Group Backs Falana, Opposes Sale of State-owned Refineries

*Says Obasanjo’s opposition to NNPC refineries not in national interest

A civil society organisation under the aegis of the Movement for Anti-Corruption, Integrity, and Transparency Initiative, weekend, condemned the recent outburst by former President Olusegun Obasanjo against the existence of state-owned Refineries and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).
In a statement jointly signed by its National President, Comrade Goodway Jackson and Secretary General, Comrade Mohammed Kuda, said with the recent outburst by the former president has shown his disenchantment for state-owned refineries which the nation has cried out for to ameliorate the sufferings of the masses.
According to the statement, “To many, former President Obasanjo’s recent outburst on state refineries may not, after all, be because he means well for the well-being of the nation’s refineries but due to an age-long grudge he holds against NNPCL soon after he left office as president.
The group cited the statement by Legal luminary, Femi Falana, on Friday, which affirmed that “It is due to the personal vendetta he holds against the State Refineries because after he (Obasanjo) left office, late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua who took over from him, reversed the sale of the Port Harcourt Refinery to a consortium, having seen that its sale was shrouded in controversy.
Falana said in the statement that the Port Harcourt Refinery was sold by Obasanjo to a consortium led by Dangote oil.
However, Late Yar’Adua having found out that the deal was never in the best interest of the country reversed it.
“According to Falana, a 51 percent stake in the Port Harcourt Refinery was sold to Bluestar Oil for $561 million, and, another 51 percent of Kaduna Refinery was also sold to Bluestar Oil for $160 million on May 28, 2007″.
“Many didn’t know until Falana’s revelation that Bluestar Oil was a consortium of three domestic companies, including Dangote Oil, Zenon Oil, and Transcorp, even before the not cleared deal, President Obasanjo had allegedly acquired large shares in Transcorp through ‘blind trust’, meaning that will as well be part of the owners of the Refineries if Late Yar’ Adua had not reversed its sales and since then Obasanjo having lost out being a part of the owners of the state refineries has been bitter and has refused to see anything good in the management of the state refineries and the oil sector,” the group said.
Zenon Oil is owned by Femi Otedola, a long-standing friend and ally of Aliko Dangote, who owns Dangote refinery.
It said Falana further stated that “Many interest groups in the country questioned the legal validity and moral propriety of the sales as they were consummated in the last days of the Obasanjo administration, as his involvement in the deal raised concerns about the conflicts of interest.”
To make it worse, Falana hinted that under the Privatisation and Commercialisation Act, the Vice President serves as the Chairman of the National Council on Privatisation (NCP), which oversees the sale of public enterprises, but Obasanjo, allegedly in his quest to be part of the major owners of the Refineries, sidelined then-Vice President Atiku Abubakar and directly managed the privatisation process for several key national assets.
Even when the two strong trade unions within the oil industry, the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) vehemently rejected and kicked against the privatisation of the two refineries on the grounds of conflict of interest and lack of due process, the privatisation proceeded.
Speaking further, Falana said that the two union in their resolve alleged that the nation had been shortchanged as the shares acquired in the Port Harcourt refinery for $516 million were worth $5billion.
“Convinced that the deals were not in the national interest, both unions proceeded on a four-day strike that almost paralysed the Nigerian economy in June 2007,” he said.
Falana stated further that “the strike was called off based on the assurance of the federal government to the effect that the deals would be fully investigated”.
According to learned silk, upon the conclusion of the investigation by the federal government, the purported privatisation of the Port Harcourt and Kaduna refineries was canceled by then President Umaru Yar’Adua.
“It is on record that the cancellation of the privatisation was not challenged in any court as it was carried out contrary to the letter and spirit of the Privatisation and Commercialisation Act.
“Movement for Anti-Corruption, Integrity, and Transparency Initiative hereby calls on NUPENG and PENGASSAN to intensify their historical struggle as a counterpoise to the renewed campaign for the privatisation of the nation’s refineries.
“Those who are awaiting the privatisation of the refineries in a manner at variance with the national interest should be advised to set up their own refineries like the Dangote Group,” the statement said.
“We have made our findings from Oil industry experts, they posit that since the ex-president lost out in his quest to be part of the owners of the refineries he has refused to see anything good in the management of the state-owned refineries, no matter how good that thing is, and he will always go to any length to denigrate any positive outlook of the state refineries as well as any success being recorded within the oil sector, due to the bitterness of not being an owner”, the group alleged.