The senate president, Mr. Ahmad Lawan, has expressed doubt about claims that Nigeria consumes 100 million litres of petrol per day.
Lawan stated this yesterday when he met with heads of security and paramilitary agencies in Abuja.
Attendance at the meeting included the comptroller general of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Col. Hameed Ali (retd), commandant general, Nigerian Civil Defence Corps, Mr. Ahmed Audi and representatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) and Nigerian Correctional Service.
Recall that the defunct Department of Petroleum Resource (DPR), had, at one time, put Nigeria’s daily petrol consumption figure at 38.2 million litres.
But group managing director of Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Mr. Mele Kyari countered saying the country consumes 102 million liters of petrol daily.
He claimed that Nigeria actually consumes 60 million litres, while the balance of 42 million is smuggled daily to Benin, Togo, Ghana, Niger and Chad whereas it is a known fact that these tiny countries import at least 98 per cent of their petrol needs while smugglers fill the supply deficit because of the yawning margin between Nigerian pump price and what obtains in their respective countries.
Lawan who tasked the security agencies to do more to checkmate smuggling of petroleum products out of Nigeria said: “The figures of what we consume in the country continue to fluctuate. At one point it was almost 100 million litres per day and surely this is difficult to believe that we consume almost 100 million litres per day within our borders. Certainly, a good percentage of it goes out.
“This will be the first engagement but certainly this is not the last. We need to look at the strategy, maybe how we undertake our activities at the borders, the different agencies, the inter-agency cooperation that is so essential between the agencies,” he said.
The senate president said the meeting was a follow up to the Monday meeting with the finance and petroleum ministers aimed to find a way forward on the administration and management of fuel subsidy in Nigeria
“We are all aware that some of the products particularly the PMS (petrol) is smuggled out and yet we paid subsidy on what is smuggled out.
“So this meeting is to look into the ways and means of controlling the smuggling of the petroleum products with a view to minimising the cost of fuel subsidy to our country.
“I know individually, these organisations have been carrying out their responsibilities on this but I think that we are coming into a special moment.
“Our situation is such that we cannot afford anymore to allow this smuggling business to continue because the cost is very huge and debilitating to our people.
“At a point I will hold a meeting with the National Security Adviser who is supposed to coordinate the entire security apparatus for protecting our borders.
“I will also hold some engagement with the military especially the Navy because a lot of our products are shipped out to other countries through the water ways.
“At the end of the day what we hope to achieve is to minimise or where possible eliminate the incidents of smuggling of petroleum products that we import into the country for our people,” Lawan said.
He called for the application of technology in surveillance to check smuggling of petrol.
“I believe there is a need for deployment of drones and other technologies that are available these days and probably the office of the national security adviser should be able to be in charge of that and make the information and data available to all the agencies that need them.
“I believe at one point, we will need the participation of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) being the major Institution in our country in charge of the enhancement of technology, the ICT particularly.
“I want to assure you this is going to be a special partnership between the national assembly and the executive arm of government because today’s situation demands that we do things differently.
“Our Committees in the senate that supervise the customs, the security agencies, will be up to date with their oversight. We need to see in the next six months, what different strategies will bring to us.
“We want to see also our citizens participating in the surveillance. We have to mobilise our citizens especially those at the borders,” he said.
He urged the security agencies take action whenever they see petrol tankers taking petroleum products across the Nigerian borders.
“When our security personnel see trucks conveying petroleum products to our neigbouring countries, they should not only say something, they should say it to those who need to know. That is to our security agencies.
“We need to mobilise our citizens as well because this is something that affect all of us. Not about government. And anyway, government is about the people.
“What we are trying to do is to reduce the level of snuggling of petroleum products out of Nigeria and that will translate into reducing the bill that we pay as petroleum subsidy.”
In his remarks, the director general of NCS, Col. Ahmed Ali (retd) complained about the porous borders and absence of governance at the border communities.
However, he said the service had been doing a lot to minimize the incidence of smuggling of petroleum products across the borders.
“Let me say here generally speaking, that we have a porous border. You also know we do not have all that equipment you have made mention of in ensuring the surveillance of our borders.
“One more critical thing is that, within our border communities, there is no presence of governance. Our border communities completely lack presence of governance.
“Therefore, those of us who are shouldered with the responsibility of ensuring that we gate keep, we find it difficult because the ordinary man in Some border does not see reason why he should be compliant, does not see reason why he should work with the security in Nigeria to protect the border.
“This is simply because there is no presence of governance. In some areas, this border community crosses to other country to get basic amenities,” Ali said.
