News

Boiling Rivers! Like Ngige’s July 10, Wike’s war, is Fubara’s moment to lose!

Published

9 months ago

December 14, 2023

By Sunny Igboanugo

On July 10, 2003, I drove at breakneck speed from Enugu to Awka. The news had just broken about the drama involving Chris Ngige, then Governor of Anambra State and his ordeal with the band of political hounds and scavengers he had decided to dine with.

Nobody at that stage really knew the true story. It was said that there had been a change of guard in the state with Okey Udeh, his deputy taking over from him and that his whereabouts were unknown. It was on getting to the Anambra State capital that I was directed to the Choice Hotel, where he was said to have been holing up.

By then, I had lost substantial ground, transiting from the almighty flagship of Nigerian media – The Guardian to Daily Independent that was at its nadir at the time, having not broken into the media world like Daily Sun, which was an instant success. That counted against me in terms of prestige and reckoning. I had suddenly discovered that the accolades some people reserved for me was due to my status as a reporter with the paper and not my personal prowess.

So, for that reason, I had to work extra hard. Of course, that meant that the press crew in Awka Government House did not invite me or reckon with me for their briefings, meaning I had to work on my own for any information I needed on the matter. But information, I must get to help my paper, which also needed the news.

That was how I found my way at the Choice Hotel. But that was how luck struck. For a journalist, these things usually happen – breakthroughs at the last minute, when it is least expected. I was standing behind the sea of heads at the hotel, not knowing what to do next. At best, I was now prepared to contend with the circumstantial report on the incident – just the environment and spice it up with information filtering from elsewhere including the radio and televisions.

But at that moment, somebody nudged me. “Do you want to see oga?” It was the driver to Ngige himself the main dramatis personae. He had spotted me from afar from the crowd and knowing my relationship with his boss, dating back to when he was still toying with the idea of joining politics, he knew I was a friend and posed no problem to his boss. Of course, that was all I needed. Nothing could be juicier than hearing from the governor himself.

That was how the driver led me through the maze of human obstacles until we got to the door leading to room being occupied by his boss. We had succeeded all along in beating the security barriers that had cordoned off the entire arena until that point. The security operatives vehemently refused to let us through even when the young man tried to explain to them that it was the governor that sent me.

It was then that I joined in. “Go and tell him that it’s Sunny Igboanugo,” I offered. But no dice! They were not prepared for that. There instruction was nobody should cross beyond that point. But then, just then, the door opened and somebody approached the security men, with a directive. I should be let in. The governor, my good friend had overheard the conversation and my name being mentioned and sent the security aides with him inside the room to invite me.

That was how I ended up with Ngige on that fateful day right inside his room and extracted an interview, which would have been world class, but for the status of the paper I worked with then. I’m not aware that any other journalist met with the governor face to face on that fateful day, as all I heard were everyone else quoting Fred Chukwuelobe, his spokesman.

Having recalled this incident, and situating it with the current drama in Rivers State, the only thing I could see and the only conclusion I could make is – “plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose” – the more things change, the more they stay the same. This wise saying attributed to Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr a French writer, was made as far back as 1849. That means, it is 174 years today.

By the way, the Ngige saga, was actually not the beginning. His predecessor, Chinwoke Mbadinuju was the first to bite the silver bullet. It was the same traducers of Ngige that first went for his political jugulars. Hours after his inauguration, on May 29, 1999, the battle started at the Anambra State House of Assembly as to who would be what? It was then that 22 members were spirited to Enugu, where they were quartered and from where they launched their internecine battle against the government till the end.

It was the same forces that made sure that Mbadinuju did not return for a second term in office, apart from posting the most dismal outing and considered the dreg of Nigerian governors in terms of performance that later installed Ngige. Now, what was in issue? The purse of Anambra State!

Ngige told me that evening that the core of the problem was the Irrevocable Standing Payment Order (ISPO), an euphemism for a drain hose, which his traducers planned to fix into the purse of the state to drain away all its resources. His refusal became led to a chain of events that culminated into the July 10 saga.

Like the current replay in Port Harcourt, which is practically on all fours with that of Awka, about 20 years ago, the source of the problem is the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and its poor management of the election. In 2003, INEC, under Maurice Iwu, practically handed over the entire election to one man in Anambra State and turned its back. Incidentally, the man was a stark illiterate, who had no place for any form of finesse or niceties, and who, because of the backing from the Presidential Villa in Abuja, practically broke the door with his bare feet, like the thief sent by his father.

