ZIK GBEMRE SEES TINUBU’S ORDER TO SERVICE CHIEFS TO CRUSH OIL THIEVES AS MEANINGLESS, WISHFUL THINKING

Oil theft in Nigeria is not intractable, but President Bola Tinubu cannot make a difference in the fight against oil theft by wishful thinking.

Tinubu cannot be taken seriously in his matching orders to the military/security operatives. Successive presidents have given similar orders and read riot acts to Service Chiefs to crush oil thieves. What came out of it? Nothing meaningful. And as they say, you can’t do the same thing the same way all the time and expect different results.

If anything, the Presidential order only indicts the ruling All Progressives Party (APC) as confused and having no will and solution to the rape of the nation’s commonwealth through oil theft.

When Tinubu’s predecessor, Mohammadu Buhari approved multi-billion naira pipeline surveillance contracts to ex-militant leaders, he was actually expressing disappointment in the service chiefs’ failure to deal with the problem. So why is Tinubu relying on the same failed service chiefs?

“If Tinubu means well and is desirous of making a difference, he should do what successive presidents have failed to do, show the will to exert consequence management against key actors promoting oil theft. Security chiefs are being indicted. Even former Governor Nyesom Wike indicted a number of them in the military, Police, and NSCDC in his short-lived offensive against oil thieves and illegal refineries.

But none of those indicted are being prosecuted. All the authorities did is transfer an indicted security personnel/military officer. Tinubu must develop the will to apply stiff sanctions when those entrusted to protect the oil are gulping huge security votes while the crime is sustained. Sacking and appointing new Service Chiefs is not enough. People should get tried and punished.

When Mele Kyari got Buhari’s approval to hype the effectiveness of Tompolo’s contract with the predetermined discovery of an alleged decade-old major theft point which key actors knew all along existed, it was still the military Tompolo’s TSSNL engaged to act the drama.

They told Nigerians within days of discovering what was common knowledge that oil production had shot up to 1.2mbpd. But today, how are the figures? It had dropped to 900mbpd. These are the issues Tinubu should interrogate before dishing out orders.

As an organized crime, oil theft is not perpetrated by a gang of friends or loafers. They are syndicates of shared contributors. It involves big illegal oil exporters who hire experts assisted by the locals to tap from the lines into vessels to trans-load into illegal export vessels or feed local clandestine refineries.

The oil thieves are a conspiracy of the military, Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps, Police, DSS, NNPC Limited, NUPRC, oil company staff awarding maintenance, spill & remediation contracts, host communities collaborators, vandalized asset repairs contractors, and spill and remediation contractors. The same key actors entrusted to fight the crime are the ones stealing the oil.

So Tinubu should show courage to punish offenders. That’s the real issue. The Service Chiefs, GOCs, Commanding Officers (COs) of battalions, and heads of all security operatives in those areas should be made to take responsibility or get sanctioned for failing.

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