Our Local Content Drive’ll Create Opportunities For Rivers People – George

The Rivers State Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources is not particularly new, what is,  perhaps, new is the quiet move by the Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi administration to re-focus its activities towards boosting indigenous participation in both the upstream and down stream sectors of the oil industry in Nigeria as well as the huge gas resources.

Without much fuss about it, the administration has been working assiduously towards ensuring that Rivers people join the league of major players in a sector said to be very critical to the eternal survival of the Nigerian nation and its economy.

How the government has gone about setting up institutions and legal frameworks necessary for the attainment of this goal in the past couple of months, was the major subject of discussion in a recent encounter between the young intelligent, energetic and ebullient Commissioner for Energy and Natural Resources, Dr. Dawari George and our line editors, Desmond Osueke and Jemina Amachree.

Here are excerpts of the encounter:

Q: Lets have a peep into your background. 

Answer: My name is Dawari George, I’m from Buguma in Asari Toru Local Government Area of Rivers State. I attended post primary school by sandwich. Everything about my academic career has been here in Port Harcourt in Rivers State, I obtained a Master’s degree in History and Diplomatic Studies from University of Port Harcourt. My Master’s and doctorate degrees are in Development Studies also from the Department of  Political and Administrative Studies. While at the University of Port Harcourt. I was engaged in development N.G.O. activities, working at some time with the United States Agency for International Development.

I was the country representative for the World Bank Group for Employment and Empowerment Initiative. I have also been involved in youth work until I became the chairman of the National Youth Council of Nigeria and I was also politically active in one time or the other in my Local Government Area. I served as Press Secretary of my local government area, I was Special Assistant to Hon. Commissioner for Works until my present appointment I was also a member of the Rivers State Scholarship Board. I resigned on assumption of duty as Commissioner for  Energy and Natural Resources.

Q: Are you married?

Answer: Yes, I’m married, with a son.

Q: Hon. Commissioner Sir, let’s have a highlight of the functions and activities of your ministry.

Answer: Now basically, our function is to first and foremost represent the state government’s interest in the oil and gas sector. More precisely our ministry is involved in trying to on behalf of the state, coordinate all activities relating to oil and gas in the state and to promote the participation of indigenous people both at the upstream and the down stream sectors.

Very recently we have moved on to see how we can position our people to be active participants in the up stream sector and that has led to the inauguration of a board for the Treasure Energy Resources Limited, owned one hundred per cent by the state government’s oil and gas company. That company is being headed by Chief Chamberlain Oyibo. He is the board chairman, taking care of and managing the state equity in the oil and gas industry in the state. As you are aware, the state has five percent equity in Brass LNG and we also get from Bonny LNG but while that is on, the state is involved in the expansion of and rehabilitation of the gas infrastructure and the gas master plan. When you asked about the activities of my ministry, I thought I should come from the artificial and get to the real issue.

We have the gas master plan, they just finished work and submitted their report, the gas master plan basically is to see how we can use gas to run economic, industrial and domestic activities, that will involve moving gas to industrial complexes, moving gas to private homes and offices and all that. We are also trying to see how we can have a gas to diesel conversion. A gas to diesel conversion plant will be put in place so that we can begin to use the product to run vehicles. The truth is that with what is on ground now, we have gas resources that should last for the next 150 years. If there is any resources that the state has in abundance, it is gas. We felt that since we have comparative advantage in gas, we should use it for most of our industries. Most of our economic activities should be powered with gas especially for the fact that gas is cheaper, cleaner and more environmentally friendly. Again, gas has the capacity to generate revenue to sustain our state even far above what federation account can give to the state. So the state focus is to see how we can develop gas to provide jobs, revenue and to oil the wheel of economic activities in our state.

While we are doing that, the state is also into collaboration with foreign investors in the building of refineries, building of petrochemical plant, and building of bitumen plant. If you look at Indorama, that is now former Eleme Petrochemical Plant run by Indorama today, you will find out that it is far better than what it used to be when it was run principally by NNPC. We see the number of jobs it has created and the amount of revenue it generates. So, the state believes very strongly that we have comparative advantage to open more petrochemical planst, in our state and leverage the existence of such plant to provide job and to oil the economic wheel for the progress of the state.

