 Okay, time for our first hot topic, and Mellacar, the Group Managing Director of the Nigeria National Petroleum Company, the NMPCL, says Nigeria will be a net exporter in 2024. Today we export, I'm quoting him now, 100% of our productions. No resource dependent country does this, and that is why we must deliver on our mandate. I don't want to speak about it. When it is done, you will see it. He also goes on to say that, so I don't want to tell you we are going to revamp our refineries. That is too much of PowerPoint talk. So it will be done, and you will see it. I don't want to speak about it. We are tired of speaking about it. But what we must achieve is that this country must be a net exporter of petroleum product, and this is within sight. Is this within sight, or is this just another political statement? I have been joined by Dr. Ambrus Ibuki, Chairman, Guild of Public Affairs Analyst, Enugu State Chapter. Good morning to you, Dr. Ibuki. Good morning, and thanks for being here. So is this within sight, Nigeria being a net exporter of petroleum products, or do you think this is just another, make them feel good statements? I think I agree with your last talk, make sure that it is a make them feel good statement. We have been talking about being a net exporter of petroleum products since our refineries stopped working for almost 35 years ago, in the 90s, when our refineries stopped working. Nigeria had always been a net exporter of crude in the 60s, 70s, especially in the 70s and 80s, where our refineries were firing in all cylinders. We had the Potakot, we had the Warrior Refinery, we had even the Kaduna Refinery near the oil and petroleum products that were serviced in the whole of the modern region, was being moved to. And then we had all these depots and all these tank farms all over the country. So trucks don't need to travel. The consequences of Nigeria not refining its oil locally is so massive that the damage it has done to our economy and to our people is so massive. For example, all the allied products that come with refineries like Petrochemical, remember that there was a Petrochemical plant in Elime in Potakot, and there was Petrochemical plant in Warwick. So what happened? So now we want to fertilize that because we don't refine our own crude oil, where the grease, plastic, a lot of, you know, byproducts that come from refining our petroleum products. We have lost that, we lost industry, closed industries, you know, lost jobs. And then, you know, make us import all these ancillary services products that come from, you know, refining of petroleum. Also, we have, because of that, our roads are being damaged because we now have a situation where tankers, oil tankers, have to travel all the way from the Dukit Buri, from Ainu, Kugu, traveling from Harcourt, traveling from Kaduna, and non-lucentrary of the country, all heading to Lagos, you know, to lift petroleum products. This is a shame of the nation. I don't know how we degenerated to this level because before, you know, tankers from all over the North just need to go to Kaduna, in the West, I mean, we have in the cities, we had the, you know, where people from Binin and the West can usually go and pick, and then Binin also can go to Buri, and then some of the Easterners can usually go to Potacons and worry. So all those that have been destroyed, our roads don't last long because of tankers, accidents that have come up because of tankers everywhere. So it has been an economic burden on Nigeria. We, as a nation, we are the only OPEC-exporting nation that exports crude oil and produces crude oil, take it outside the country, you know, refine it, and bring back refined product, pay for X for that, and then bring it back. So that is why we are suffering the economic hardship we have now because no country does that and survives. And Nigeria must be, you know, a research specimen because I don't think many countries would try these even half and survive the longer we have survived in terms of not falling into economic draw jobs. So for example, for Meli, for Metcari, for me to stock shop, it's not even safe at all. For example, whether the modular refineries, the PIA, Special Petroleum Industrial Act, where is it? I mean, why have modular refineries not started functioning in Nigeria? The other videos of Naira that was used to, you know, set up don't turn around maintenance for our refineries. Where do they all go to? Why is NMPC still even existing? NMPC has failed Nigeria. Where you compare NMPC with all these compact shots like NMPC is an equivalent of Gazprom in Russia. It's a state-owned oil company. NMPC is the equivalent of Petrobras in Brazil. It's the National Oil Company in Brazil. NMPC is also a contemporary of Saudi Aramco, which is also a state-owned oil company. These companies are doing so well. They are the equivalent of our own NMPC. They are doing so well and reaching in trillions of dollars for their countries over the years. But here we are having an NMPC that does not contribute anything to the national budget for some years now. Yet they swallow a lot of our budget. So for economy, we are not a serious country. Actually, meaning to tackle our economic issues. And that is where we are as the people right now. So Mekre to keep his postulations to himself until we are able to see serious actions and we are able to see consequences. But one of the speeches, one of the aspects of his speeches that I find worrying, is that he said that even if we start refining oil in Nigeria, that the costs will not come down, that it is our international cost. And I keep asking myself, why do these people talk this way? I'm a simple elementary economics. You are telling us that the