Oil & Gas: Working For, Not Destroying Nigerians

Oil & Gas: Working For, Not Destroying Nigerians

I recently visited with the victims of the Abule Egba tragedy at Lagos State University Teaching Hospital. The experience was as sobering as it was disturbing.

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The explosion is another horrifying reminder of the failure of Nigeria’s political leaders to demonstrate leadership on 2 key issues: job creation and the dignity of human life. From the horror of the Jesse firestorm in 1998 to 2006’s Abule Egba tragedy, thousands of precious citizens have perished, victims of a failed policy.

I believe that no Nigerian who has a job of their dreams will willingly choose to suffer the indignity and risk of scooping fuel from a broken pipeline. We as a society have repeatedly said no more, yet our leaders have failed to act on our call. What I told the victims - many in unimaginable pain - is that I have heard them. I will provide leadership that will finally transform the interlinked issues of injustice in the Niger Delta, the lack of refinery capacity in Nigeria, the poor fuel distribution infrastructure and the long standing failure of NNPC to meet the aspirations for which it was founded. As president, I will work on these interlinked issues in the manner outlined below:

• New Refinery Projects: Expansion of the refining capacity to a target of 2-4 million barrels per day with the aim of transforming Nigeria’s refinery market. The project will cost an estimated $8 - $16 billion. The plan will enable Nigeria to meet domestic demand as well as export globally. New refineries will be built in partnership with private investors, with the Federal Government taking a variety of roles including direct equity stake and/or credit line support. In addition, existing refinery capacity such as Port Harcourt and Kaduna will be upgraded as part of a capacity expansion program. As part of the process, changes to regulations will be made in order to create a competitive retail market for all market players

• New Products Distribution Network: Creation of new petrol, kerosene and jet fuel distribution network composed of new environmentally safe pipelines, rail road tanks, road based tankers and marine vessels. Existing above ground pipelines such as the ones in the Niger Delta and Lagos will be relocated and buried. Every corner of Nigeria will be amply supplied by a variety of sources e.g. pipeline to Ibadan and Enugu, marine vessel to Lokoja and train to Kano. Combined with a transformed refinery capacity, Nigeria will never suffer a shortage of petrol and other refined products. The Federal Government will create joint private-public partnerships to transform fuel distribution, a process that will build on the strong initiatives of private companies such as Oando’s rail distribution project

• Transformation of NNPC: NNPC will be turned around to make it work more effectively for the Nigerian people. Elements of that transformation will include changes to its corporate strategy to emphasize building a world class integrated upstream and downstream energy company, and diversification of its ownership including taking it public on the Nigerian Stock Exchange
• Return to Local Control of Minerals: The derivation and resource control principles articulated in the 1963 constitution will be reinstituted, with the bulk of federal revenues coming from tax revenues not direct control of resources. Such a federalist approach to resource management will help ensure that significant investment flows into a range of other energy assets such as coal.
• Reinforcement of Environmental Laws: Under the Utomi Administration, the focus will shift in 2 important ways: a revitalized enforcement regime will impose significantly revised penalties on companies that break Nigerian environmental laws. When Nigerian law is insufficient, the best practices from the most compliant region e.g. the US Gulf, North Sea etc will be applied. Institutionally, enforcement responsibility will be transferred to a new Environmental Crimes Division of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ).
• Creation of Government of Nigeria Investment Fund: In partnership with Nigeria’s federating states, the Utomi Administration will work to amend the Nigerian Constitution to improve management of receipts from energy assets and similar exports. The Administration will work to create a Government of Nigeria Investment Fund similar to that utilized by the United Arab Emirates and Norway. Assets transferred to the Fund will be invested in a range of opportunities within and outside Nigeria by the fund’s professional managers, with dividends and capital gains shared across its shareholding structure (e.g. the Federal center and the 36 states).

Purpose Driven Reform

Purpose Driven Reform


My dear supporters and friends, please accept my apologies for the delay inwriting and sharing my thoughts and responding to your questions. I havebeen involved in deep dialogue with many of our allies and partners here inNigeria. From Abuja to Onitsha to Warri to Kano to Ibadan to Jos, we havebeen working closely with our partners to shape the change agenda forNigeria. Our mission is to reinvent the idea of Nigeria in both reality andperception.


One of the key elements of that reinvention process is a plan to makegovernment agencies more effective. For example, we have proposedrevitalizing the Ministry of Commerce to make it more focused on supportingboth large companies and entrepreneurs, as well as providing intellectualleadership on macro issues such as our WTO obligations. We also intend torefocus other ministries to really deliver the goods.


