Recently, the Nigerian Guild of Editors promised to partner the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation in mobilizing the public on the effect of vandalizing the pipeline and smuggling of petroleum products. The promise was made when the guild visited the Group Managing Director of NNPC, Mele Kyari. The Editors assured that it would help sensitize the National Assembly on the need to pass the Oil and Gas bill for enhanced operation in the sector.
Similarly, the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency has assured that it would work towards reducing oil spill in Nigeria. The Director-General of the Agency, Idris Musa, who gave the assurance when he visited the NNPC boss, said the reduction would ensure good operating environment.
The synergy by the Nigerian Guild of Editors is coming barely few months after the NNPC, the Nigeria Customs Service and the Department of Petroleum Resources entered into agreement to form a Joint Committee to check smuggling of petroleum products across the borders, which NNPC said is causing serious loss to the nation and had been subverting government’s efforts to ensure adequate supply of petroleum products in the country.
It is unfortunate that, while government is flooding the market with petroleum products, the activities of unscrupulous marketers remain a major concern as diversion and smuggling continue unabated. Available records show that there is an upsurge in smuggling of petroleum products through Nigeria’s borders in recent months, considering the high price of petrol in neighbouring countries.
This calls for stiffer measures against marketers found diverting and smuggling petroleum products. Hence, Customs Officials should intensify surveillance at the flash points to check their activities. The Joint Committee should ensure that smugglers of petroleum products are stopped in their tracks. However, the surge in smuggling can be attributed to the activities of unlicensed filling stations. So far, there are only 1,900 licensed filling stations and the unlicensed ones are having a field day. Sadly, Nigeria looses up to 600,000 litres of petrol everyday through smuggling. Investigations reveal that up to 30 percent of the fuel meant for local consumption is lost to smuggling.
Today, various state governments have set up task forces to stem the tide of this destructive practice. Unfortunately, even the soldiers that accompany the consignments are not able to arrest the situation as a whole tanker load of fuel can still disappear. As government seeks to stop smuggling of petrol, the smugglers are discovering new ways of circumventing the law. For instance, petrol is sold to the smugglers at odd times and the jerry cans of petrol are covered with cloths, garri or other substances to evade task force officials.
The activities of black marketers have remotely affected the suppliers of fuel of many filling stations across the country. Long queues were common sights, with motorists leaving their vehicles on queue for days. This despicable situation made trafficking of petroleum products very lucrative in Nigeria.
Many people have left their means of livelihood to join this illicit trade because petrol has become liquid gold that yield dividends similar to drug trafficking. Most parts of urban centres have been dotted with black markets where the business is daily transacted in broad daylight, without fear of arrest by security operatives. It is disheartening that significant volume of petroleum products are diverted daily from depots by corrupt officials who connive with marketers and transport owners. They either hoard in underground tanks to create artificial scarcity or smuggle to neighbouring countries to earn higher profits.
In fact, about 30 per cent of fuel allocations meant for different parts of the country are diverted daily to neighbouring countries like Cameroon, Chad, Togo and Benin Republic. Unfortunately, despite efforts by government to curb such sharp practices by publicizing the daily truck outs from the depot, it is not enough to deter the saboteurs.
Petroleum products diversion and smuggling to neighbouring countries constitute serious threat to the nation’s economy. Thus, Inter-Agency collaboration has become necessary to safeguard Nigeria’s Energy Security. The Joint Committee should deal ruthlessly with any unlicensed filling station along the borderline smuggling petroleum products. Such stations should be closed down. Equally, monitoring the licensed filling stations at the borderline will go a long way towards curbing the persistent smuggling of petroleum products from the nation.
