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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?
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