Therefore, I was delighted to hear last week that the Federal Government hasembraced a very small part of that idea with the recent trimming down of theministries. I give them credit for taking that first step. However, as Ihave said before, I will not run an OBJ-lite government. No! I will leadNigerians in a different reformist path. For example, on government reform,our focus is different. I am not interested in simply saying, lets reducethe number of ministries.


I want to make the agencies of government work better for every citizen. Iam not interested in shuffling names on a letterhead, changing “culture andtourism” to “tourism and culture.” Giving a car a new coat of paint withoutretuning the engine will not make it run better. I want our ministries tobe smart, dynamic and result oriented. I want our ministries to befountains of ideas, and experts at translating these into meaningfulimprovements in peoples’ lives.


My campaign team and I have spoken extensively about some of the changes wewill make in how government agencies support entrepreneurial activity.Other areas we want to change include changing how work is done. Today, agreat deal of inefficiency, mistakes and emotional pain suffered by ourcitizens proceed from the fact that we as a country do not use many timesaving devices. For example, the files of most services provided tocitizens are still on paper and scattered over the country. If we createdelectronic files for everything from tax filing to passports, we wouldtransform how we work.


The infrastructure to start that process exists or is being built. Globacomand other companies are building long distance fiber optic and wirelessnetworks. Zenith and others are working hard to build cheaper computers.We also have a lot of exciting software development work being done by smallcompanies across Nigeria. I expect that as our power supply situationstabilizes, over the next 3-5 years, we will combine these developments inpublic-private partnerships to drive a change in how government serves thecitizen. That is one of many elements of the changes we intend to make ingovernment. I am tremendously confident that we can achieve our vision byappealing to the great spirit of the Nigerian peoples.

Building the Dream, Transforming the Republic

Building the Dream, Transforming the Republic


Many years ago, in an interview, I once jokingly noted to a reporter that the problem with trying to create jobs as a business man in Nigeria is that you must become your own local government. That actually is truer today than ever. As a manager, if you are spending over 60% of your capital on acquiring generators, right out of the gate, you cannot compete globally or locally.


Your cost structure will be unreasonable, and if you don’t have something unique to offer, you will be unable to compete on the basis of differentiation as it is unlikely you will have the capital to invest in R&D for innovation. Therefore, your products will get to Onitsha or Kano market at a disadvantage to competitors from China, Brazil or the United States. If you cannot move your inventory, you will not be able to stay in business long and therefore will be forced to shutdown. We have seen this cycle repeated in sector after sector, leading to massive job losses in Kaduna’s textile industry, and from manufacturing firms from Awka to Ibadan.


What can we do to solve this issue? Fundamentally, what I as president and leader have to understand is what barriers do Nigerian companies face, and how best can I address these? Some of these barriers I know from talking to business leaders, market women, members of local chambers of commerce etc. As we continue dialoguing with Nigerians, we will surface other barriers. Power supply is the primary barrier. Three others I have heard is the quality of transport infrastructure, the health of the work force and the safety of life.

Our transport infrastructure from roads to marine terminals to airports is in awful shape, resulting in a journey from Benin that should take 45 minutes, requiring 4 hours if lucky. That represents a profound economic and emotional loss to society.
A work force stricken with malaria or laid low by tuberculosis or worse, HIV positive is a challenge. While the employer may want to help, doing so for employer will be a significant burden especially if they are a small company.
The challenge of law and order is another issue. Being able to travel home safely after a long day at work is a condition most peoples in other societies take for granted. Our families need to be safe on the road and at home.


My strategy therefore is to focus the first 2 years of our government on fixing these problems. Let me illustrate with 2 examples:


Increase Electricity Supply from 5,000 MW to 55,000MW: We will create a significant process to add another 50,000 megawatts of power to Nigeria. Using a combination of private investors and the foreign reserves to guarantee credit lines, we will create the flow of capital necessary to build out these power stations, the transmission lines and local distribution. Our target is 5 times the current government’s target because we firmly believe that Nigeria’s economy is repressed today. Once we address a number of the other issues, we expect to see a dramatic increase in the demand for products from fridges to TVs to computers, which will significant increase demand for electricity. As the Boys Scouts motto suggests, we will be prepared for the future.


Create Universal Health Care: Second, we will change Nigeria’s healthcare strategy, and push to create a national health plan system in which the government creates a national healthcare budget funded with taxes and other revenues. Each citizen irrespective of age will then be able to obtain care at both private and public hospitals, with government billed for the service. Government will contract with providers in a competitive process to serve these citizens, in the process creating a model of public-private cooperation to solve a major public policy issue. In addition, we will take other steps such as increasing spend on malaria prevention and resuming DDT spraying across the country to kill the mosquito in its breeding stage.


