The Lawmaker Representing Akoko- Edo Federal Constituency of Edo State in the House of Representatives, Peter Akpatason has urged President Bola Tinubu to assemble independent minds to profer solutions to Nigeria’s oil and gas industry.
Akpatason insisted that the management team of the nation’s oil company the
Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), has ran out of new ideas adding that nothing good will come out of the sector until a change is made.
Akpatason, former President of Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) between 2001 and 2009 disclosed this in an interview with EBS in Abuja.
He noted with concern that despite rebranding, there are still a lot of transgressions in Nigeria’s oil industry.
According to his claim, “the way the industry is being managed has contributed many challenges to the country, more than any other Industry.”
Akpatason who condemned the processes of privatizing government enterprises in Nigeria, maintained that the management, structure and pattern of NNPCL, the foremost company in the oil industry, has been faulty from the beginning to this present day.
“I don’t know whether they call it NNPCL or NNPCJ, NNPC remains NNPC.
I have not seen any significant improvement. I have not seen any conscious and concrete efforts towards moving NNPC out of the shadows of a dysfunctional NNPC we all fought to correct,” he said .
“What is happening now is not different as far as I am concerned.There is still a lot of manipulation industry. The parties are very many and powerful as well.”
“Mr president should look at how to get independent minds to come together to profer solutions to the oil and gas industry.”
“Most of the people there today have been involved from the beginning and have nothing new to offer anybody. They keep recycling old stories, talking about the same concepts and approaches.”
“I have not seen surgical changes in the oil and gas industry.Untill that is done, I am not sure that anything good will come out of that place”.
Reacting to the current price war between NNPCL and Dangote Refinery which has led to reduction in the price of fuel several times in three months, the lawmaker insisted that the nation’s oil giant can do more.
The ongoing petrol price war between the nation’s oil giant and Dangote Refinery is a struggle to control the market and win the hearts and pockets of many.
For Nigerians, apart from having cheaper fuel which will reduce their energy cost ,they now have freedom of choice amid many marketers of the products.
Industry experts believe that the lowering of prices in quick succession is a key attribute of a free market where the consumers and the downstream sector become the ultimate beneficiaries.
