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108,000 barrels of crude are reportedly stolen daily in Nigeria – Seriake Dickson
Senator Seriake Dickson representing Bayelsa West in the National Assembly has alleged that about 108,000 barrels of crude are reportedly stolen daily in Nigeria.
Dickson, former Bayelsa Gôvernor said this when he featured as a guest on a national television last week.
He also said Oil theft has become a malignant cancer in Nigeria for years with unimaginable volumes of oil being lifted by some cabals in the oil sector.
Dickson said, ”the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries which Nigeria is a member estimates that the country lost 2.3 million barrels monthly, amounting to over $1 billion every three months.
”About 108,000 barrels of crude are reportedly stolen daily in Nigeria.
”Security agents had made some arrests and destroyed vessels used for crude oil theft off the Niger Delta creeks, but experts believed that the menace which have both robbed the nation financially and environmentally would become a thing of the past when the government stamp out official complicity and bunkering, ensure transparency and accountability.”
The former governor also alleged that some bigwigs in Abuja and Lagos are behind the oil theft in Niger Delta region.
Dickson who also said that the official system and oil companies were beneficiaries of oil theft in the region, however lamented the absence of national values which enable people to use the nation’s resources for personal aggrandizement.
Dickson said, “Why should a country like Nigeria that has been producing oil, exporting oil for the past 70 years not have a scientific way of metering, recording what leaves, what is pumped, what is sold and what is not sold? And it’s deliberate.
“It’s not a Niger Delta thing; it’s just happening there and it is unfortunate that it has destroyed communities because there is too much illegal money, illegal arms, illicit drugs and it has fueled cultism because people want to get the loyalties of young people to be able to hold territories where oil facilities are.
”They need weapons and young men that are always high on drugs. You think a man who slaughters and cuts off a man’s head and dismember him is normal? So, those are people who are actively on drugs.
“People from Abuja and Lagos are the masterminds and the official system is not ignorant and not innocent. The official security system, the official oil system, the official federal system, all of it in its entirety. It’s a criminal, powerful system.”
He however stressed the need to create a global consensus against that would ensure the international community reject stolen crude oil from Nigeria.
According to him, ust as the world formed a consensus against stolen blood diamond, a global consensus should be formed that makes the international community reject stolen crude oil from Nigeria.
Dickson also called for strong political will on the part of leaders at all levels to stop the menacing trend of oil theft.
Meanwhile, the former governor who also faulted the 1999 Constitution, noted that the Constitution succeeded in creating emperors as Presidents and Governors.
According to him, the 1999 Constitution created emperors as president and governors because the drafters of the document omitted accountability in terms of the use of power by public office holders.
When Asked why some governors have been obstructing financial autonomy for local governments, he said, “If you look at the framework of our constitution, the biggest emperor that the Nigerian Constitution has created is the President, that’s the biggest emperor but there are also 36 and now 37 (a Minister of the FCT).
He said, “there are 37 emperors because of the insufficient mechanism for accountability built into the constitution which is what we must address. Accountability in terms of the use of power.”
Dickson therefore noted that the insufficient mechanism for accountability by leaders must be addressed in the 1999 Constitution.
He noted that between February 2012 and February 2020, he never tampered with local government funds as governor for eight years.
“For eight years as governor, I never tampered with one naira of local government fund. I was rather giving them a percentage of the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), to support them, but I am told that there are state governors who literally commandeer all their local government allocations and even giving them piece of paper to sign,” he said.
Dickson added, ”as a governor, I have to introduced transparency law which gave me legal obligation to announce what was coming to the State and how it was spent every month.
”That same law directed the local government chairmen to do the same in their local governments. And I said the punishment for not doing that consecutively amounts to gross misconduct.”
He however advised President Bola Tinubu to convoke a National Dialogue where some topical issues affecting the growth and development of the country could be addressed.
‘‘President Bola Tinubu Should convoke National Dialogue. There have been calls for Nigeria to birth a new constitution with many elder statesmen and socio-political groups like the Afenifere, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Pan Niger Delta Forum, the Middle Belt Form, amongst others demanding a sovereign national conference for the various ethnic nationalities in the country to discuss and agree on the terms of peaceful co-existence and governance including the subjects of state police, fiscal federalism, restructuring, amongst others, ” said.
Dickson recalled that in February, the House of Representatives set up a constitution review committee to address contentious issues and revamp the document handed over to the civilian government by the military in 1999.
Dickson, who is a member of a similar committee in the Senate, expressed his desire for the country to have “a comprehensive review of the constitution”.
“The underbelly of the constitutional inadequacies has come to the fore that those who are even opposing state police for example are now some of those who are now on their own advocating for it, which is very good.
“The National Assembly (I am also a member of the Constitutional Review Committee), we have not been far-reaching enough; it’s always been piecemeal because of the difficulty of building consensus over the years about building consensus, ” he added.
The lawmaker opined that President Bola Tinubu should convoke a national dialogue to address major existential issues in the country.
“I think we should have a robust national dialogue. It would be nice if the President convokes it, but it is more than mounting a convocation of another jamboree, it’s about selecting a team and consulting on areas of broad national consensus like state police or even the judiciary, ” said.
The ex-governor also threw his weight behind the growing call for Nigeria to return from the presidential system to parliamentary government.
“I believe that a nation that is as plural as we are, as diverse as we are, and culturally, religiously, and socially diverse as we are, the system of government that best suits our purpose should have been the Westminster Parliamentary System,” he asserted.
The lawmaker said the current Nigeria does not measure to the goals and aspirations of the founding fathers of the country at independence over six decades ago hence the need to return to the original ideals of the past heroes.
He lamented that the Nigerian elite, unknown to themselves, are collectively committing mass political suicide as their service to the country has not been based on shared values and ideals for Nigeria’s development but selfish interests.
He said the lack of quality investment in education over the years affected and produced the kind of current crop of leaders in Nigeria. “A nation that has not invest heavily in education will be dreaming too high to get quality leadership,” the lawmaker posited.