That is what is playing out right now in Rivers State. It is a battle between Abuja and Port Harcourt. However, what is not known is how much Aso Rock Villa is willing to delve into the entire show of shame. If indeed, Nyesom Wike, derives the same powers as the anti-Ngige forces did, then the nation should not expect anything less. Until Peter Obi eventually took over in 2026, three whole years after the charade, Ngige never knew peace.

For that period, Anambra State was practically on fire literally and metaphorically with the police and all the security agencies of the state, supplying the fuel with which the fire was maintained. Even the entire government house, Awka was razed down by identified thugs, with the police providing cover.

Even the almighty judiciary, was not left out. Remember of the cases of Wilson Egbo Egbo and Stanley Nnaji, the two judges that were consumed by the saga, for giving outlandish judgements in the course of the battle.

But then, that was when the courts still maintained some veneers of courage and audacity. With the current state of the judiciary, which is all ready to acquiesce and interpret the letters of the law without the spirit, nobody knows the direction it would go if the cases start getting there.

Yet, that historic era, has remained the redeeming moment of Anambra State. For standing up rather than capitulating, Ngige made his case with the people, such that those who cursed his government earlier, swearing not to have anything to do with it, joined him in the war to the extent that by the time he was eventually ousted by the courts that handed power to Peter Obi, many households in the state, were in mourning rather than celebration.

One lesson Sim Fubara, currently at the receiving end in Port Harcourt must learn is that those fighting him take no prisoners. Like in the case of Ngige, they could go to any length to achieve their purpose. To them, there is neither law nor decency. Neither public opinion nor morality means anything to them.

Yet, this could become the redeeming moment to liberate Rivers from the vice grip of political hounds which had descended on the state in recent years, if like Ngige, he clings to the people. Unlike Mbadinuju, who adopted the strategy of spending scarce state resources to appease the elements in Abuja rather than taking his case to Anambra people, Ngige did the opposite and not only survived, but became a hero from a common villain in a matter of weeks.

Incidentally, there is a surfeit of cases to learn from apart from Anambra. Whether it is Orji Uzor Kalu versus Theodore Orji in Abia, George Akume and Gabriel Suswam in Benue, Rabiu Kwankwaso and Abdullahi Ganduje in Kano, examples are replete to suggest that this is a war he is not likely to lose.

In the end, this war could either make him the winner or loser, the villain or hero. But on a balance and from the hindsight of decided cases, this is his war to lose!

Igboanugo, a journalist, wrote from Lagos

Editorial

FG, NNPCL: Let Dangote sell his petrol and let Nigerians breathe!

Published

9 hours ago

September 7, 2024

Whirlwindnews

Nigerians are currently witnessing the most horrifying experiences in their country at the moment. Perhaps, only those who witnessed the civil war on the side of Biafra, between 1967-1970, would probably connect with the present situation. It is a mimic of the Biafran harrowing, horrendous experiences, that have been variously recorded by historians and those who suffered them.

Already, many people are dropping dead by the day, as it was then. What probably remains are the refugee camps and the ugly pictures of children with tiny feet, distended stomachs and glazy eyes, that announced the presence of kwashiorkor – that awful disease that sent millions to their untimely death – that terrible condition, more merciless with slow, punishing end than the swiftness of bullets or bombs dropped in market places, which ended their ordeals quicker.

But, from the look of things, we are getting there. Already, criminals have continued to seize a substantial part of the Nigerian space, carving fiefdoms for themselves and progressively competing with the remnant of what we see as government of the nation’s entity, something not even as bad as the Biafran side contended with during that hideous era.

The culprit the sorry pass, this time, is not the disagreement between any part of the country or talks about secession. No it is not about such slogans like On Aburi We Stand, or Go On With One Nigeria, that were prevalent during that time. It is also not about soldiers taking aim at one another, the menacing echoes of the clatter of bullets, the ominous hovering of airplanes with the concomitant anxiety from the scare-gripped people, of their weapons of mass destruction dropping on them.

No! These have been replaced with a fresh weapon – petrol – a commodity which instead of becoming the major item to propel the vortex of national development, has turned the direct opposite – stagnating growth and even pulling it back into the dungeon of hopelessness and bottomless pit bleakness – leaving in its wake – hunger, disease and death. That is the new felon.