With the resolution of these types of broad barriers to economic growth and job creation, our companies can then focus on identifying what they are best at and what markets to compete in. It is at this level that our revitalized federal and regional agencies can now partner with groups of companies, chambers of commerce, metropolitan economic development agencies etc.


For example, I imagine that the industry association of growers of fresh vegetables would come to us and say, we want to export Irish potatoes, cucumbers and cabbage to the European Union. What will be our advantage in other to compete against producers in Kenya and Chile? We will then work with them to co-fund a strategic study to determine for example, what is it those customers in Europe value (e.g. freshness, year round services), and what is required to deliver those (e.g. direct cargo flights, relationships with supermarkets in Europe, organic food certification etc). Once we know the specific answers having jointly determined these, the Federal Government can then provide targeted support e.g. technical assistance on securing certification from the European Union and improvements in airport cargo infrastructure.


I hope that gives you a sense of the type of ideas driven and responsive government I intend to lead in May 2007. Please join me in imagining the possibility, and then creating it.

A Return to the 1963 Principles?

A Return to the 1963 Principles?


I was delighted to read the strong views my friend Governor Turaki holds regarding constitutional amendments after May 2007. Turaki is a fellow presidential candidate and his intervention on a number of issues dear to me is welcome. Turaki suggested that we abolish the office of the Vice President and instead replace it with a Prime Minister. He also supported an idea which I have long championed: fiscal independence of the federating unit.


I will challenge Turaki and Nigeria’s political elites to go a few steps further and review the independence era and 1963 constitution. I have often described our founding fathers as wise men whose genius in designing a political system that respected the rights of individuals and our various nationality groups, while creating healthy competition for ideas, is often underappreciated. By encouraging the federating regions to make different choices, it ensured that the country would at a comprehensive level, actually work for all.


As president, I intend to go to Nigerians and ask them the question: do you want to return to the 1963 principles as a philosophical basis for governing our society? I imagine that should Nigerians say “Yes,” a revised parliamentary system will be based on our now familiar 6 geo-strategic zone formula, or a revised structure, based on redesigning the current 36 state system. More important than the actual count of federating members is the division of roles and responsibilities.


I believe that revenues should be primarily devoted to the region in which it was developed and taxes paid into federal coffers to fund joint responsibilities such as defense, foreign affairs, immigration etc. By creating a federation based on the idea that healthy competition can actually empower Nigerians, we can then refocus our efforts. For example, then, the great peoples of Plateau can ask the revitalized Ministry of Commerce to co-fund a study to help them identify markets in which competitive advantage can be built. Why Commerce you ask? As president, I will lead the transformation of the Ministry of Commerce and other federal agencies to focus them on spurring enterprise. Their work will be focused on understanding the various barriers to the competitiveness of Nigerian companies, large and small, and helping these companies and their host communities fix them.


Such targeted intervention for example can then support a potential vision for Plateau e.g. becoming the center of 3 major sources of income: an upgraded, environmentally friendly tin mining industry, a niche, organic agriculture market focused on developing wine, and ecotourism. Imagine such an approach replicated across our major metropolitan areas, each unique, each differentiated against global competitors, and each reliant on a work force of skilled persons, who are well compensated, and you will see the type of Nigeria I want to help create. Such a Nigeria, built on the integrity of her peoples and the hard work of the many will be prosperous and magnanimous to all her sons and daughters wherever they are.

Police Barracks As Symbol

No symbol better captures the state of our police force than the quality of its barracks.  If you take a walk around any major police barracks anywhere in Nigeria, you will immediately be struck by the run down buildings, paint peeling off them, many lacking in water and good sanitation, and generally always overcrowded.  Into small 1 or 2 rooms flats is a family of a father and wife, and maybe 3-5 children.  Those living conditions are deplorable and speak volumes about how well as a society and leaders we understand what is needed to motivate those on whose shoulders such a great burden of responsibility is placed.  Put differently, the quality of their lives is a leading indicator of the deeper crisis in our society.

Under our new dispensation, we will change Nigeria's understanding and approach to the security of life.  The change will come because my administration in reforming the police and the broad administration of justice will focus on making sure we treat police officers as human beings.  Police officers are men and women like you and I; they are our sons and daughters, cousins of our neighbor Mr. Adewale, or friends with our bosom buddy, Musa.  No reform of the police, no matter how cleverly designed can ignore the fact that these officers have families.  No reform can also ignore the fact that these officers when cheated out of their salaries and allowances, will seek out ways to survive.  No reform can ignore the fact that these are people who want a career in which they will be professionally and personally fulfilled.  No reform will succeed if we fail to give our officers the right to the Nigerian dream, a right to which all Nigerians should have an equal access.