price of oil, petrol is high and petrol products is high. Because you are buying from international market, where you buy from refined products and international market. You are telling us that we start to refine locally that the costs will still be at international market. I think your Nigerian citizens should start demanding some actions from these people. Because I think they don't take all of us with a bunch of points. Otherwise, you will not be saying those kinds of statements. That when you buy internationally, it's still the same price. When you now refine locally, it's still the same price. I think they are taking us where we are right now. So why would you say he, I mean, you are not the only one that's asking why NNPC. In fact, you are probably more than asking why the NNPC is still in existence. More people have asked, why is Melakaer is still in office? Why do you think he's still in office? Perhaps the government is pleased with him. Perhaps he is, you know, doing what he's supposed to do in the eyes of his employers. Well, Melakaer is not the problem. The problem is NNPC. So whoever you meet, the managing director of NNPC, will still fall into the trouble. NNPC is a huge, you know, concrete pipe. NNPC is a huge crater, or will I say, it's like a gap that is like a earthquake or tsunami that created. NNPC has been a plethora of wastage over the years. So where can you put that? We always be swallowed up by that cess put of the corruption and the inefficiency that has characterized NNPC over the years. A parastartal of government that, you know, so much money is pumping to it. And for some years that has not contributed even one cover to the national income. And then there's something wrong with that. So when you put it like that, when you put it like that, it then appears like a very hopeless situation. Is Nigeria ever going to come out of this pit? For now, we are still having workshops. For now, we are not serious. For now, America is still speaking in workshops and conferences, instead of us to make serious demands. We are still rolling the red carpet to talk on PowerPoint. What is saying is PowerPoint. So I don't know why it's saying that it's not about PowerPoints. What is saying is PowerPoint presentation. All this presentation we have had in so many years, Nigeria's are tired of hearing this kind of things. So when it says action, let's speak for the action. When the action comes and Nigeria starts in the action, then you can talk. But any other talk is saying without or seen action. It's PowerPoint presentation. And that's what he has done again. I'll be refining this. I've not started working. None is working. The modular refineries simply refuse to pick up. And when you ask the people who have the license, we tell you that their parameter is not right. That it's not the policies that are not right for them to invest their money. And these people are business friends, so you won't blame them. So if the environment is not right for them, let them now, let go and approach them and ask them why? And let go and clear all the injustices they are having so that we can have popular refineries. Because it's only popular refineries that can actually help in the case of Nigeria. Even if you don't want to refineries working in the region, let it legal. Somebody still needs to travel from, you know, the north to come and pick it, unless they have a mechanism for pumping fuel into all the moribund tank farms like in Mosimil, like in Onre, and it's another part of the country where we have these tank farms that NNPC was using. So if that does not happen, we still have the same issues jamming up the whole place, bringing a lot of popular movement into Lagos and having trucks stay two weeks, three weeks to lift petroleum products. We still do the same kind of, you know, bedlam that we are going to have if that opens. And then why would a country like Nigeria with over, you know, population of 200 million people start having one single refinery to service the nation? It's a share, actually, it's a big share. Well, they said that next year, all the government refineries will be working, specifically this year in December, that the protocol refinery will be working. This is not the first time we are hearing those kind of stories. They are sounding like this by moonlight, or like fog clouds, where fog tails, where you got on that tree in the village, under the moonlight to say. We are not yet believing, we won't believe until it happens. The statements of government, a successive government, so by the years, based on this refineries working, it's not believing until it happens. Yeah, he himself also said that, I don't want to speak about it, we are tired of speaking about it. So he himself knows that Nigerians are tired of the Georgia, we want to see action. He says- So why did he speak about it? Exactly. Why did he speak about it? We were not just quiet until it starts working. He didn't need to speak about it, because what he said yesterday, I've been confined to the dustbin of history, of speeches made about our refineries working. Even this year, we have been told it's working in June, and they keep shifting the day from July, they keep shifting the date. So he should stop talking. Let us see the actions. So I'm tired of hearing them talk. One of the things he also said yesterday is that fuel subsidies are not yet back. Even over the weekend, the president of Pengasin did say the fuel subsidies back and that government should come out clean on this matter. He said government is just recovering its costs, but the subsidy is not back. What's the difference? The truth is that I have had a lot of interventions since May 29th, 2023, when the