 Welcome back you so watching the Breakfast in Plus TV Africa to a very important discussion now as Lagos and other parts of Nigeria saw cues at petrol stations for a fifth consecutive day and car owners were left with damaged vehicles after the supply of 371 million litres of dirty fuel to petrol marketers in the nation. The nation's lower national legislative house, House of Representatives has asked the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited to suspend companies responsible for the importation of the said bad fuel. However, this has led some to ask who the House of Representatives is referring to since the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited has always said, at least since 2007, when Ibe Kachiku was the Minister of State for Petroleum that it the NNPC or the Eswar NNPC is the sole importer or importer of fuel into the country. Well, yesterday after, you know, 148 hours of this issue, you know, coming up the group managing director of the NNPC Limited, Mr. Melecari, named some companies whom he said were responsible for bringing the fuel, the dirty fuel, which was mixed with high amounts of methanol into Nigeria, saying Nigerian authorities do not test imported petrol or petrol from methanol. And we'll be looking at this later with an analyst, but this has, you know, led to some questions. For instance, where did we get it all wrong? It's an important question to ask, you know, Merci, this has been an ongoing conversation since Monday with the cues popping up. I first saw the cue on Monday in a car heading to some other part of Lagos, Ikoi, and just after a follow-up I saw a hold-up, and I'm nice to see a hold-up there, so I said to the taxi driver, what's going on? He said it's a traffic light. So we queued behind the cars, but after a while the thing wasn't moving. We came out and saw that it was a cue for a petrol station that was across on the other side of the road, you know, and we're seeing the government agencies coming up with statements that for me, for want of a better term, and an insult on the collective intelligence of Nigerians, and they took their sweet little time to speak to Nigerians. The NNPC, which says it is a sole importer of petrol into the country, waited until yesterday, Thursday, to talk to Nigerians. Today is Friday, right? Yeah, waited until yesterday, Thursday, to talk to Nigerians. It happens, it happens, Merci. And why wait that long? Now, we go to the statement of the regulatory authority that replaced the DPR, it was SOI regulatory and the PPPRA, the Nigerian midstream and downstream regulatory authority. That statement that was released, first of all, there was no apology to Nigerians. You know, secondly, it tried to downplay the situation by telling Nigerians that a limited amount of PMS was affected. And that for me is an insult, you know, I'm sorry to say, but an insult on the intelligence of Nigerian petrol consumers, those who buy petrol in this country, limited amount. So you're going to tell the individual whose car that is the only thing he or she may have as an asset has gone bad, or for those who took loans, bank loans to buy those cars has been destroyed, that a limited amount of fuel is involved. That is an insult. Then secondly, you know, lie to Nigerians that telling them the methanol is a regular additive to petrol, but it's added in acceptable amounts, really. Now we're hearing the truth, which a lot of people who did some like, you know, did some investigation know that that was a lie by a government agency, which is tasked with the responsibility of policing, of regulating the midstream and downstream, telling Nigerians a lie that methanol is a regular additive to petrol, when Nigerian specification of petrol does not accept methanol, even MRS put out the statement yesterday and said the same thing. And the NMPCDG is also saying that they don't test for it. So why would a government regulatory authority be lying to Nigerians? And this is a suckable offence, sorry, to be this, because people's cars have gone bad. It's a suckable. And so it just makes Nigerians wonder, is this how government in the country takes the citizens for a ride and takes the citizens for granted, you know, because if you really, as government, as a government agency, you respect the people, you see yourself as serving the people, you will be profusely apologizing for what is happening and not talking and acting and say if you don't owe the people an apology or the truth or explanation. In all of this, you ask yourself, where's the minister of petroleum resources? I mean, you ask who is the minister and that's the president, the president who oversees this, you know, sector or this ministry has not come out to say anything. And if things actually happen going like this, the minister should be held responsible. I mean, without any sentiment here. But unfortunately, it is what it is. Over time, you ask yourself, you've talked about, I mean, you have actually done the nine-year of the conversation here. We have a body who should regulate police and ensure that we have the right products. But what it is, what is it that we're experiencing is the fact that Nigeria, Africa over time, we have become a dumping ground for all of those junks. And so it's the level of impunity that we constantly see. And the fact that nobody's taking responsibility. And then it's okay, you know, to say, yes, you have named these persons because you also have the NMPC single we're naming. And now the House of Reps is saying you need to probe for that. But, you know, would this just be just a statement? Are we going to see actions? Would people pay for all of this? And how do we even get to this point? What are we getting it wrong? In the first instance, you also, you remember this morning, we talked about the fact that there's also a budget from the NMPC trying to, you know, take out or sift out the bad products, the bad oil. And that's going to be a lot. So why should we even be delving into this in the first place? If we had our refineries function now, do we have any business exports in our products and trying to import it back? So this is some of the questions we're hoping to answer. Yes. Folha Shadeu Ladui is his own with us now. She's a lawyer. Folha Shadeu, good morning to you. Can you hear us, please? Okay, we're still trying to connect with her. And once we do that, we will put it on there. Mercy, you said it all, you know, and the saddest part of this, one of the sad aspects of this, Folha Shadeu Ladui, are you there, please? Can you hear us? Okay, we'll try and get a technical team on it and see if we can get the connection right. And so one of the sad aspects of this is that, you know, the opaqueness of the oil and gas sector Nigeria, you know, has come to the fore again. The fact that these guys have controlled this sector as if it's the personal thing. They are handling this oil and gas and petroleum and all that has for Nigerians in the interest of Nigerians. The money of Nigerians is used to subsidize and to pay for this. Nigerians pay through their noses for fear every day. It's not free. Even the one that is used to subsidize is still government money. And so the opaqueness and the lack of transparency by those who are supervising and overseeing the petroleum industry in Nigeria, you know, shrouded in secrecy. I mean, till now Nigerians do not know who exactly now. We don't know who is, who is importing fuel into the country. We don't know. I mean, you're okay. So look at it. There's two, let me not use the word, but look at the, the funniness of this whole situation. You're saying as NNPC that you are the sole importer of fuel into the country. Now you are telling the country that some importers of fuel are responsible. So, so I mean, does it make sense? And now you're passing the buck and naming some names that people don't know. Okay, do we have a guest on the line? No, no, we just move on. Yeah. You know, so we're hearing, we're hearing names that people don't, we have to go, you know, but, but there's a lot, you know, surrounding this that if it's exposed will mean that a lot of heads roll, you know, and people have turned this country that was, you know, founded by a company and Nigerians took back their country, say one independence and placed in the hands of people as leaders. They have now turned this country back to their own private company. You know, because at the end of the day, if you look at it to be very honest, and this is a conversation that we're not ready to have up until this moment, we constantly talk about Nigeria that was set up, you know, as a business because it was a business that hasn't changed anything. It feels like the transaction is still ongoing. And constantly you see Nigerians being shortchanged. You ask yourself the fact that we have adulterated products in the market. Is that the reason why we don't have the, you know, the product available? Is that the reason for the hoarding of the products? And if, at what point did you realize that you had adulterated products in the chain, in the supply chain, at what point did you come out with this statement? Was it up until some of Nigerians actually came up, you know, with a lot of outcry? Well, however, the conversation will continue right here. A finger's across and we see how all of this pans out. And that's how we end the conversation on Friday. If you missed out on any part of it, it's all right to follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. We're Plus TV Africa and on YouTube to subscribe. It's a Plus TV Africa lifestyle. I am Messi Bopo. Do have a fantastic day. My name is Kofi Bartels. Have a fantastic weekend. We'll be back on Monday.