Conventional wisdom mandates us to shut the stable door as soon as the horses are safely in; because it is foolhardy to lock the door after the horses have escaped. Nigerians are once more getting excited to hear of the move by the EFCC to investigate the NNPCL in connection with the funds allocated to it for the repairs of the refineries, totalling nearly $3bn. The excitement has even attained ample crescendo with the report from one of the newspaper dailies that one of the past MDs of the refineries has N80bn lodged in his bank account. This is Nigeria for you, a country inhabited mostly of innumerable gold medalists in selective amnesia.

Pray, for how long have these refineries remained moribund and for how many budget years have they continued to receive funds for their repair through the NNPCL? Are we quick to forget that in the 90s, under the military regime of General Abacha, that he wondered why two of his ministers, one for Finance and the other for Petroleum Resources, were dancing naked in the market place? Was it not over the funds supposedly allocated to the NNPC at the time for the 4 refineries’ Turn Around Maintenance [TAM]? Since the return to democracy in 1999 have the various governments not been engaged in refinery repairs without commensurate results, which resulted in the continued importation of petroleum products and subsidy payment scandals? Should it not be cause for concern to Nigerians of conscience that it is in 2025, and after the NNPC had transformed into a privatized behemoth, that the EFCC is waking up to investigate the ubiquitous and humongous funding of these refineries that never yielded the intended results? Indeed there are too many questions demanding for sincere and honest answers. But honesty and sincerity are expensive gifts, which you must not expect from cheap people!!!
But there is definitely a discourse that must be thoroughly interrogated within the context of what Nigerians have gone through as a result of these dysfunctional refineries. Here is a country that is abundantly endowed with petroleum resources, a country that built and owns 4 refineries of 445,000bpd capacity, a country with immense human resources, and this country would end up cap-in-hand to import petroleum products. Yet we all remained unconcerned and unperturbed. What a country indeed!!!

The National Assembly [NASS] is constitutionally mandated to make laws and carry out oversight functions, among other miscellaneous functions. The NASS, after having approved the budgets for the Ministries, Departments and Agencies [MDAs], are they not expected to carry out oversight functions to monitor and report how the allocated funds have been utilized? Can the NASS produce and show to Nigerians their oversight reports on the humongous budgeted allocations for the repairs of these refineries in the past 4 or 8 years? Such reports would have been warning signals to the Executive and Nigerians generally, that ALL IS NOT WELL. But no, Nigerians were rather only given explanations why the NASS must acquire state-of-the-art SUVs to enable them carry out oversight functions, because “Nigerian roads are bad.” Yet these are the same people who allocate CONSTITUENCY PROJECTS BUDGETS to themselves to justify their representation of the people, and their concern for what affects their constituents. Trust Nigerian politicians, they can always manufacture and fabricate excuses to get away with their lust for the commonwealth.

This is why personally I am not excited by this EFCC investigation, coming this late in 2025. Where is the forensic audit report of the NNPC instituted by Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala when she was Finance minister? As Nigerian Presidents took on the additional portfolio of Petroleum Resources minister, how many of them were summoned, after leaving office, to explain why the refineries were left moribund? See what is happening in other smaller and less endowed African countries. But here we have allowed prejudice, religion and ethnicity to becloud our sense of judgment and the desired growth and development of the entire country.
Nigerians, as long as the government in power continues to regard the NNPCL as an ATM, you do not have to bother to investigate how its resources are either managed or dispensed. Remember what a former Kano state governor once responded to inquiries of state funds: “government money dey for government house.” This should be instructive enough. We are simply shutting the stable door when all the horses have escaped.

Jonas Odocha.
Abuja, Nigeria.
May 5, 2025.