Unfortunately, the hand propelling this misfeasor is the All Progressives Congress (APC). In the last nine years the party has been in power, Nigerians have been subjected to the level of pain and deprivation never known or contemplated in history. Muhammadu Buhari, the first President on the platform of the ruling party, practically made the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), smell roses, despite the misgivings in the country during much of its 16-year rule, for which the people grabbed the change APC promised with both hands.

Incidentally, the wailing, trailing the deterioration occasioned by the ex-General has been upgraded to something worse since his exit last year. Like the biblical account, Buhari flogged Nigerians with whips, but Bola Tinubu, his successor is flogging them with snakes and scorpions. The only common denominator is that both have employed the same tool – the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), as it is now known.

However, Tinubu’s template is nothing near comparison. Under him, the monster has not only been let loose, but aided with bits and spurs to rampage across the nation with the ferocity of an angry tsunami. Do not forget that Buhari, in 2016, announced the “total removal” of subsidy on petrol products, when he raised the price from N86 to N145, but gradually ended at N195 by the time he left in 2023.

But look at what Tinubu has done with the same product. As if he was bidding his time to punish Nigerians and concern Buhari’s whips to history, one of the first words that came out of his lips, minutes after his inauguration on May 29, 2023 was – subsidy is gone! It was one magic expression that instantly plunged the nation down the hill to the jagged rocks at the bottom of the precipice. It is obvious that he could not wait.

Within hours after that odious and outlandish pronouncement, the same PMS jumped from N195 to N550. That did it. Since then, it has been tales of woes. The price has continued to climb progressively with little checks to the level that at the last count, it hovered around N617 and N700. That was before the arrival of the Dangote Refinery Limited (DRL). Now the story has become wackier.

Millions of Nigerians had expected Dangote to be the game-changer to obviate their suffering. But in the common Nigerian street parlance, whosai? That angle seems covered too in the apparent determination of the government, seemingly vengeful for yet to be determined reason(s) to cut its pound of flesh. The long, filthy hands of its patrons, appears to have clutched DRL in a vice grip. It started with the controversy over the refusal to supply crude to the facility, forcing it to source products from abroad at more than the prevailing rate in the international market.

This was followed with the sudden, outlandish and totally obtuse tale that the Dangote products are below standard compared to the imported ones. In which other country in the world has such a narrative been heard of a government that is supposed to protect local manufacturers at all cost? But this is Nigeria where no lie seems too heavy to tell even to an imbecile. Perhaps, they changed course from stifling the Dangote operations, out of the deafening din from the rest of the world, probably their collaborators abroad – the vested interest whose imprimatur seem quite evident in their activities – for it is obvious that they take the outcries of Nigerians as the trumpeting of crickets at night.

Now, the reason for that odious episode surrounding the Dangote saga a few weeks ago appears to be crawling out. It was obviously meant to bring DRL to its knees in other to cut a deal, more like – You either sell to us so that we sell to the people or you don’t produce. Or what else could be responsible for Aliko Dangote telling a bemused nation that he could not reveal the price of his product and that, that aspect would be left to the Federal Government. This is supposed to be a private concern.

Even a total moron would notice the asininity behind account we hear daily. They are nothing more than a sequence of an entirely childish, if not idiotic effort to hoodwink the public. Over the years, they and their goons had tried to do a yeoman’s job of trying to drum it into the ears and minds of the people that it would make no difference, whether Dangote came on stream or not because “oil is an international commodity.” That nonsensical piece of reasoning, is the same strange argument they also labour at various times to make in the expectation of fixing the local refineries.

They are quick to suggest, in other words that even if the cost of loading, shipping, transportation, insurance, labour, and everything put together to conduce that dreaded expression – landing cost – nothing changes. Where else do you hear that in the entire globe, except in a clime which has made Voodoo Economics, a la Samuel Aluko, the late globally-acclaimed Nigerian economist, a template? Check it, they will never cite any other place in the world where such happens, just like they never tell of any other oil producing country in the world currently suffering the snares of crude thievery, which has become part of the nation’s sad story.

Stretch it further, what the prevailing argument they make means is an attempt vitiate the expectation that by buying the 450,000 barrels of crude daily earmarked for domestic use at Naira rate, and with the prevailing conditions in Nigeria, including cheap labour, Dangote could produce, and indeed should produce PMS and profitably sell at less than N100 per litre.

