|
Will PPPPA stop vandalisation and illegal
bunkering?
By Adetutu Folasade-Koyi,
National Assembly Correspondent,
Abuja
Nigeria
as a nation thrives on rituals. Are you in doubt? From the annual ritual of the
President’s budget presentation to the National Assembly to the almost
ritualistic strike action by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC). Effectiveness
of such budgets and its twin brother NLC strikes will be a tale for another
day.
But
there is another ritual that has caught the attention of the nation in recent
times. It is the vandalisation of petrol pipelines. If only the greedy elite
have not succeeded in confusing the nation’s youths with promises of jobs
being in the pipeline, one could almost wager that the numerous pipelines that
snake through the country would still be safe from vandalisation. But there
again, the elite are not your everyday hero, or are they?
Before
the Senate is a bill sponsored by Senators Abiola Ajimobi, Jonathan Zwingina
and Azu Agboti, which if passed into law, would turn out to be a milestone in
the oil industry. The lawmakers are proposing the establishment of an agency,
which would hopefully checkmate pipeline vandalisation across the country.
Instructively, while Zwingina is the Senate Deputy Leader, both Agboti and
Ajimobi are chairman and vice chairman of the Senate Committee on Downstream
Petroleum Resources respectively.
The
bill entitled the Petroleum Products and Pipeline Protection Agency (PPPPA) is
intended to be a paramilitary agency that is meant to perform primary and major
security and safety operation in respect of petroleum, petrochemicals,
refineries, pipelines, oilfield and oil wells, crude oil, installations and
facilities, and to arrest the wave of insecurity which pervades the oil
industry operations in the area of oil bankruptcy, pilfering or stealing and
pipeline vandalisation, leakages and so on.
Ajimobi
being the principal sponsor said the establishment of the agency was intended
to “divest the police of the security and safety operations in petroleum
and petrol chemical operations, including matters of natural disasters and to
arrest the wave of kidnapping, killings and maiming of oil workers and
investors, thereby providing the enabling environment for safe investment”.
Her
argued that some government agencies were set up as a last resort when such
sectors were under siege. “At a time, the issue of drug trafficking in
the country defied solution. Government solved the imbroglio with the
establishment of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) by the
National Drug Laws Enforcement Agency Act CAP 253 Vol XVI Laws of the
Federation of Nigeria 1990. Similarly, the spate of accidents and carnage on
our roads led to the establishment of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC)
by the Federal Road Safety Commission Act, CAP 141 Vol VII Laws of the
Federation of Nigeria 1990,” he explained, adding that the list also
included “the ICPC and the EFCC. It is no gain saying that the police
have been rather sporadic in this regard, giving rise to the need for a
well-trained, focused and determined agency with spontaneous reaction to secure
the nation’s future. “Essentially, the PPPPA exercises the primary
and major security and safety functions as it affects petroleum and
petro-chemical operations and pipeline vandalisation from the police and vests
same in an agency that will be specifically trained for that purpose. Thus,
the police and other agents can concentrate on their traditional roles of crime
prevention, protection of citizenry, traffic and state administration,”
he said. Tall order from an arm of government that wants to snatch
‘food’ from the police you would say!
Despite
being Africa’s largest producer of crude oil, the nation still imports
refined products to meet local needs while crude and raw products are being
exported. Nigeria’s inability to meet local demand of refined products is
largely due to the malfunction state of refineries and by Ajimobi’s
admission, to a lesser degree, the activities of vandals.
But
there is a catch to the bill. Ajimobi is emphatic that the bill is completely
detached from the Niger Delta imbroglio. What with the headquarters of the
proposed PPPPA being sited nowhere else but Warri, Delta State for “ease
of operation, logistics and administration, with sector commands in the six
geo-political zones of the country”? The sector commands, he said, would
help bring the agency closer to the people and provide quick response in cases
of infractions.
The
guiding principles of the bill seem laudable, but is this not Nigeria, a nation
of anything goes? No government worth its salt promulgates policies that would
run counter to the well-being of its citizens. If all the agencies and security
agencies of government have failed in stopping pipeline vandalisation and
illegal bunkering, then, pray, what miracle does this PPPPA want to perform in
a nation where its youths are so despondent that they will rather not wait for
the government to create jobs from the pipeline but get there themselves to
grab whatever they can? Sadly, rather than reap the goodies they think would
flow therefrom, what they reap instead is death and misery; nothing more.
But
something good can still come out of Israel, nay, Nigeria. After all, one
government agency, the National Food and Drug Administration and Control
(NAFDAC), is working and for once, the nation is the better for it, even if our
clime is not completely rid of fake drug lords. It promises to be a better day
only if this PPPRA, oh sorry PPPPA, works whenever it comes on stream, or is it
downstream?
|