Our major focus now is to provide an energy policy. We believe that if we are able to come out with that document, it will give us opportunity and leverage in terms of legal backing for us to intervene directly in the oil and gas activities. For now, what we are doing is because we expect that all oil and gas business concerns, as part of their corporate social responsibilities should do something for the state. We think that if we back it up with a law, the state can participate actively in it through some of these organisations. So, while we are doing that on the energy policy, which of course will come out in the proposed energy summit, we also intend to send the bill to the State House of Assembly for legislation to back this policy and to back this document. We are coming up so that the future government and administrations and generations of Rivers people that will emerge will have a necessary legislative or legal framework to be able to pursue businesses and activities in the oil and gas sector

Q: Despite Nigeria’s gas reserve estimated at 180 trillion standard cubic feet most of which can be found in the N’Delta region and the presence of LNG plants, domestic gas price remains on an upward swing. How can this be reconciled?

Answer: It still boils down to what I have said earlier, but may be to expatiate with regard to what you have just asked. The energy policy would provide for all that but our short, medium and long term plans border on where we want to take the state to. How do the people of the state key into this? And how can the state also protect and encourage them to be able to leverage on the opportunity that abound for them to get what they should get from the resources in their states.

The second point is that the bill, will make it possible for all those who do oil and gas businesses in the state to also leave some amount of space as local content to get our people involved. We are talking not just on those who have the requisite trade but those who can be absorbed for them to get training on the job. We know that some companies                                                                                                                                                                                now have things like that where they train people and then they absorb them after the training? We believe that these policies will provide for that and that is why we are in the process of having the bill and the policy. We are trying to engage all those who are involved in oil and gas businesses. We have also involved them in the committee that is fashioning out this policy, so that it is generally acceptable to everybody and everybody is able to work within the ambit of that policy and the bill. Now outside of that, the Treasure Energy Resources set up by the governor is also intended to bridge that gap. Now when you have a hundred percent state owned oil and gas company run by Rivers indigenes, employing Rivers indigenes and giving Rivers indigenes the opportunity to be involved actively in upstream and downstream activities in the oil industry. It opens up the sector for Rivers people to increase their capacities to have the opportunities to also get the requisite technical experience and know-how.

If you come down to the downstream sector for instance, you can count the number of Rivers people who are managing filling stations in Rivers State. You can count the number of Rivers people who own the trucks that lift products. You can count the number of Rivers indigenes who are independent marketers. We are saying that all these must change, but government must put in place the necessary framework to get Rivers people to be involved. It is not something you can do in one day, but you must start with the necessary framework and hope that our people will key into what government is doing for their own good.

Q: How soon are we expecting this policy?

Answer: Before the end of this year.

Q: Lets deviate a little, energy ministry where you preside and the power ministry, where can one draw the dividing line?

Answer:           All of us are part of one state government. We have a common agenda. There is nothing we do in energy ministry that the man in power does not know. Overall, we know our activities, may be what we are saddled with is the nitty-gritty, the details of each assignment. We deal primarily with oil and gas, while power deals with electricity. But there is a point of convergence in area of what we used in generating power. We need gas to generate power. So, to that extent, there is a synergy, because the state government has an agreement with multinationals on the use of gas resources in Rivers State. The Ministry of Power cannot get the gas it requires without the collaboration of the Ministry of Energy.

Q. Hon. Commissioner, the Turn Around Maintenance for the nations four refineries, has not yielded desired result, what is the way forward?

Privatisation of the refineries, that is our position. That is what Rivers State Government believes. We believe that the refineries and oil and gas activities should not be run by government and that the government should only own equity in them. They should be run by private interests and we believe that these refineries are not doing well because government is still deeply involved in the operation. It’s not as if Rivers State government did not have the resources to build its own refinery, we are concerned about the sustainability when this administration leaves, the next administration comes and they don’t share exactly in the vision, then it dies. But if private individuals bring their money and put it down and invest in the business, they will necessarily protect their investment. So that is why even in the proposed refineries, we have up to five of them, so far at different stages of coming on stream. These are private foreign concerns. The foreign concerns will bring the resources, the technical expertise while we provide the enabling environment. They will operate it over time.

Like the 200,000 barrel refinery we have proposed for Rivers State, in the first two years they will employ nothing less than 4000 persons. You look at the multiplier effect if 4000 people having employment with just one refinery. If that refinery crumbles because government is not able to run it, 4000 persons and possibly 20,000 others will be thrown into the job market.