Therefore, my approach to reform will be different from that of any other presidential candidate because I will place the men and women of the force at the heart of the reform.  The root cause of our law and order problem is that we have forgotten that it is people who will implement our commitment to law and order.  Without a focus on who is enforcing the law and the quality of life and service for those enforcers, it is clear that we will not get the results we all desire.  As president, I will address the systemic root causes of poor law enforcement.  My campaign has identified a series of integrated solutions that will together create leading edge results for Nigerians.  These results will fulfill what I have promised to Nigerians: security of life, property, and food.

The neglect symbolized by the run down barracks will be addressed by treating police officers as members of our community.  So, we will create a special federally guaranteed mortgage program that on the first anniversary of joining the force, an officer will be qualified to use to purchase a home in his or her community.  In addition to our proposed universal health insurance and education program for all Nigerians, we will change the pressures facing our officers at home, so they can focus on being the best officers they can be.  Second, we will change how police officers work by giving them more resources than they have had in the history of law enforcement.  We will double the size of the force from over 300,000 to over 700,000 by 2012.  We will motivate the police to take more effective action in areas we believe are critical to crime prevention.   We will help the police develop new capabilities including better forensic labs, a national crime database, a new fleet of patrol vehicles, new patrol strategies, and new conditions of service.  We will also create new rewards and incentives to bolster the best officers who choose to make the force a long term career.  By the end of our reform, the police force will be unrecognizable from today and for the better.

My views on education

Please click on the video link below for a 5 minutes video on my views on Education" -



In the coming weeks, we will release more videos on other policy areas. The next one will be on Infrastructure. Stay tuned.

The Rule Of Law

The Rule Of Law.

These days as I drive from one campaign stop to another, I am blessed with the gift of moments of quietude. At these times my mind is preoccupied with the struggle by our body polity to accept the rule of law as an irrefragable cannon upon which we must build our society. There will always be those who seek to supplant the will of the people from the moment votes are cast right through the life of a stolen mandate. We do not for a second believe that those who have come to power through fraud will lead with the rule of the law as a guiding principle. Maverick fraudsters they may be, they however need to re invent new tricks to survive in office. The curious happenings in Oyo, Ekiti, Anambra and Plateau states are the bizarre shenanigans of politicians who must pull an end run on the constitution in order to archive their personal political and financial goals. At times they have been sly, operating before dawn, sometimes from outside their states. At other times subterfuge has given way to outright brigandage as they mock and rape the constitution.

I think of the words of a dear friend who reminds me “ the underlying basis of the rule of law is more due process than the substantive law, yet we lie prostrate in accepting the preeminence of illegalities”. To be sure we have pillagers, plunderers and two bit looters in position of power both in the legislative and in the executive arms of government at local, state and national levels. We the people are glad when they fall from power but at the same time we should be saddened by the preeminence of illegalities as a tool for judicial redress. When we subvert due process for the exigencies of a political goal and the immediacy of the moment, we do lasting harm to our political culture; we enshrine bad habits that will be hard to break in the years ahead. I know why we the people lie prostrate in the face of so much constitutional depravity. It is hard to stand for a principle when that dogma clothes and protects a thief. Some how we must find it within us to rise to a higher level and accept without question certain of these principles in our constitution. These principles include and are not limited to the right of the accused to a fair trial. Our legal system is not perfect and our constitution is far from perfect, but a law, a rule and for that matter the constitution no matter how bad remains the law until due process effects a change.

If our nation is to survive we have to learn to build sustainable institutions that can stand the test of time no matter what government is in power. Nation building should not be run by quixotic ad hoc institutions that operate in fits and starts. Nation building should be a deliberate, thoughtful process with acceptable immutable principles over which no one; no group of persons or political party can ever violate. Where then do we start? A journey of a thousand kilometers we are told begins with one small footstep. We must start by inculcating in our children a deep sense of self worth, and an awareness of their rights as children and as growing adults. We must teach them to be aware of their rights as individuals and to stand up to these rights when these rights are threatened either by older siblings, school prefects, teachers or their elders.
If we are to build a truly democratic society where the law is respected and the rights of man are enshrined we must be prepared to carry out nothing less than a full-scale cultural change.

Dr. Pat Utomi
November 18, 2006