Empty ritual

A NEW date, meant to renew public hope, doesnt change the reality of failed targets. According to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Group Managing Director, Malam Mele Kyari, the full rehabilitation of the four national refineries will commence in January next year. By his schedule, the countrys refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna, will refine crude oil at optimum capacity by 2022. The NNPC boss gave the new date on September 21 during a tour of the Port-Harcourt Refining and Petrochemical Company (PHRC).Kyaris words: We will stick to time; we will deliver this project by 2022. We will commence actual rehabilitation work in January. We will do everything possible between October and December to close out all necessary conditions for us to deliver on that project. I believe that with the support that we have from the shareholdersgovernment of this country, the entire staff of this company and the contractors, I believe it is doable and we will deliver the project.Its good to set targets, but better to achieve targets. This isnt the first time a big player in the oil sector has set such targets. This isnt the first time Nigerians have been told to expect new things in the oil sector. Three years ago, for instance, the then Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, had said the Federal Governments target was to stop fuel importation in 2019.Kachikwu had declared during an interactive session on removal of fuel subsidy organised by Coalition of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in Lagos in May 2016: I am putting so much strength in terms of what do we do with our refineries, because that ultimately is the solution the plan is that by December 2018 we should have reduced our importation of petroleum product by 60 per cent. This is because we would have brought enough money to get our refineries working to the tune of about 90 per cent.Obviously, things didnt go according to Kachikwus plan. The refineries are not working to the tune of about 90 per cent, which should have happened 10 months ago, going by Kachikwus timetable. Indeed, Kyaris announced plan to start full rehabilitation of the refineries next year says a lot about the current operational state of the refineries.It remains to be seen whether what should be done to achieve Kyaris targets will be done. Fixing dates for reviving the refineries should not be an empty ritual.First published September 24, 2019
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