News

ABU professors write Tinubu over ‘looming energy crisis’

Published

5 months ago

July 3, 2024

Naijablitznews

Your Excellency

Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR

President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria

The Visitor

Ahmadu Bello University

Zaria

Sir,

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE VISITOR, PRESIDENT BOLA AHMED TINUBU, GCFR, OVER THE LOOMING ENERGY CRISIS IN AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA

We, the undersigned Nigerian citizens and academic staff of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, wish to forward a complaint over the debilitating energy crisis bedeviling Ahmadu Bello University – given the centrality of electricity supply to university operations – and seek your intervention for its resolution. We take this action out of the conviction that, as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Visitor to the University, Your Excellency is in a position to mediate over the matter especially because the crisis aggravated with the recent high increase in electricity tariff in the country, which ABU in particular, and Nigerian Public Universities in general, cannot afford due to their weak financial position resulting from chronic underfunding.

We also seek Your Excellency’s intervention because even where hard economic realities dictate recourse to commercialization of utilities, educational institutions should be safeguarded from the burden of meeting market-induced pricing, especially where their capacity to do so is highly constrained. As educational institutions of high value to public good, universities should be shielded from the extremities of commercialization.

The Ahmadu Bello University is a first-generation university established by Law [Cap A. 14 of the Federal Laws; The Universities Miscellaneous Provisions (Amendment) Act 2003].

Your Excellency, history and the Nigerian people will bear witness that for over sixty years ABU has served as a major organic driver and facilitator of national development through the production of quality and functional knowledge with sound moral content and the generation of skilled manpower through men and women of all races, nations, gender and creed for all sectors of the society, economy and culture at the national, continental and global levels. The University also attained eminence through its strong support of liberation struggles in Africa and beyond.

You are aware, Sir, that higher education is the backbone of any modern nation state and the marker of its performance, achievements, cultural standards, level of civilization and the prestige it commands in the comity of nations. It was Adam Smith who said that the true wealth of a nation is not gold or silver or a positive balance of trade, but rather its productive citizenry – its human capital in form of skills, knowledge and creativity.

Your Excellency, in today’s knowledge-based world, the Ahmadu Bello University, like other Nigerian universities, can exist, function, and execute its mandate only if such critical enablers of modern university – basic infrastructure for teaching, learning and research, including ICT[1]based substructure, quality manpower, unrestricted energy supply, and high-level funding, are firmly in place. For a developing nation that is yet to build a solid industrial base, the University is a significant national resource that requires the priority attention of government.

As an experienced public figure, Your Excellency knows that in the current knowledge, science and technology driven world, the acquisition of education is the minimal condition for survival and this makes education a basic need. The provision of basic needs to citizens or creating the conditions that enable citizens to meet their basic needs is a fundamental responsibility of government, a sign of good governance and for developing nations a sine qua non of governance.

Yet, it is common knowledge that the economics of education financing is unique, because it is not directly subject to the laws of supply and demand. Researches here in ABU, as elsewhere, have since established the truism that higher education, and indeed education in all its forms, is very expensive in its capital requirements, and exceptionally so in its recurrent expenditure, though very slow, but sure, in yielding returns.

The aforementioned facts imply that wise countries deploy today’s resources for the purposes of tackling the problems of tomorrow and answering the questions of today and of the future.

This is done through massive commitment of national social, financial and human capital. In this regard, no self-respecting nation will justify its education in pure economic terms or by the use of the profit motif argument. Sadly, the commodification of education has been the bane of the policies of successive Nigerian governments, especially since the imposition of the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) in 1986. This trend has steadily negated the utilitarian value of education and demeaned its significance as a necessity in the current competitive world order and our deplorable level of underdevelopment.

Your Excellency, it is our candid view that your government has embraced the neo-liberal, market-oriented reform agenda with uncritical zeal and haste in spite of the high level of stagnation of our economy, the progressive decline of the purchasing power of the national currency, depressed wages, widespread indigence and poverty, stagflation and general insecurity. For educational institutions, other manifest corollaries of these policies include decay, in teaching, learning and research infrastructure, dysfunctional municipal systems and ruinous energy crisis characterized by inadequate supply of electricity coupled with the crippling effects of unsustainable high costs of electricity and of energy in general.

