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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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.

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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.

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“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.”

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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.

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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.”

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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.