frontlines to any cabal whoever they may be. He is not only the president , he is also in power . As the Americans will say, ‘it’s Time to kick ass and show them who is the boss!’

So far, apart from the annoying whining of his EFCC Chair, who complains all the time about the difficulties of doing his job instead of actually doing it, we have seen no serious moves by the President to tackle corruption where it matters.

No high-profile example has been made, and no significant individuals have been brought to book, as he and his government officials and APC apologists continue to give us all lots of motion with no forward movement on the issue of corruption.

Yes, my name is Ope Banwo, and as the Mayor of Fadeyi, Double Prince of Ijebuland, and the Ohanifere of Igboland, I believe I speak for many suffering Nigerians in the Fadeyi-side-of-life (i.e., the powerless and the voiceless) when I say enough is enough. It’s time for our President to grow a pair and tackle corruption seriously. We’re tired of seeing lowly workers arrested to give the false impression that corruption is being addressed. Go after the real powers behind the corruption, publicly name and shame them before locking them up for long sentences, and maybe you can salvage your legacy, which is now being threatened by your silence when a loud roar is needed from the true Jagaban of Borgu that you are.