The unending fuel crisis in the country is the handiwork of a cartel operating in the nation’s oil sector, President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua said yesterday with a promise to go after them.
He described the cartel as “the greatest institutional corruption in the history of the nation”.
The nation has been bugged down with scarcity of petroleum products for over four weeks with no clear explanation or solution coming from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
But the President, in his first ever press briefing at the State House, since assuming power about two years ago, yesterday blamed the cartel for the resistance of independent marketers to the deregulation of the petroleum sector and the long queues at filling stations in the country.
He promised that within the next two weeks, the situation would be normalised.
The President did not give any details of the workings of the cartel or the amount of money involved in the corruption chain, but the National Secretary of the PDP, Alhaji Abubakar Baraje, had made a similar allegation last week.
He said the Federal Government had set up a committee to checkmate the activities of fuel importers who had not allowed the vessels to berth and discharge their products to consumers in an attempt to blackmail the government.
Yar’Adua defended the deregulation policy, saying that it would in no way bring hardship on Nigerians.
The President said: “We have an issue with the marketers. They don’t want deregulation. That government is even looking at it; they are not happy. They normally import about 40 per cent and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation imports the balance of 60 per cent. And the stoppage of this importation has produced supply gap, which is being addressed. I am sure the NNPC and the authorities are on top of the situation. We are also talking with the marketers. Our last meeting with them was last Friday and measures are being taken. I have confidence that within the next two weeks, the situation will be brought back to normal.”
He stated that “this system (deregulation) is not about bringing hardship on Nigerians. But the subsidy does not reach the people it is intended for. There is a very strong cartel that is benefiting. I do not believe deregulation will bring hardship to Nigerians. But it will change the greatest institutional corruption we have in the history of the nation.”
The President also spoke on the Halliburton bribery scandal, pledging again that his administration would not falter in its goal of exposing and prosecuting those involved.
He pledged: “I will give you assurance that it will be pursued to its logical conclusion. We have set up a Committee of our intelligence outfits headed by the Inspector-General of Police, involving the State Security Services (SSS), the National Intelligence Agency, (NIA), the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to investigate this issue of Halliburton, identify those Nigerians who are involved and make their findings public and prosecute them.
“Also, you note that in the Halliburton case, we need to have co-operation with four nations – the United States of America, the United Kingdom, France and Switzerland. And we have taken a most critical step by writing to the US Attorney-General based on our treaty on Mutual Legal Assistance, for them to provide for us all the evidence against any Nigerian that they have uncovered during their investigation, all the evidence including proceedings during the prosecution of those Americans. We have written, they have acknowledged receipt and as soon as we get the report on Mutual Legal Assistance, that also will be made public and those that have a genuine case to answer will be prosecuted. I assure you that on this, this administration will not falter.”
On Ekiti, he said the Federal Government had set up a security committee to undertake a post-mortem of the rerun election with a view to prosecuting all those found culpable in the violence and manipulation of the electoral process that trailed the poll.
“In keeping with our commitment to upholding the rule of law at all times, I have ordered the appropriate security agencies to thoroughly investigate the reports of violence, intimidation of voters, bribery of electoral officials and other breaches of the law during the rerun governorship election in Ekiti State and prosecute all those against whom cases can be established irrespective of their political affiliation or status. This action is, of course, without prejudice to the right of aggrieved parties or individuals to seek legal redress through our courts and election tribunals,” he said.
The President observed that the widespread complaints and criticisms that have trailed the Ekiti rerun poll are clear indications of the lapses in the electoral system.
He appealed to the National Assembly to expedite action on the passage of the Electoral Reform Bills currently before it, and expressed the belief that this could be done in the next six weeks.
“I can only appeal to the National Assembly to expedite action on the Electoral Reform Bills before the National Assembly. I can only appeal to them. And it is to ensure smooth passage by even the State Houses of Assembly that I called for a meeting of the Council of State. I have confidence that within the next six weeks, all these process (of constitutional amendment) can be completed. And this is the first step in the process of electoral reform. It only aims at providing the quality legislation and Acts that will aid the process of free and fair elections,” he said
He pointed out that the nation’s quest for a credible and transparent electoral process would be unrealisable unless the political class changes as it relates to the winning of elections.
He flayed the political class for compromising electoral and security officials in the conduct of elections in the country.
“What has been noticed is that the politicians and the political leaders prefer to go into election with a one-track mind of never losing. In the process, they at times make provision for compromising electoral officials and security officials. We (political class) compromised officials on electoral duty – police, state security and electoral officials. If we stop this, those on election duties will perform better,” he said.
He charged Nigerians to be committed stakeholders in the electoral reform process by engaging the National Assembly in the amendment process.
“Any Nigerian, whether as individual or group, is a stakeholder and has the right by law to forward amendment of the constitution that will make for better laws for administration of the electoral process. All Nigerians have the right to forward their amendments of the 1999 constitution or the 2006 Electoral Reform law. It is a fundamental right and they have the right to do so. I am personally reminding Nigerians of this right. I invite all Nigerians, as individuals or as a group to exercise this right,” he said.
On the Muhammed Uwais report on the Electoral Reform, the President, who spoke extempore on most of the issues, said that those advocating the wholesome adoption of the recommendations are ignorant of the process, as no government White Paper adopts all the recommendations of a panel without making an input into it.
“No government wholesomely adopts and implements the report of the Committee without its input; it has never happened before in Nigeria or anywhere else in the world. The Uwais Electoral Committee made a total of 83 recommendations. Ten were rejected and 73 of them were accepted and noted. Those calling for the full implementation of the Uwais report have no knowledge of what they are talking about,” he said.
He observed as critical the attitude of the political class in seeking for office and power. “I hope the political class and the leadership will rise up to the challenge and reform our ideas and attitude. I will do my best. I will ask the Vice-President to resuscitate the Committee of all Political Parties. And I appeal to all Nigerian political parties – let us put politics aside. We are not going to be in power forever. Let us put party affiliations aside. Let us come together,” he said.
He said that it is important to have financial and administrative independence for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
He said what is important is not who appoints the INEC chiefs, but whether those appointed to run elections are men and women of integrity.
“Integrity is not who appoints the people. It is the integrity of the people who are appointed. And if you say the National Judicial Council should appoint them, you are taking executive functions and giving them to the judiciary. This would be dragging them into politics. And in any case, we cannot, as a nation, have solutions to our problems by throwing out things fundamental to the system. It is not just right. We only have to ensure that what is right has to be done. There should be no throwing out of the baby with the bath water. We must have confidence in ourselves to correct the ills. And there is no other population that will come and do it for us,” he said.
“What is important is the integrity of the people appointed and their capacity to exercise the independence being guaranteed to INEC by the reform bills. The recommendation for the National Judicial Council to appoint the chairman and members of INEC is not in line with the fundamental process of the law. And remember, we are making laws for future generations and not just for perceived perceptions,” he added.
President Yar’adua praised the “the vibrancy of our Press”, saying it remains “an institution which has discharged creditably its constitutionally-assigned duty of holding government accountable to the people. I, therefore, warmly congratulate you and ask, however, that you do not rest on your oars as we march assuredly towards democratic consolidation.”
May132009