by Ijeoma Nwogwugwu

Ever since the United States listed 14 countries, including Nigeria, which it perceives as either “sponsors of terrorism” or “countries of interest”, a lot has been said and written locally and overseas in reaction to the development. Of particular interest are those reactions from the Nigerian citizenry and officials in government. The general consensus was that the US acted out of political expediency by hastily including Nigeria on a watch list that would subject its citizens to profiling and intensive security screening each time they travel to the US and possibly other parts of the world.

For many of these commentators, one isolated incident involving the alleged botched attempt by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to blow up an American airplane on Christmas day was insufficient to have warranted Nigeria’s inclusion on the list. Attempts have further been made to show that the young Farouk is not a made in Nigeria product and was radicalized in the United Kingdom where he mingled with radical elements in mosques and other similar associations where they met. The most curious arguments put up in defense of Nigeria are that Nigerians by their very nature are not “suicidal” and are happy-go-lucky people with an innate love for life and living.

I am inclined to disagree with this line of argument for a number of reasons. First, it would be rather simplistic to think that the US government included Nigeria on a sub-list of “countries of interest” just because Farouk Abdulmutallab was misguided into attempting to blow up the Detroit-bound Delta Airline plane. This country has a history of sectarian violence linked to religious tensions and resentment which the state has not been able to contain for decades. Indeed, more Nigerians have been maimed and killed in religious-related clashes in northern Nigeria than in all of the countries along the West African coast with an equal representation of Muslims and Christians dispersed between the south and the north of those countries put together.

Starting from the Maitatsine riots in the 1980s when members of that sect led by one Muhammadu Marwa shot their way to notoriety, killed thousands and proclaimed their brand of Islam to be superior to every other one, including Christianity, to the Boko Haram crisis last year, the Nigerian state has never been able to curb the mounting threat of sectarian violence in our midst. Yet, aside from the extra-judicial killing of Mohammed Yusuf and his cohorts a few months ago, none of the religious zealots who preach hate and jihaddism against the “infidels” has been arrested and tried by the state for their involvement in the riots. Instead, the norm has been to set up dozens of commission of inquiries after which no action is ever taken even when some of the people behind the clashes were known.

Even after the 9/11 attack on American soil, a few misguided young Muslims poured out into the streets celebrating the destruction of the World Trade Centre, the Pentagon and the plane that went down in northern Pennsylvania. To add salt and pepper to the wound, shortly after the attack, more than a few families named their new born sons, Osama, signifying their endorsement of the mastermind behind the plot to extinguish the “Great Satan” as the US is known by such extremists.

As recently as 2006, religious clashes were also triggered after a group of Muslims converged in Maiduguri to protest the drawing of an offensive cartoon by a Danish newspaper. According to Newswatch magazine which in October 2009 chronicled the history of sectarian violence in the country, that incident led to the destruction of property belonging to non-Muslims, and the attack and death of more than 50 Christians including Michael Gajere, who was identified as the Catholic priest in charge of St. Rita’s Catholic Church. The Maiduguri incident led to reprisal attacks in Onitsha by Igbos. Incensed by the sight of their kith and kin that were brought home for burial, some Igbos went in search of Muslims in the commercial town, and ended up killing more than 30 of them.

Realistically, listing all the cases of religious-related clashes would require more space than this page would permit. But the point being made is that Nigeria in the last three decades has shown more than a passing inclination for religious extremism, and by extension is the prefect breeding ground for elements willing to sacrifice their lives to further their cause. That in my estimation is not a good portrayal of happy-go-lucky people. Rather, it is one that portrays intolerance and a propensity for violence in the name of God.

Besides, it would be erroneous not to classify the trigger for most of the clashes linked to religion in the north, as acts of terror. The Oxford Dictionary of English defines the word terror as “extreme fear” while to instill terror is “the use of extreme fear to intimidate people, especially for political reasons”.

Terrorism, on the other hand, is defined as the “use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims”, while the verb to terrorize means to “create and maintain a state of extreme fear and distress in (someone)”. Going by these very basic definitions, I do not see how the sustained acts of religious violence in northern Nigeria over the last three decades do not constitute acts of terror. Terrorism is not merely limited to the bombing of US targets and like interests. It is the act of instilling extreme fear through violent means and through whatever form, including the use of machetes, swords, horsewhips, sticks and stones that can inflict grievous harm.