They now want their illicit and untenable position to prevail. It is clear now that because of the condition under which he operates, Nigerians would be forced to buy the product at the current rate of N890 – NNPCL rate or N1,000, N1,2000 at the other dispensing stations. That is the tragedy Nigerians have found themselves in.That is the wickedness of the APC government!

Else, how could anyone explain what is going on? Is it not clear that neither the cabals in the NNPCL, which have ensured that the nation’s three refineries have remained comatose despite the billions of dollars they have gulped in terms of Turnaround Maintenance (TAM) nor their replication in government filthy hands are prepared to let go?

If it bears repeating, we do so with our full chest! Dangote petrol can sell for less than N100 at profit. But the cabals, which have ensured that the nation remains the country with the highest production cost of crude – $45 per barrel, as opposed to $10-$15 in other climes, the only country where crude is stolen, the only oil producing country with comatose refineries, are at work. Yes! We know who is telling the truth between Dangote and NNPC. The only sin the former could commit is being an enabler and or complicit.

We, at Whirlwindnews.com.ng are happy Nigerians are getting out of their cocoons to speak out. Thursday’s statement by the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), a pressure group of Muslim faithful in Nigeria, is quite apt. It means that nobody is deceived. Our final words – just like this body has maintained is – let Dangote sell his petrol and let Nigeria breathe!

News

We’re not preventing Dangote from fixing lower petrol price – NNPCL

Published

16 hours ago

September 7, 2024

Whirlwindnews

Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), has denied the allegation that it is preventing Dangote Refinery from selling Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), otherwise known as petrol and that the coming on stream of the entity is the reason for the current hike in the pump price of the product.

Hours after Aliko Dangote, President of the Dangote Group Limited, the conglomerate that birthed the Dangote Refinery Limited (DRL), announced the commencement of the production of PMS for commercial purposes in Nigeria, the NNPCL, increased the price of the commodity from N617 to N897 per litre, while other filling stations began to sell at between N1,000 to N1,200 per litre.

The development, which came despite the long queues that had persisted for weeks across the country, due to the scarcity of the product, was seen as a function of the manipulative hands of the NNPCL, the alpha and omega in the petroleum industry in Nigeria, especially with the dimension that it is going to be the sole offtaker of the product from DRL.

Dangote, himself, had while addressing the issue of pricing before opening the ceremony to announce the commencement of the public sale of the product, told anxious Nigerians, who had hoped that he it would be followed with the concomitant announcement of a lower price regime that the issue of how much the product was the sole business of the Federal Government, through the NNPCL, the sole authority of fixing prices of petroleum products in the country.

On the heels of the development, many Nigerians had condemned the outcome with the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), a pressure group of Muslim faithful in Nigeria, lampooning the petroleum company, which transformed to a public institution owned by the Nigerian government to a private concern, for the ugly turnaround in the people’s expectation.

The organisation, has claimed that the DRL, was being undermined by actions of the NNPCL, by preventing it from offering lower prices, using its powers as the sole offtaker of all products from the refinery, with Ishaq Akintola, MURIC convener, wondering why the sudden announcement of an upward review of petrol from N617 to N897 just 24 hours to the commencement of full operations.

The group, which argued that the current parlous situation came as a result of NNPCL making itself the sole marketer and fixing outrageous prices at the same time. said in a statement: “By taking these two actions, NNPC has effectively taken control of Dangote’s fuel and the real owner cannot determine the price of its own product. This is an ambush, a punch below the belt.

“NNPC Ltd must not allow fifth columnists whose wish is to bring down Tinubu-Shettima administration to have their way. NNPC should know that frustrating Nigerians is one of the fastest ways to bring a regime to a premature end. If NNPC had not increased the price of its own fuel, the decision to monopolise Dangote’s fuel would have favoured the hoi polloi, but by increasing the price and restricting the supply of Dangote’s fuel to itself alone, NNPC has rendered Dangote Refinery helpless.

“MURIC finds NNPC’s action to be anti-people, immoral and lacking in conscience. It is an open secret that the prices of most products, particularly food items, are tied to the umbilical cords of petroleum and its price. The latter is the engine room that moves the economy. But NNPC Ltd has shattered the hope of the jamaahiir (masses) by raising the price of petrol and disallowing other marketers from buying from Dangote Refinery.

“This is against the spirit of free economy. It contravenes natural law of justice. It is not fair. What was the contribution of NNPC Ltd to the new refinery? How can NNPC suddenly take full control of Dangote Refinery, the hope of the masses to whose process it contributed virtually nothing? We charge NNPC to retrace its steps on this matter. It is too sensitive. Nigerians had placed their hopes on a fait accompli status of Dangote’s fuel to reduce hardship. This refinery must not be strangulated.”

