Professor Mufutau Adebowale, 73, is an academician. He is also the president of the Certified Institute of Purchasing and Supply Administrators of Nigeria. In this interview with BRIGHT JACOB, he alleged that there is a clique in the NNPCL who deliberately keeps capable engineers away so that Nigeria would be importing fuel and so that they would be paying for fuel subsidy. Excerpts:
You alleged that the nation’s refineries are, in your words, absolutely in a near-perfect condition. Do you have any facts to substantiate this?
Four times in the past, I had told former presidents what to do to make the refineries work optimally. They listened and the refineries had worked instantly.
Back then, they told us that the refineries were not working. But each time I advised the president to take proper action by allowing local engineers to work on the refinery, it would not take them a week before they got the refineries up and running.
Now, I have told this present government what to do to get the refineries fixed within a week, but they have chosen to ignore my suggestions. They prefer to listen to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation who paints things so big to make them look so difficult. This same NNPC will be telling the government that it will take three months before the refineries get fully repaired.
When former President Muhammadu Buhari got to power in 2015, within four working days, our refineries started production. If I had not stepped in, they would have been telling us that it would take three months or six months, when it could be done within four days.
On June 5, 2015, they told us that the Port Harcourt refinery had started working. During that week, all the other refineries started working, too. It was based on the letter I wrote to the Emir of Daura to give to Buhari when he becomes president; and Buhari implemented my recommendations immediately he came in as president.
Also, in December 2007, during the administration of the late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, I disclosed that they kept capable engineers away from the refineries so that the refineries would remain moribund and compelled us to import fuel. I put it like that to the government.
The Group Managing Director of the NNPC at that time, his name is (Abubakar) Yar’Adua, he called back capable engineers they had earlier sacked and by February 2008, all the refineries started production. Yar’Adua then claimed that the era of fuel scarcity was over.
I told the GMD that there was a clique in the NNPC who deliberately kept capable engineers away so that the country would be importing fuel and so that they would be paying for fuel subsidies.
This is why if we left everything today to people like that in the NNPC, they would be saying that the refineries would work, for instance, in the third quarter of 2024. But what is the meaning of that? Because by the time we get to that third quarter, they will have something else to say.
Apart from that, look at the expenditure on refineries which has been running into billions of dollars. Why are all these expenditures made without getting the refineries to work? This is why no matter the amount they spend, they will still say that the refineries are not working. They don’t want them to work.
Why is the government unable to realise that the refineries are in near-perfect condition? Who or what is to blame for this?
Let me tell you something, the people in NNPC are well connected, powerful and have sugar-coated tongues. I got Buhari ready against these people before they swore him in as president in 2015 but I have not been able to do so for President Bola Tinubu.
“Let me tell you something, the people in NNPC are well connected, powerful and have sugar-coated tongues. I got Buhari ready against these people before they swore him in as president in 2015 but I have not been able to do so for President Bola Tinubu”
In January this year, I sent a letter to President Tinubu who was still a presidential candidate. I sent that letter he would peradventure become the president. His wife received the letter, and I particularly talked about the position of NNPC, but they ignored me, maybe because I am a noisemaker.
Three days after President Tinubu was sworn-in, I sent a letter to him telling him that huge money should not be expended on the refineries and that our local engineers were very perfect and knew what to do; he did not listen to me or give me a reply.
On July 7, I sent a similar letter to him, he did not reply, as well.
In the month of September, I sent yet another letter to him through the Special Adviser to the President on media and publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, and through the Vice President, Kashim Shettima, but up till now, they have not replied to me.
Obviously, the official protocol is too poor. The bureaucratic system is such that they would just write a minute on it and pass it to someone to treat and those that are to do so would ignore it.
Can you tell Nigerians more about the letters you wrote to presidents advising them on the NNPCL?
I wrote a personal letter to President Goodluck Jonathan. I really like Jonathan. He used to listen to me. I wrote to him through his wife and she replied to me.
In February 2012, I wrote a letter to Jonathan telling him what to do, that he should use local engineers and forget the advice the people in NNPCL were giving him. After about one month, all our refineries gained 70 percent optimisation straightaway, based on my advice.
I asked Jonathan to set up a committee, the Refinery Activation Committee, and he asked the then Secretary to the Government of the Federation (Pius Anyim) to put the committee in place.
Unfortunately, tribalism is a problem in Nigeria. Instead of the SGF to call me, the originator of that advice, he made Kalu Idika Kalu the chairman of the committee without including me.
However, all I stated that they should do, they did, and in one month, all our refineries gained 70 percent production optimization.