When an overzealous man or groups of people rise up in arms against their fellow human beings and decide to kill them for the simple reason that they have divergent religious beliefs, that constitutes an act of terrorism. It is an incontrovertible fact that thousands of non-Muslims from the south have been forced to flee the north for fear of being killed. They were terrorized into relocating to their homes and communities in the south. The same is applicable to the kidnappings of oil workers and innocent citizens in the Niger Delta as well as the destruction and bombing of oil facilities. No matter how justified or aggrieved the perpetrators of such dastardly acts feel, they are nothing more than terrorists trying to instill extreme fear for political capital. Extremism in all its forms can never be justified in a plural state, particularly in a government that talks about law and order.

Moreover, we would be making a big mistake if we think that Al Qaeda has not possibly established a foothold in the Nigeria. Since 9/11, Al Qaeda has grown into an amorphous organisation with franchises all over the Middle East, and certain parts of Asia and Africa. Today, Al Qaeda has simply become an “idea” that binds Islamic extremists who believe in the same cause and press home their message by replicating acts of terror on America, western interests and their allies. The recurring philosophy among its adherents is “the enemy of my friend is my enemy”. It is for these reason experts on terror and the spread of Islamic extremism all acknowledge that the Al Qaeda band of terrorists started and led by Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan has no relationship with Al Qaeda in the Middle East, Al Qaeda in Somalia or Al Qaeda in Indonesia.

If we must be honest with ourselves, Nigeria is only a secular state in name. For all intents and purpose, it should be renamed the “Chrislamic Republic of Nigeria”. Religious extremism is as pervasive in the south as it is in the northern part of the country. Nigerian Christians do not have to wait for a replay of the Branch Davidian Christian religious sect that barricade itself in a ranch in Waco, Texas for 51 days until it was raided by the FBI and resulted in the death of 54 adults and 21 children, before realising they are heading along the same extremist path.

As a people, we have lost all sense of rational thought and logic, and attribute everything to a higher being. The most embarrassing aspect of our over-religiosity has been made more glaring in recent weeks by our refusal to invoke the 1999 Constitution, preferring instead to pray for an incapacitated president whom we don’t even know if he’s alive or dead. My common refrain to this sickening prevarication is “what’s God got to do with it?”

In my candid opinion, that we have been listed by the US as a country of interest should be a wake up call for all of us. We would be running away from the truth by pointing at the United Kingdom and other countries whose citizens have been caught in the past for terrorist acts. We forget that America and the UK have sustained a “special relationship” across the Atlantic that is centuries old. America sees the UK as its foremost ally in Europe and would therefore never do anything to jeopardize that bond, certainly not because of a Richard Reid, the British shoe bomber. Even where religious elements begin to grow and fester in those countries, they clamp down on them decisively and deport foreigners back to their countries of origin. They most certainly do not pander to meaningless sentiments like we do in Nigeria.

Instead of burying our heads in the sand, we should see our listing as an opportunity for the Nigerian state to uphold its secular constitution as supreme and take decisive security measures to discourage and contain extremism, be it Christian or Muslim.

Ijeoma Nwogwugwu

I am not one of those who wish President Umaru Yar’Adua well. Why should I, if he and those around him don’t see the need for the president to take some time out to attend to his fragile constitution? In spite of his dire condition, he has elected to run the affairs of state by telephone. For all intents and purpose, the president is not getting the rest he needs to recuperate from his heart condition because he does not want to hand over the reins of government temporarily to his deputy. Instead, he cradles the telephone by his side attending to matters in the country by proxy.

Since his days as governor of Katsina State, the president hardly boasted a ruddy disposition. Most of us were unaware his ill-health because he governed a quiet semi-arid state, which until his emergence on the national stage, did not feature prominently on the national radar. The president would have probably carried on unnoticed and been allowed to attend to his health unimpeded, had he not chosen to accept the presidency foisted on him. Ever since, his every sneeze, cough and twitch has been micro-analysed to the minutest detail.

The paradox about this sorry state is that when the nation got to realise that the man who was contesting for the presidential election in 2007 was not 99 per cent fit to steer this ship of state, we accepted. We accepted on the grounds that whatever ailment was afflicting him could be managed and was not serious enough to incapacitate his ability to manage this complex amalgam of pseudo-nations. It was a huge leap of faith that very few countries have ever taken. It is this same leap of faith that he has refused to take repeatedly every time he has had to travel outside on official assignments and/or for personal reasons to see the coterie of physicians attending to his afflicted body.