But in a swift riposte, the NNPCL, in a statement by Sola Soneye, its spokesman, by way of “putting the records straight, said: “The pricing of petroleum products from any refinery, including the Dangote Refinery Ltd (DRL), is determined by global market forces. The recent changes in PMS prices have no impact on the DRL or any other domestic refinery’s access to the Nigerian market. In fact, if current prices are perceived as high, it presents an ideal opportunity for the refinery to sell its products at lower prices in the Nigerian market.

“Furthermore, we emphasize that there is no guarantee of lower prices associated with domestic refining compared to any global parity pricing framework, as confirmed by the DRL. The NNPC Ltd will only fully offtake PMS from the DRL if the market prices of PMS are higher than the pump prices in Nigeria. The DRL and any other domestic refinery are free to sell directly to any marketer on a willing buyer, willing seller basis, which is the current practice for all fully deregulated products. NNPC Ltd has no desire or intention to become the distributor for any entity in a free market environment, and therefore, the notion of becoming a sole offtaker does not arise.

“The NNPC Ltd cannot undermine a business in which it holds a billion-dollar stake. As an advocacy group for fair and just treatment, MURIC should have verified the facts before making statements that are entirely flawed and has the potential to incite ordinary Nigerians against the NNPC Ltd.”

News

Wike has committed treason, arrest him now – Clark

Published

3 days ago

September 5, 2024

Whirlwindnews

Nothing short of the immediate arrest and prosecution of Nyesom Wike, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), would satisfy Edwin Clark, elder statesman and Leader of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), over the latter’s recent threat to “set fire” on states where the governors showed any support for Sim Fubara, his successor as Governor of Rivers State.

Clark, Federal Commissioner of Information during the military regime, on Thursday called on the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, to effect the arrest of the Minister for him to face treason charges, as a consequence of the comment, which Wike made, while addressing members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in his state recently.

“Let nobody be intimidated; I know how it is when you have worked hard and at the end of the day you are pushed away. I know how bad you feel. And let me assure all of you. Not while we live will anybody take away the structures of PDP from us. I hear that there are some governors who said that they will take away the structure and give it back to somebody. I pity those governors because I’ll put fire in their states.

“When God has given you peace and you say you don’t want peace, then whatever you see, you take. Prepare, because I have the capacity to also do the same thing in your own state. Whether you are from Bauchi, as far as I know that you are trying to put yourself in Rivers State, your hand will get burnt, and you will never sleep in your state; you will see political crisis,” Wike had told his faction of the PDP in the state, on Saturday, August 31 in Port Harcourt.

The PDP governors on the platform of PDP Governors Forum (PDP-GF), who had instigated the comment after declaring their support for Fubara in the policy of injury to one is injury to all, had already replied the FCT Minister, dismissing his comments as empty threat and reiterated their original position to back the Rivers governor in the battle for the structure of the party in the state.

Joining in the fray, Clark, while acknowledging that he was no longer in partisan politics, but would continue to comment on all issues concerning the country, reminded the IGP of his constitutional duty to uphold the law and order without partiality, emphasising that Wike’s threats not only posed a danger to public peace but also amounted to incitement, a serious crime under Nigerian law.

Citing several legal provisions, including the Public Officer Protection Act and the Violence Against Persons Protection Act, he said: “Wike has committed treason, he should be arrested with warrant. Wike believes that the only person he respects is the President. Today, Wike is controlling everything, including the judiciary.

“Wike is already dancing naked in the market place, with one leg in the PDP and one left in the APC. Either he wants a structure to protect the money he has stolen in Rivers State or for something else. That’s why I am calling on the IGP to investigate Wike, otherwise Nigeria will be in serious trouble. The youths of the states he threatened to set on fire won’t sit down and watch him do that.

“It is disappointing that a serving Minister under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu could make such inflammatory statements. It is a flagrant disrespect on the person of President Tinubu and a threat to public peace. Where does Wike derive the moral authority to make such a statement. He must be investigated and held accountable for his actions.”

Accusing the Minister of accumulation of wealth during his time in office as governor of Rivers State, and even now in Abuja, the elder statesman, maintained that his sources of his wealth must be accounted for so as to stop him from using state resources for personal advantages.