The survival instinct in Nigerians is such
that many could risk their lives for money. Big money! Why not? What with the
flagrant display of affluence by some Nigerians, others who do not want to be
outdone or left behind, look for other fast means, than politics, to raise the
needed cash. And the area of choice for that kind of money, it appears to me,
is in illegal oil bunkering and the illicit drug business. I say this following
the outcry by the Co-ordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of
Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala who recently alerted the nation that the spate
of oil theft in the country could impact negatively on the nations revenue
profile. She was reacting to an alarm raised by the Shell Petroleum Development
Company, SPDC to the effect that about $6 billion is lost yearly to crude oil
theft. The NNPC, had reported that 17 percent of oil production was lost in
April, representing one fifth of the revenue expected by the Federal government
from crude oil export. Alerted by this, the Minister of Petroleum Resources,
Mrs Diezani Allison Madueke, Friday announced the raising of a “very aggressive
task force” as a way to stem the alleged theft of 180,000 barrels of oil daily,
which we are informed, could fetch the country $7 billion yearly. Where were
the security agencies when all these were taking place?

The import of this poser is crucial because
the envisaged aggressive taskforce, I mean, cannot beat the performance level
of its predecessors. It is reassuring that service chiefs were in attendance at
the meeting where the decision to set up the aggressive task force was reached,
however, if the Petroleum Minister could just dust old files in the
corporation’s chest on this issue, she may be surprised to find that there is
no suggestion which these service chiefs could proffer today that had not been
said before. Question is, were such suggestions implemented?

The Director General of the Nigeria
Maritime and Administrative Agency, NIMASA, Patrick Akpobolokeni provided an
answer to this question when he said, late last year, that illegal bunkering is
a well-co-ordinated business which involves members of the elite. He observed
that the equipment used by the oil thieves, such as boats with massive tanks,
vessels, imported arms and ammunition are beyond the reach of the poor.  This
means that these items of the nefarious trade are supplied by the rich
who stay in their mansions and expect returns from their foot soldiers, some of
whom were reportedly arrested last week. The problem is that those arrested
would rather to go   prison than reveal
the identity of their sponsors. Just like the two Ghanaians and seven Nigerians
who were in October 2011 sentenced to 90 years each by a Federal High Court,
Asaba, Delta State for “conspiracy and illegal involvement in petroleum
products, these 26 Ghanaians arrested last week, may also go to jail, but illegal
bunkering would never be “jailed”.

The petroleum theft story to me equals the
narcotics business in a sense. Both involve big money and the relationship
between barons and field operators, who are the drug couriers.

The media are always innundated with report
of arrests, seizure and possible prosecution of drug couriers who were caught
in their attempt to smuggle the commodity outside the country. But the problem
has never been the arrest of these leg men, but how many such arrests that had
led to the arrest of sponsors of the syndicates, the drug barons. When bags of
Indian hemp was discovered in some shops right inside the Electronics
International Market, Onitsha, the deputy President of the market, Phillip
Iheanacho blamed the market vigilance group for the development. Now who do we
blame for the unending oil theft in the creeks of the Niger Delta?

Over to our security agencies. There is
need to increase surveillance or the vigilance level on our waters to stem this
rising tide of illegal bunkering  that
could cost the country so much. But the bottom line still remains the
willingness of the authorities to confront the oil barons, drug barons, headon.
Otherwise, Shell’s alarm and Madam’s meeting with security chiefs will not
yield any useful results.