His lack of confidence in his vice president, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan has never been hidden. Unlike his predecessor, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who until his public spat out with his deputy, he has hardly handed over critical assignments to his vice president. In some instances, routine matters such as presiding over meetings of the federal executive council have had to be deferred pending the return of the president. At other times, Nigeria’s representation at global events requiring the presence of world leaders had to be handed over to the foreign affairs minister, Ojo Maduekwe.

Yar’Adua’s insistence on holding on to the reins from his sick bed was made the more glaring last week when the president’s spokesman, Segun Adeniyi, called international media houses to correct the initial news reports they had sent out that the vice president was in charge. What a wholesome picture on how the largest black nation on earth is administered.

Some have often argued that Yar’Adua and Jonathan have never had a symbiotic relationship based on mutual trust and common interest. They were, the argument goes, forced into an alliance of strange bedfellows by the ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party. Personally, I find this line of reasoning flawed. Lest we forget, the president himself was not chosen by popular acclamation by his party. He was hand-picked from a subjective process that forced more popular and possibly worthier candidates who wanted to be president to step aside. Just like his forced marriage with his deputy, he was foisted on us. Had he been the popular choice of the party and assumed the presidency through a process that was not flawed, he probably won’t think twice about handing over to a deputy for short or even extended periods.

As unfortunate as it is, the president’s present ailment should not come as a surprise to anyone. Acute pericarditis is one of several complications that can arise from a failed kidney(s) – that is if we are to believe the speculations about the remote causes of his poor health. Even though the president has repeatedly refused too divulge the primary cause of his ailment, his physical deterioration since assuming the presidency has been glaring to all but the blind. The added strain of running a complex entity like Nigeria would only speed up his delicate condition.

Once the pains in the president’s chest region set in and his physician diagnosed the exact nature of his current predicament, they should have counselled him to take a break. Pericarditis is one of those conditions that do not heal quickly if the patient continues to engage in strenuous and stressful activities. Insufficient rest could even lead to a fatal heart attach. He should have hand over properly and reposed the same confidence in his deputy as the nation has in him in the last two and half years.

His insistence on running the country from his hospital bed in far away Saudi Arabia cannot help him much. Neither does it help us much. In fact, the president is not doing this country any huge favours by hugging his telephone. In his current state, any decisions he has to take from his hospital bed would probably be impaired by medication and his state of mind. In so doing, the president and his handlers treat the nation and its citizens like we are their private property. We are not.

He and his vice president were supposedly elected on the same platform to run this country for four years. Just the same, the drafters of the 1999 Constitution envisaged a situation in which the Number One citizen may not always be fully disposed to carry out his duties to the best of his abilities. It is for this reason the constitution provides for a fall back option in the person of the vice president. Jonathan, therefore, should be allowed to take over until the president makes a full recovery. In times like this, we need certainty not further uncertainty. We need clarity as to who is in charge and not whispers and further rumours over who is running the country.

Until that happens, I will not lose sleep over the president’s health. Since he is unconcerned about the nation’s well being, why should I be about his health?