Q. If we go back a bit, how do you reconcile government emphasis on private sector participation with the TER being set up solely by the Rivers State government and which may be managed and run under civil service arrangement?

Yea, now it is different, Rivers State Government set up the Treasure Energy Resources but in the law, that is before the Assembly setting up Treasure Energy Resources Limited, it is totally a commercial venture. What the state government had only done as its own way of improving and building capacity of Rivers people, is to take the lead by initiating the action. All those on the board are professionals and they have been given the mandate, the only thing the state government owes that board is to give them the takeoff grant, to buy the initial things for them to be able to setup and then be able to invest in the leasing and purchase of marginal oil field which is just the first level of investment. Once they have gone into it, the agreement and the understanding is that, the state government will totally divest itself from their operations. Rivers indigenes will buy equity in that company and it will be run completely as a private concern.

The Rivers State Ministry of Energy and the Rivers State government will have no say, but everything that it owns will be purely owned by the indigenous Rivers people but without government interference.

In other words, what government is doing now by investing in the take-off is that government is doing it on behalf of Rivers people, who later will buy into the company and own it as their personal properties.

Q. Now the Former General Manager of the NNPC Mohammed Bakindo, said, sailing the nation’s refineries would amount to a policy summersault inconsistent with the tenets of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB). Do you feel strongly that the refineries should be sold even if means contravening the Act?

You see I don’t want to begrudge him of his opinion. Everybody is entitled to his opinion especially Barkindo is a technocrat in this area. There are some indices or reasons which he must have for him to hold the opinion he holds.

From my own perspective within the short period I have been here in the energy ministry, I will not agree with him, but perhaps he may have his own reasons. I read his comments in the paper. I took time to read his position and is inconsistent with the free market economy that we are trying to run in our country. Now if the refinery or the refining and distribution of petroleum product are still social services then I can understand why they should not be sold. It means that government can still one way or the other regulate the activities for the purpose of protecting the people, but if it is not a social service and is purely business and it should be subjected to the economy of demand and supply as we have in the telecommunication sector there is no reason why government should be involved. But if it is going to be run as a social service, which I think it should not be, because all these issues of deregulation, these issues of subsidy, the ordinary man on the street does not benefit from them. So, if it is a social service, social services all over the world, meet more of the needs of the ordinary people, the down trodden.

Subsidies and all that, do not translate into a better condition of life for the man on the street. It’s at the level of the elites. So if the elites keep talking about protecting the people and all we see even is that lately, the people suffer when you talk about kerosene that is the most essential thing. The poor man uses it, but it is not readily available, yet government is paying so much and spending so much on subsidy. Now if you look at how much the government is spending on subsidy and divide it by the number of Nigerians that we have, you will find out that if they give you your own cash, you will live a better life than what you are living. So something is wrong somewhere,there is a disconnect between the subsidy and the beneficiaries of that so called subsidy and the only way we can resolve this, is to open up and allow for competition and forget everything about regulating the market.

Deregulation for me is the solution, look at private tank farms all over Port Harcourt. Private tank farm are selling sometime a little above what the depot sells, yet they cannot meet the demand, so, what are we regulating it for? Whether you like it or not, the more the product, the more tendency for price fall.

Q. You recently criticised the N’Delta development master plan for lack of input from oil bearing communities. In other words, the planners did not adopt a bottom-to-top approach. Isn’t this another indication of poor political leadership that has been blamed for poor development of the region?         

It’s not a Niger Delta problem. It’s a universal problem. Leadership is elitist in nature. Anywhere you go, even in the developed nations, there is a disconnect between the leadership and the followership, between the rich and the poor, the privileged and the underprivileged. So, it’s not a Niger Delta challenge. We are only trying to domesticate a universal phenomenon by saying how does this universal thing affect us in the Niger Delta.

Now when you gather people and you say you are holding a talk on Niger Delta and all those who are there are the elites, who have never been to Soku, they have not been to Kula, they have not been to Abissa, they have never been there all their lives, but they have been to most of the world capitals, they have been attending all the international conferences, driving all the big cars, living in houses that have water heater, how can such people sit at a place and discuss the problem of somebody in Soku? That is the point I’m making. But again I understand, how do you get the people in Abissa, Soku and Kula to participate and to what extent can they participate given the level of literacy and all that and the challenges of their own environment? How do you get them to be involved? That is the point. I did not have the time, I wanted to say, strategically, development is all about the aspirations of the people.