Then in 2014, I wrote a personal letter to Jonathan and this time, I did not ask him to use a committee. I asked him to do certain things and within three weeks, all our refineries gained 50 percent optimization.
I did this four times without working in the NNPC.
The problem with Nigeria is that there is a lot of misguided advice. Those who would gain from wrong advice are the ones who would advise the president against doing the right thing because they would benefit from it.
I helped Buhari on several issues but it appeared he preferred to listen to people who surrounded him and they exploited him.
President Tinubu would have started well if the letter I wrote to his wife had been given to him.
Obviously, deliberately keeping refineries from working can be categorised as an economic crime. Do you think the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission should go after NNPC officials responsible for the current state of refineries?
Thank you very much for this question. I don’t want people to be hunting for me but I have written to the EFCC about it. I wrote to the EFCC two or three years ago. I don’t know why, but the EFCC, too, did not reply to me, maybe because I am not a popular person.
People have been advising me to watch my back and that I have to be very careful. But somebody has to say it. If everyone is afraid, it would not be good. God will protect me.
On May 29, during his inauguration speech, the president said petrol subsidy was gone. Do you think Nigeria is really ripe for subsidy removal?
There should be no subsidy at all in the first place. If the refineries were working, there wouldn’t have been any need for subsidy. In fact, what is a subsidy? Subsidy is a payment made by the government to help the populace or to reduce the suffering of the populace.
When fuel is imported, for instance, at N1, 000/litre, importers expect to make profit. The importer may decide to sell at N1, 200/litre.
The government might come in and say that N1, 200 is too much and that petrol should be sold at N500/litre. That is a difference of N700. So, the people will be saving N700 for every litre of petrol purchased.
But why should we import fuel if our refineries are in perfect order?
Economic saboteurs know the parts of our refineries they have tampered with. They just don’t want the refineries to work.
If the refineries were working, why would we need to import fuel? And if we didn’t import, we won’t need to pay subsidy money.
You are the president of CIPSAN. Are there members of your organisation in government who can continue to champion some of the facts you have been presenting to the government?
We have members in government, but they are very few.
There is another institute of purchasing and supply. They call themselves the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply. This body has powerful people, mostly from the North.
During the administration of president Olusegun Obasanjo, the bill that established the institute was not signed, and invariably, it means their institute does not exist.
Their bill was passed in 2007 in the National Assembly. But it is not just sufficient for a bill to be passed; it has to be signed by the president.
It was because of their poor education system, poor curriculum; Obasanjo did not sign their bill. They don’t know purchasing and supply, and neither can they solve any problem. But they are well-connected.
They are the ones who are so many in government.
They have been militating against our own progress. They took us to court in 2009 in Kaduna and we won because their bill was not signed into law. Because of their powerful connections, they are succeeding and are suppressing us.
What are some of the other challenges your organisation is facing?
People say I am very vocal. That could be true, but I am a very careful man. I don’t do irregular things that would make me have money. There is a paucity of money in the Institute and this has led to other issues.
Last year, the office we were using in Ikeja was demolished after the owner sold it and I wrote to the Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-olu, to help us.
I wrote to the governor because I was in the think-tank to the Buhari government. I formulated the Special Constabulary Police for Buhari and he approved it in 2019. The whole of Nigeria started it and the Lagos State Government also adopted it.
I wrote to Governor Sanwo-olu about assisting our institute, but he did not reply to me. He did not reply to the second letter I wrote after about one or two months and the same with the third letter which he sent back to me, and I felt bad.
I am a Nigerian leader without title. On my own, I make things happen. How can someone who wants people to believe that he is patriotic, ignore me? Poverty is bad. I will not see myself as a poor person. The governor did make me feel bad, but what can I do? I won’t fight him over it.
So, we don’t have money. We have been struggling.
For 23 years, you have been proffering solutions to the problem of fuel scarcity in Nigeria. Do you think this government will be able to permanently address this perennial problem?
This government has made a lot of noise about their capability. And I am sorry, but the president brags a lot. The president talks a lot and when you do that, it means you have confidence in yourself.
The moment they stop fuel importation, the naira will appreciate within two months by more than 700 percent. The amount of money they are spending on imported fuel is very huge and it affects the demand for dollars in the market.
And when those who sell shoes, clothes, industrial machinery want to import, they look for foreign currency, especially the dollar. Because of this, the demand for the dollar is so high and what makes it outrageous is the NNPCL policy of importing fuel.
If the refineries were functioning, there wouldn’t be a need to import fuel and the dollar would crash and the economy would then begin to flourish and those people who travelled out of the country for greener pastures would come back home.
I am therefore putting pressure on the government to stop fuel importation.