by Ijeoma Nwogwugwu

So says the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and the Pipeline and Products Marketing Company, a subsidiary wholly owned by NNPC that is responsible for the marketing and distribution of petroleum products on behalf of the corporation. Both organisations have been at pains in the last one week to portray THISDAY Newspaper, as a lying, inconsistent news media organisation. Their seething rage stems from the expose published by this paper on Saturday, October 24 on the oil cartel that has been feeding fat from the multimillion dollar kickbacks resulting from the disgraceful importation regime of fuel products into the country. A regime, which I must add, has persisted for 15 years, making Nigeria the laughing stock of other oil producing countries and the whole world.
However, by stating that this paper fabricated the story that a clique within NNPC/PPMC receives N75 million in commissions for every shipment of refined products brought in by oil/commodity traders, NNPC and PPMC have unwittingly portrayed the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as a liar. Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, it will be recalled, had during a press briefing on May 12, 2009, acknowledged that there is a powerful cartel that has been benefiting from the subsidy regime for fuel products. In an uncharacteristic flash of anger, the president vowed to crush the cartel, describing it as “the greatest institutional corruption in this country.” In the president’s opinion, this cartel had brought pressure to bear on oil marketers to resist the full deregulation of the downstream oil sector which the government attempted to implement at the time.
Before I continue it will be fair to put the president’s statement in proper perspective. It was made at the time fuel queues had resurfaced, following a decision by oil marketers from the private sector to stop the importation of products into the country over non-payment of subsidy claims. Alarmed at the unsustainable subsidy bill, the government reckoned that the timing might be right to lift the cap on fuel prices. The decision was further encouraged by relatively low oil prices which were hovering at $40 to $50 a barrel. To the surprise of the government, instead of getting the backing of operators in the sector, there was resistance to deregulation, prompting the reaction from the president that a cartel is feeding off the subsidy regime.
As I write this, I can imagine the hacks at NNPC and PPMC scrambling at a deranged pace to rush out an appropriate response to this piece. But before they get their knickers in twist, some basic facts need to be brought to the fore:
1. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation is not just limited to catering to the government’s interest in the crude oil exploration and production programme alone, like other major oil marketers, it is a major oil marketing firm that markets and distributes refined petroleum products through PPMC and retails directly from its fuel stations nationwide. This is an incontrovertible fact that the corporation readily acknowledges monthly in its statistical report on activities in the oil and gas sector. 
2. Owing to its inability to make sure that its three and half refineries work at optimal capacity, it has been importing refined petroleum products into this country since the mid-1990s.
3. Between 1997 and 2009, NNPC has awarded turn around maintenance contracts to countless companies running into hundreds of millions of dollars to fix the refineries. Yet, they have never operated optimally. The sums expended are more than enough to have built two to three Greenfield oil refineries No one should be deceived by the excuse that the pipelines have been vandalised by militants. Its Atlas Cove jetty which suffered a similar fate less than two months ago was repaired in record time to receive imported products. That should tell anyone where the interest of the corporation lies. 
4. It was NNPC’s inability to meet the domestic demand for fuel products nationwide as a sole importer that compelled the General Abdulsalami Abubakar administration to partially deregulate the downstream oil sector, paving the way for other major marketers to import products and compete with NNPC. They were later to be joined by smaller companies known as independents.
5. Ever since the policy of partial deregulation was introduction in 1998, the unending fuel shortages which prevailed non-stop for almost three years during the General Sani Abacha administration, have never resurfaced, at least not in the major cities. Where they have in the major towns and cities, they have been short-lived, never exceeding one to three weeks.
6. With the establishment of the Petroleum Products Price and Regulatory Agency and the Petroleum Support Fund, all major and independent marketers, NNPC/PPMC inclusive, are entitled to a refund of the difference between the regulated price of products pegged artificially low and the price at which they are imported, otherwise known as the subsidy claim.
7. The existence of this structure has made it possible for all marketers (NNPC/PPMC inclusive) to continue with importation. Although, often enough, delays on the part of government to refund the claims through the PPPRA compels those in the private sector to slow down on imports as was the case in April/May this year.
8. When oil marketers from the private sector held the nation to ransom early this year, a deliberate “silent” policy was taken to increase NNPC/PPMC’s importation schedule. Prior to this, major and independent marketers accounted for 60 per cent of imports while NNPC/PPMC accounted for the difference. This was altered to 70:30 in favour of NNPC/PPMC, forgetting that the corporation lacks the logistics to prevent fuel shortages, and that the creation of a monopoly would create more avenues for corruption.
9. This “silent” policy saw to it that NNPC/PPMC became the sole importer of kerosene which it currently sells to other marketers and middlemen at N41 per litre that have taken advantage of the supply gap by retailing the product at the pump at N120 a litre and more.