Furthermore, the constant threats, and the actual brazen acts of disconnection of the universities from the national grid by the DISCOs pose an existential peril that the universities live with on daily basis now. The last time, Your Excellency, the DISCO here, in a fit of corporate impunity, disconnected the ABU, the system was left brutally traumatized, injured and paralyzed. The losses were beyond recount. A young doctoral scholar in the sciences, for instance, lost over 1000 painstakingly but systematically sampled bovine cardiac tissue research specimens.

Many other scholars and students had thousands of carefully cultured microbial samples in their laboratories wiped out. More than a thousand households had their precious little foodstuff destroyed. The ABU campuses, during the over one month of imposed total darkness, became desolate; staff, students and families lived like hunter-gatherers, scavenging for firewood and water from bushes, dirty wells and streams under heightened susceptibility to waterborne epidemies.

It is beyond dispute that Nigerian universities are not, by any law, statute, or ethical or socio[1]economic definition, profit-making or revenue-generating outfits. They are, however, now rendered unviable and unable to fend for themselves the potential for imminent collapse from mere electricity bills – and this being only one of the many fundamental concerns. Ahmadu Bello University, for instance, with an average total annual budgetary overhead grant of N150 million only, now requires an astounding but unaffordable N3.6 billion (monthly average of N300 million) to settle its annual electricity bill, at the cost of N206/kWh per unit of the so[1]called band A. For a university that requires about 7megaWatts of electricity, in addition to providing other energy costs per month, the financial implication is far beyond its capacity.

Your Excellency, even if the market-oriented principle of ‘cost-sharing’ between government and parents/wards is a viable option, the inability of the University to mobilize adequate financial and material support entails that it transfers the huge cost to students by hiking up fees and charges. If the N3.6 billion were to be transferred to the University’s 50,000 students, the current municipal charges alone will have to be hiked up by at least a rate of 500%.

Not only is this sum impossible to pay by virtually all students but it also negates the position of your government on the matter. You would recall, Sir, that at its inception, your government expressly forbade the Senates and Councils of Federal universities to hike up registration fees for the poor, beleaguered Nigerian students and their parents. Some of us hailed your government then as having the courage to acknowledge the suffering of the Nigerian parents and their wards. In any event, student charges are specifically meant to offset the cost of services in the learning and living campus environment and cannot be used to cover for these energy costs which justly belong to overhead grants that government should but has not, ironically, been responsible for.

Your Excellency, the Nigerian society, its developmental agendas and such of their key enablers as education, industrialization and national integration are in deep crisis and the country has reached a decision point that require critical and somber rethinking by the people and the nation, with you, as the leader. It is imperative that we decide if we truly want to have national public universities and the quality of universities that we want. But the one decision we cannot make at this existential moment is one of logical impossibility and delusion; that is, of having universities but not having to adequately fund or support them to thrive.

We need not remind Your Excellency, however, that the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, that you swore to uphold, had defined education, in unequivocal terms, as a public good, thus, prioritizing investment in public education is a cardinal constitutional objective.

In view of the foregoing, Your Excellency, we urge you, as the Visitor to all Federal Universities and the Head of State and Federal Government, to take an urgent and decisive action by making the Federal Government bear the cost of electricity supply as a form of overhead grant to all the Federal Universities in the country. Alternatively, Your Excellency, the Federal Government, as PART OWNER – with 49% stake in GENCOs and DISCOs and continually investing more in them – as well as being the guarantor of social balance and social security in the land, could direct the DISCOs to provide unrestricted supply of electricity to all Nigerian universities in return for some tax credits. On the other hand, Your Excellency, the government could also charge the DISCOs to create a new dedicated social tariff band with lower rates that universities can afford given their present funding realities.

