It’s time to take NNPC away from govt control – Sergius Ogun

A member of the House of Representatives, Honourable Sergius Ogun, has called for a fully and truly independent Nigeria National Petroleum Company (NNPC Limited) that will be devoid of government control or intervention if Nigeria will get it right in the oil sector.

Ogun, who represents Esan North East/South East Federal Constituency of Edo State, said the national oil company has been a cash cow by the Federal Government and has always been used for extra budgetary services by Nigeria’s seat of power, the Aso Rock Presidential Villa.

The lawmaker, who spoke during a radio programme monitored by Nigerian Tribune on Thursday in Abuja, said the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) was practically designed to take NNPC away from the supervision of the government and curb corruption among government officials and their cronies. He said unless the NNPC is taken away from the control of the government like the Nigeria LNG Limited, Nigeria will still not get it right as far as the oil sector is concerned.

Ogun said, “The NNPC, for so many years, has always been used for extra budgetary services by the villa. If you remember what (former President Olusegun) Obasanjo said so many years ago, I think he actually started this one of being the Minister of Petroleum. And what was his reason? That he went to Cuba as a military president and then our head of state, and then they walked past a huge cow. And Fidel Castro told him the number of gallons of milk that the cow produces in a day. And it struck him (Obasanjo) that if oil is our mainstay, the president should know what we are producing and what we are selling and all. That’s how he became the petroleum minister.

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“So others just copied it except Jonathan. Because Jonathan from day one appointed the petroleum minister. So that’s where the challenge is. So when you need everything, you have to go to the villa to clear and then you can give oil block licence just by executive fiat to your friends and family members and then even the swap. Thank God that we have a Dangote Refinery. Talking about the subsidy, that was even the biggest fraud.

“People were bringing in products, we were not able to reconcile. As soon as we go to the villa, your name is added to the list of people that were bringing in petroleum products. When we were putting the PIB together, some of us suggested, I led that group to say we should sell shares of NNPC to the public. We gave example of even NLNG that even Buhari acknowledged that 90% of the workforce were Nigerians and that they were doing well. As you know, NLNG is 61% oil companies, Shell, Total and Eni and then 49% is by federal government. So the board is likely controlled by those oil companies.”

The lawmaker added, “That’s why you see till tomorrow, the MD of NLNG will always be from Shell. The power the MD (of NLNG) is not like the power the GMD of NNPC has because it’s the board that runs that company. So we suggested. Then they said, no, no, no. Okay, IPO, we shouldn’t be talking about it now. Let’s just pass the law first. We’ll come back to that. So till we have something like that, a semblance of taking away the authority from the government, we are not going to go anywhere.”

“They have to take NNPC away from government. Some of us have been saying that before we came, before I went to the House of Reps. And I’ll still repeat that. Who are the shareholders? On your behalf, the Ministry of Petroleum Resources and the Ministry of Finance are holding the shares for you. Even the people there (NNPC) were all nominated from geopolitical zones and all that. So they should sell shares in NNPC. Let’s have something closer than what we have in NLNG, period!”