10. The announcement by NNPC’s group executive director, Commercial and Investment, Aminu Babakusa in September that full deregulation will take effect from November 1, prompted PPPRA to stop the allocation of import licenses to other oil marketers in order to put a plug on rising subsidy claims. In doing that, NNPC became the sole importer of petrol (PMS), leaving marketers to continue with the importation of aviation fuel and diesel which were fully deregulated products by former administration of Olusegun Obasanjo.
11. PPPRA’s decision was ill-advised because as long as NNPC/PPMC is entitled to make subsidy claims, the objective was defeated. Although NNPC as a government parastatal might accept to be owed for much longer periods than private operators, lengthy delays will encourage the corporation to make unaccountable, irreconcilable deductions directly from crude oil receivables, and set it on a collision course with the National Assembly and the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission.
12. The fact that oil marketers were and are still reeling from the combined impact of the clean up in the banking sector, the credit freeze, and non-payment of subsidy claims, made it easy for NNPC/PPMC to capitalise on the situation. 
13. Pressure once more was mounted on the government by those with the most to lose to defer full deregulation, leading to a raft of denials from officials in NNPC and PPPRA over the November 1 date. The date for full deregulation was again shifted to January 2010. 
14. The regime of partial deregulation and importation is hugely inefficient, increasingly embarrassing for an oil producing country, and has ensured that the refineries do not function. It has also discouraged private sector investment in refineries that can put those run by NNPC out of business and help to moderate prices from local production.
15. The regime has remained in place for a number of reasons: resistance by labour unions and the generality of the public to the complete removal of subsidies; lack of political will on the part of government to push the policy through, despite the fact that it knows that the burden on the treasury and illicit withdrawals from the excess crude account is unsustainable; and resistance to full deregulation by a select few who grow richer by the day from the imposition of subsidies, product diversion, and fuel imports.
From the foregoing, when President Yar’Adua spoke of a cartel that is resistant to the removal of subsidies and has been benefiting from the twisted policy, NNPC/PPMC was not excluded from the president’s statement in any shape or form. Indeed, anyone with an understanding of the downstream oil sector would attest to the depth of the corruption that has permeated the entire industry from government operators to their peers comprising major and independent markets in the private sector. 
Like any self-respecting newspaper with a responsibility to get to the bottom of the flip flops on the part of government, ascertain why Nigeria, an oil producing country, continues to import refined products, and enlighten the public, THISDAY dug deep to unravel the horrid mess in the downstream oil sector. What was discovered was mind-boggling and is enough to make anyone shake their heads in anguish that a country with so much can be held hostage by a few crooked officials and their allies. Further investigation would show that what we published was just a tip of the iceberg. The rot cuts across the entire import chain involving other government departments and agencies. 
That an Armada of ships can be brought in all at the same time and left on the high seas to amass demurrage bills for upwards of 40 to 50 days, is a pointer to quality of the people running NNPC and PPMC. That NNPC has to resort to the leasing of private depots rather than make sure that its refineries, pipelines and depots function efficiently, says a lot about where its preferences lie. That NNPC, a national oil company of the 12th largest crude oil producer in the world and 8th biggest exporter of the commodity, has been awarding fuel importation contracts to commodity traders for a decade and half and has the temerity to boast that it is the supplier of last resort, is an indication of the bribery and corruption in the system on a grand scale.   
For the avoidance of doubt, the press releases, rebuttals and advertorials published by NNPC/PPMC and some concerned oil industry professionals have been quite entertaining. The contradictions, especially by the concerned industry professionals, were glaring to the trained eye. A recurring theme in all the statements is that this paper got caught in a rift between NNPC/PPMC and oil marketers in the private sector. In all honesty it didn’t. As far as we are concerned, no one can emerge from the cesspool that is the downstream oil sector smelling of roses. Both parties over the years have acted in concert to line a few private pockets to the detriment of 150 Nigerians.
As for the sideshow put up by the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream), if after reading our news report its objective was to launch a sincere investigation into the NNPC clique, what transpired last week more than qualified as the perfect example on how-not-to-hold-a-public-hearing. Its deputy chairman, Aro Bamidele, a small-time oil marketer himself with a smattering of fuel station to his name, was too transparent in what the committee set out to achieve. In carrying out its oversight responsibilities, the committee failed to apply any form of rigour, independent investigation, or get widespread input from principal actors in the sector. In end, the hurriedly rushed hearing which was wrapped up in less than three hours, appeared contrived and needn’t have attracted the attention of the public. A much more appropriate alternative would have been to meet privately with NNPC and PPMC and still extract the “pound of flesh” it so badly desired.
To be fair to the NNPC and PPMC, their reactions are to be expected. Anyone or organisation confronted with the damning reports published by THISDAY for two successive weekends in a row will come out kicking and screaming. A company as powerful and wasteful as the NNPC will stretch itself to the limit to portray the stories as a pack of lies. Who are we to take them on? In fact it will be much easier to accept defeat and concede that we lied. But so did the president!