“Why sale of Port Harcourt Refinery to Dangote was cancelled by President Yar’Adua by Femi Falana” – VANGUARD, January 4, 2025

I never thought a situation would arise which would induce me to come to the defence of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited, NNPCL. But, this page started with a pledge to adhere to the basic principles of journalism, which is facts are sacred; comments are free. We have tried to maintain that principle; despite the occasional emotional reactions of the officials who are carpeted on this page. Former President Obasanjo’s attack on the NNPC and late President Yar’Adua is one of those rare examples when NNPC must be defended.

First of all, my sincere appreciation goes to Femi Falana, SAN, whose rejoinder to OBJ in the VANGUARD, cited above, has partly exonerated the NNPCL.

Posterity will someday recognise Falana as one of the greatest lawyers of our era. He had, in that short piece, exposed the corruption behind the purported sale of the refinery to Dangote for $750 million. One does not need to be versed in law; neither is it necessary to have a great grasp of the English language to understand that what Obasanjo called a sale was in reality a scam.

“If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business”.

US President Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1865.

However, before going further, I must advise the Board and Management of the NNPCL to develop appropriate thick skin to criticisms. In a situation in which every decision affects various groups differently, for good or ill, it is out of question to expect losers to join the praise singing or for winners to see anything wrong with the decision. Invariably, there are very few neutral observers.

More to the point, it is difficult for me to understand why the current managers of the NNPCL felt called upon to publish rejoinders to Obasanjo’s outburst when most of it referred to decisions made long before any of them got into office. Two Presidents – Jonathan and Buhari – had the opportunity to revisit Yar Adua’s decision, which was most patriotic, and they did not reverse it. So, what has the current NNPCL managers got to do with it? They should simply have ignored Baba.

“Truth that’s told with bad intent/ Beats all the lies you can invent.” William Blake, 1757-1827.

NNPCL should have left OBJ to Falana and Dele Sobowale; who know a lot more about why the former president is still sore about the sale of the refinery.

As Falana pointed out, the former President co-opted the statutory functions of the Vice-President by giving the excuse that he wanted to eradicate corruption in the privatisation process. He did the same with the Petroleum Development Trust Fund, PDTF. Yet, a Senate ad hoc Committee, headed by Senator Daisy Danjuma had this to say about PDTF under Obasanio.

“I was shocked, disturbed at the extent of gross abuse of office, privileges and misapplication of public funds by both the President and Vice President…PDTF was paying for services outside its mandate.” PDP:

CORRUPTION INCORPORATED, P. 19S). Incidentally, page 197 of the book has information vital to a current case of defamation now trending. Somebody close to Obasanjo must be very careful. Reputation once considered rock solid is in jeopardy. Just as Obasanjo was intentionally hypocritical and used the office of Nuhu Ribadu, Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to cover his involvement in the controversial PDTF funds case he was not totally honest about why 51 % shares in two refineries were sold on May 17 and 28 respectively. Keen observers would notice that the second sale, on May 28, 2007, was made on Obasanjo’s last day in office when all the organs of government which should have been involved have shut down. Again as Falana rightly pointed out, the shares in the Port Harcourt refinery sold for $516 dollars were estimated to be worth $5 billion. It is baffling how anybody who disposed of public assets worth $5 billion for $516 million can still go around talking as if he was acting in the national interest. We all know what would have happened to such a man in China or Singapore!

SALE OF OIL BLOCK

“$2 billion oil block sold at $5 million”. The NATION, July 31, 2008.

The sub-head to the story said: “The DPR chief, Obasanjo directed sale”. The rest of the story read as follows: “The House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee probing the oil sector heard yesterday how a $2.28 billion [then, N296.4 billion; now N3.476 trillion] was sold to a Chinese firm for $5 million by some workers of the Directorate of Petroleum Resources, DPR”

Further, one Tony Chukwueke, a Director of the DPR, said the “block was awarded on the directive of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.” The full disclosure about this deal is available on pages 290 to 292 of PDP: CORRUPTION INCORPORATED, which was published in 2011. The truth is, when Obasanjo took the unprecedented step of appointing himself Minister of Petroleum Resources, he claimed that the aim was to wipe out corruption in the sector. Probes by Ad Hoc Committees of the Senate and House of Representatives have proved beyond reasonable doubt that instead of eradicating corruption, Obasanjo encouraged it. Before you start thinking that another Dele is fishing in troubled waters, just read the book. It is available online. You will be amazed that a former official who has so many skeletons in the archives of the National Assembly, NASS, would still be pointing accusing fingers at a sector in which his government established a new template for corruption.

DELIBERATE NEGLECT OF TURN AROUND MAINTENANCE

“TAM contract awards: More sacrifices on the altar of greed.”

When Obasanjo decided on fuel subsidy removal and proposed to privatise the four refineries, his government released a document which made several revelations. Pages 283 to 288 of PDP: CORRUPTION INCORPORATED were based on a document titled REPORT OF THE SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON THE REVIEW OF PETROLEUM PRODUCTS SUPPLY AND DISTRIBUTION which was released by the Federal Government in October 2000.

 I must confess to receiving a copy plus briefing before other columnists from late Mr Tuni Oseni, the President’s Senior Special Adviser before it was widely distributed. Read my book; and you would be shocked at the depth of deliberate sabotage at the highest levels of government.

Because of space constraints, I will limit myself to only one issue – Turn Around Maintenance, TAM. The last TAM was in 1994 before 1999. TAMs were last carried out regularly under Babangida. Obasanjo undertook only one – which was not full – before deciding to privatise and sold one to his crony. The refineries were deliberately allowed to run down; they operated at about eighteen per cent of installed capacity; in order to provide the excuse for selling them as scrap to a benefactor. Read the truth and you will feel sorry for Nigeria for having such a leader at a critical point in our history.