president mentioned that the fuel subsidy is gone and he's not going to speak. I have said, you don't do things like this. You don't do things with knee-check approaches. You don't do things without planning, and that has been the problem of Nigeria. No short-term plan, no mid-term plan, no long-term plan. We just, you know, we create documents, we show 20, 25, we show this, we show that. We don't even have economic path in the covering path. Now, the place that is one injustice subsidy is gone. Within 24 hours, fuel products sudden astronomical increase. The two months into that, we had another astronomical increase. So we pay 165 Naira to a little top petrol. In two months, we started paying 600 Naira. What can I do to explain that kind of economics, for God's sake? Almost 600% increase in prices. Why other indices of economy remain static? Salaries were not increased, not in half a month. So, again, insolence shows that it was not sustainable. Nobody, because there was no plan to, you know, there were no alternative plans while we are moving subsidy. What were the alternative plans? None. Because we started running around after it has already removed the subsidy to start asking for loan, to give what they call a palliative, two million homes, all those kinds of things. They look like things that, you know, students of economic class in the university are using for their practicals. These are not things a nation should be doing. And so, it's a shame that we didn't plan an alternative or removal of a first subsidy, which also, the only way to remove first subsidies to make sure that the first subsidy is in function of that we are not refining locally. So, simple economics. We are subsidizing what we are importing, refining products we are importing. Make the petroleum products refineable in your country. And once you do that, you don't need even subsidies. Subsidies will go away. So instead of doing that, they are hurriedly went to remove subsidies so that they can get some money that they were spending in subsidy. And maybe they have continued for, I mean, for five months now, six months, they have been able to equip some money and then they are introducing it back. But Nigeria's must go to the government accounting. If you have reintroduced the subsidy with whichever name you are giving it, whether it's recovery or not recovery or whatever your... Or intervention. So far, there's a payment you are making to cushion the price of where that the price of petroleum products must come down. It must come down. Because it is based on that we should not be buying fuel at 600. We should buy it at a lower cost. So who is getting from this subsidy? This is the question Nigeria should ask and the media should start asking this question and thinking to you. I mean, Nigeria media is feeling more serious. I mean, part of that constituency. But we are failing the citizens of this country. But we are asking the questions. If you look across the channels, different stations across the country, all the channels, you have people asking government officials and public analysts such as yourselves, digging deep and asking questions. What more can we do? That's the way what I mean. What I mean is that what you call investigative journalism. For example, who is... We don't need to access from them. They will give us the colorated answer to suit their actions. So what happened to investigative journalism? We are investigating as well. We are investigating. The investigation we are talking about, let's not take a word brief as a part of that constituency too. What happened to thinking deep to actually find out where did it money go? Who paid what? To who? How? These are the ingredients of the investigation. And we should bring that up. I'm presenting in Nigeria for... We should not wait for press releases. We should not wait for people to come on air to start across the outlets and answer questions in air-conditioned studios. We should think it by default, but the time we are inviting them to the studio, it should be to answer to questions of the investigation that are being carried out. And so we should pinch ourselves and see whether we are feeling at the context of the rep. Well, you do not believe that Nigeria can become a next exporter of petroleum products. You do not think that. Why not? We have done it before. I believe very strongly. People have said you do not believe it's like what we have not done before. I have told you I did not mispervise. You just don't believe melekiari. Pardon? I said you believe Nigeria can do it, but you just don't believe melekiari saying it. What I said is that if you say I believe that you look at something that we have not done before, I told you that in the 70s and 80s and even the early 90s, we are not a spot of petroleum product. So what we have done 40 years ago, 50 years ago, is what we are trying to do after 50 years. I ask you whether I believe it. It's rocket science. Nigeria has been an exporter of 50 years ago, 40 years ago. So it's what we have been doing. It shows that successive companies in the past 30s, 5 years, have made sure that we know a spot we are not a spot of oil. Why did they do what I don't know? So it's time to go back to what we are in the 70s and 80s. So it's what we are doing. It's not a matter of, it's not a new thing. We should go back to it. Hmm. Well, thank you so much, Dr. Ambrus Igboke, for your time. Thank you for having me on the show. Dr. Ambrus Igboke, Chairman Guild of Public Affairs Analyst of Nigeria in a good state chapter has been my guest on the first hot topic. We'll be back in a moment with the second hot topic. It is Mental Health Day. How healthy is your mental health? Stay with us.