Dismantling Of NNPC: Executive Directive Or Policy Promulgation?

Ifeanyi Izeze

When Nigeria’s upper legislative House, the Senate, described the unbundling of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) by the Presidency as a mere pronouncement without the force of law, it was obvious that President Umaru Yar’ Adua has misfired maybe as result of improper advise from his aides. Though the Senate promised to redress whatever breach may have been committed by the pronouncement, it was clear that the president failed to factor-in the provisions of Decree 33 and all the enabling laws setting up the NNPC including the NNPC Act of 1977.

In a democratic setting as we have in the country today, it is the responsibility of the legislative arm to repeal any existing Act. And President Yar’Adua’s approach on the issue obviously indicated that he was not aware of this fact or he was out rightly misguided by those around him. The President was supposed to have presented whatever he had as oil and gas reform programme to the National Assembly, the same way it was done for the zero -performing power sector. Before the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) was created, the Act which established the National Electric Power Authourity (NEPA) was repealed.

Various legal experts unanimously agreed that as far as constitutionality was concerned in the case of the unbundling of NNPC, the approach President Yar’Adua took could best be described as a mere administrative procedure or rather an expression of intention which lacks the legal standing to dismantle the NNPC until the enabling Act of 1977 is repealed.

Though President Yar’Adua has shown some bright spots, interestingly, the controversy generated by the presidential dismantling of the NNPC again raised the question of integrity of some of the existing energy policies in the country. Promulgation procedures that produced majority if not all the existing so-called policies could best be described as gbo-ju gbo-ju. To say that in real sense, Nigeria lacks a well promulgated energy policy especially in the oil and gas sub-sectors is an understatement. What we have in the country as policies are executive ideas or rather directives.

There is nothing that could be called an energy policy document in the strict sense of the term anywhere in the country. We have what could best be described as “soft copies” of uninformed executive thinking on how things should run in the sector. These soft copies, most times, are filed away in the minds or rather skulls of the various players at the State House and their aides in the NNPC and DPR top echelon. All the national objectives in the oil sector are as perceived by our rulers not by apolitical experts or technocrats.

The present administration, since inception has indicated some genetic similarities with its predecessor as already manifested in its unwillingness to offer Nigerians a cogent legislative agenda. It was this same disposition by the Obasanjo-led government that compounded the nation’s problem of the absence of a grand vision. As was rightly pointed out by experts, lack of vision and commitment towards achieving defined goals produced not only a lack of focus but kept immediate past National Assembly not self motivated, idle and inclined to the negatives associated with bad politics of executive highhandedness.

It is time for Nigerians to insist on the Government at the centre, to certify that an articulate legislative agenda precedes any developmental idea they have not only in the oil and gas sector but in all the sectors of our national economy. That way, the rule of law would be tied into policy agenda.

In what looked like a damage limitation venture, President Yar’Adua after he goofed in the unlegislated unbundling of the nation’s apex oil concern, assembled a team to work out the modalities of dismantling the NNPC and this has drawn comments or rather point of order both informed and uninformed on the composition and the terms of reference.

The mandate included amongst others to: Advise the President continuously on long term and broad national objectives regarding the Oil and Gas industry; Review and advise the President on Strategic policy directions for the Oil and Gas industry; including periodic review of National Oil and Gas Policy, Energy Master Plan, Strategic National Investments in long term projects in the sector.

It should be emphasized that the above reference terms for the newly conscripted thinkers deserve serious input not only by council members but by all stakeholders in the nation’s oil and gas industry because there is nothing that could be called an energy policy document in the strict sense of the term anywhere in Nigeria. What we have are “soft copies” of uninformed executive thinking on how things should run in the sector. These soft copies most times are filed away in the minds or rather skulls of the various players at the State House and their aides in the NNPC and DPR top echelon. All the national objectives in the oil sector are as perceived by our rulers not by apolitical experts or technocrats.

Looking at the various downstream initiatives of the ill-fated past administration, it could easily be deduced that at best they are programmes rather than policy directions right from privatization of the nation’s refineries to private ownership of refining plants, fuel import substitution as against domestic refining.

In the upstream arena what we call policies were mere intentions of the former president on how best he thought the nation should run its exploration and exploitation business. The uninformed manner of doing things produced the lack of focus in setting goals for a workable strategy of achieving tangible increase in the nation’s producible oil reserve. The joint venture arrangements which represented another barrage of executive directives were characterized by uninformed agreements between the federal government and foreign multinational oil firms packaged to confuse Nigerians so that we cannot understand enough to ask question on the enormous fraud and corruption that characterized management of the nation’s hydrocarbon resources throughout the Obasanjo era.

The highly flammable natural gas sector was another confused arena. Policy directives that operated at the time range from production for purely domestic utilization to fully export oriented operations before the craze on the West African Gas Pipeline Initiative where the former president wanted to play the big brother role without first putting his house (domestic energy demands) in order

The new thinkers’ cartel should properly advise Yar’Adua in clear terms to demonstrate genuine willingness and commitment to completely hands- off strategic business units as proposed in the unbundling agenda so that they can function like commercial profit-driven business outfits with independent budgets. The parasitic marriage of convenience between the Presidency and the oil sector whether by direct contact or proxy should be dissolved immediately. Truth be told, any performance rating or assessment of the old NNPC under Obasanjo would be incomplete and bias, if it does not take due consideration of the negative effects of undue government or rather presidency’s interference on the activities of the corporation.

Finally, the thinkers should also be careful not to see their council metamorphosing into another monster that may ultimately turn out to work against the smooth running of the sector. We have to get this right from the onset, because from its pronouncements so far, NEC obviously sounds like it is going to arrogate powers to itself that would work to serve only the interest of the Presidency against the overall interest and actual development of the oil and gas sector.

IFEANYI IZEZE IS A PORT HARCOURT-BASED ENABLING ENVIRONMENT CONSULTANT (iizeze@yahoo.com)