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 Daily Independent Online.
* Friday, July 23, 2004.
Our refineries: A citizen’s
reflections
By MajiriOghene Bob
Ownership
of a refinery is a multi-billion dollar investment. Refineries are
expensive. America used to have about three hundred of them but that
number shrank to only a
hundred and forty-nine because he (America is a ‘man’) could barely maintain
them, coupled with the fact that most of them were running at full throttle to keep up with
the American thirst for
gasoline. The last refinery the American government established
was built in 1976, about the same time that the Nigerian government
constructed some of hers. Today, even the American government is not
interested in building more refineries because a refinery is one
complicated, expensive and messy piece of machinery to handle.
Furthermore, most governments hardly want to have too many refineries
around for two reasons that are well known. One, the fewer refineries
there are, the more money oil prospecting companies make and the more
money they give to government. Two, refineries are an environmental
nuisance and people are apprehensive of them.
A medium-sized refinery costs
about $500million to $1 billion (note, not naira) to construct and the
turn around maintenance operations costs are even higher. In Canada, it
is said that bottled water costs more than fuel, but the cost of a plant
to filter and bottle water is probably one thousandth of the cost of
building a refinery. In the civilized world, refineries are considered an
eyesore and an entrepreneur may have to pass through the eye of the
needle of environmentalists and the government before a refinery gets
built and begins to run.
A refinery, for Nigeria,
represents the heart of our economy. It is our biggest and for some, our
only muscle. It pumps the blood which now gives any meaning to our life
as a country and constantly gives vigour to the instrument of governance.
The refineries and their oily raw material too have been one very good
reason why the groundnut pyramids in the North, the cocoa boards in
Ibadan and the rubber tapping activities in Edo state have all disappeared.
There is a seeming one-to-half relationship between the way the
refineries are run and the way Nigeria is: When the refineries are in an
excellent shape, the Nigerian economy which should pick up does not.
Private pockets do.
This is why I have decided to
give the insinuation making the rounds that some Nigerians have private
refineries abroad some thought. I am of the opinion that no Nigerian
alive today has the wherewithal to erect and maintain a refinery that can
match the ones currently in and out of operation in Nigeria. If there
are, the persons must be thieves of the highest caliber. From what these
people may have stolen from us, my thinking is that they should have had
the conscience at least to erect these refineries here in Nigeria instead
of sneaking abroad and passing through the rigour of the back door of a
foreign country. The rigour here is not altogether as intense as that of
Brazil or Kuwait or wherever these refineries are said to be sited. If there are people around today
who have stolen billions of dollars of our oil money, some have gone
right ahead to invest some of these monies here in their fatherland and
nothing has happened to them. In fact, the way they carry themselves
around gives the impression that stealing so much money in or out of
government is a necessary and sufficient thing to do. So what is the fear
envisaged by those who have built these refineries abroad? Is it
discretion or a fear of being found out? Is it that atavistic feeling of
insecurity usually generated by those whose source of income is
suspect? Whatever it is that
is the reason for these refineries to have been erected abroad (if there
actually are refineries abroad), the fact remains that they are ours.
These refineries belong to the Nigerian people. They are ours because it
is my opinion that most of the monies expended on the erection of these
refineries are monies that were taken away from Nigeria to erect these
refineries. I do believe that it is only those who believe in their
country and who have conducted legitimate businesses that can actually
invest in or give back something to their country. The typical Nigerian
thief steals the money from Nigeria and deposits the loot in Swiss banks
and secret hideouts like pirates. There is a petrochemical plant or
refinery in Ekpan in Warri. With the erection of that plant in that
environment, the owner of that refinery has made a statement to the
effect that he has no skeletons in his cupboard.
For quite some time, Nigeria’s
refineries have barely been worth the trouble they should have been put
despite the millions of dollars that the government claims it has spent
on turn around maintenance operations. Why should we play the ostrich and
pretend not to know that these refineries being moribund is the reason we
spend so much money importing fuel? Why should we bury our head in the
sand and pretend that we do not sometimes suspect that it may be our own
people who buy our oil and sell back to us? Why? At several fora, I have
had this unfortunate opportunity of comparing Nigeria my country to a
foolish farmer who sells his cassava for fifty naira, only to buy a bag
of garri later for five-thousand naira. My seemingly foolish country does
not seem to know that she has the potential to wash, peel and process the
cassava into garri and sell cheaply to her people. In washing and peeling
and in the entire process, so many people out there on the streets who
have little or nothing to do for a living, may just as well become
accomplished washers and peelers and be thankful to whoever gave them
this chance to wash and peel cassava and earn a living.
We hear that the refineries here in Nigeria have
started working. I will not sing and clap and gyrate in a widening gyre
about this. I will not sing and clap and gyrate about this because the
refineries work, not for Nigeria, but for a group of people whose area of
specialization is the calculation of how much money would go into their
pockets from the refineries as they begin to work.
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