We are convinced, Your Excellency, that your government could accomplish this with all the necessary exigency. This will not only not hurt any sector of the economy, society or national life but that it will constitute an important first step and a signal that your government can and will address the myriads of problems in our tertiary institutions.

With regards,

Cc:ABU, academic staff, Open letter, Bola Tinubu, Looming energy crisis’

The President, Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria

The Speaker, House of Representatives of the Federal Republic of Nigeria

Chairmen, Senate & House Committees on Tertiary Institutions

The National Security Adviser

The Hon Minister, FMOE

His Eminence, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Saad Abubakar III

His Highness, the Emir of Zazzau, Ambassador Ahmed Nuhu Bamalli

The President Inter-Religious Council of Nigeria

The Chancellor, ABU, Zaria

The Chairman & Members, ABU Governing Council

The Chairman, Committee of Pro Chancellors of Nigerian Universities

The Vice Chancellor, ABU, Zaria

The Chairman, Committee of Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Universities

The President, NLC

The President, TUC

The President, ASUU

The President, SSANU

The President, NAAT

The President, NASU

The President, NANS

This story’s headline has been updated to reflect that only professors are involved in the letter, not the academic staff

News

Just in: Dangote Refinery Offers To Supply 60M Litres of Petrol To IPMAN Weekly

Published

10 minutes ago

November 18, 2024

Naijablitznews

Dangote Petroleum Refinery has offered to supply 60 million litres of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, to the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria weekly, which translates to 240 million litres monthly.

Dangote Refinery has offered to supply 60 Million Litres of Petrol to IPMAN weekly.

This Nigeria news platform gathered from the association that the refinery agreed to give 60 million litres of PMS to IPMAN members weekly, depending on patronage.

This came as it was gathered that the $20bn Lekki-based refinery is aiming to raise billions of dollars to import crude oil and increase production.

Also on Sunday, oil dealers stated that petrol prices were declining following the competition occasioned by the deregulation of the sector, especially as the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and other marketers imported over two billion litres of PMS in 42 days.

In an interview with The PUNCH, IPMAN National Publicity Secretary, Chinedu Ukadike, said members of the association can lift any quantity of PMS allocated to them by the Dangote refinery, stressing that independent marketers were the ones distributing the majority of the fuel imported into the country.

Recall that the association announced recently that it had signed an agreement with Dangote to lift PMS directly from the refinery without a middleman.

Giving an update, Ukadike said, “We are going to off-take the product in millions of litres. Before now, most of the imported products in Nigeria were distributed through IPMAN. So we can off-take the products, no matter the millions of litres that are produced.”

Asked whether there is an agreed volume that IPMAN would off-take from Dangote once independent marketers start loading petrol from the plant, the National Publicity Secretary replied, “We can take from 10 million litres and above and Dangote has offered to give us over 60 million litres depending on our patronage.

“The 60 million litres is to be given weekly. And we can take and distribute it across the country once we start lifting the product from the refinery.”

On when IPMAN would start lifting the product, Ukadike stated that this would be made public after both parties had concluded discussions on the deal.

He expressed confidence that the direct supply would begin before the end of November.

“We are finalising discussions. You know the meeting between IPMAN and the Dangote refinery was held last week and documentation is in process. So, there are still a few pieces of documentation that we are doing now. Once they are sorted, we will off-take PMS from the plant.

“This is going to happen before the end of this month. The Dangote Group has assured us that even if we want to start taking products from today, we should start,” he added.

Ukadike spoke further, “IPMAN has gathered its members and we have developed a Special Purpose Vehicle to off-take the products from the refinery. So, the issue of individuals going to buy one or two trucks has gone. IPMAN is now going to be a major distributor and our money will be guaranteed.

“The time has gone when some dealers will tell us they have products when they actually do not, and they will lock up our money in their system. So, we are taking this as a very effective measure to be able to ensure that the distribution value chain is efficient.”

Prices drop

Both IPMAN and major marketers confirmed that the pump prices of petrol have started reducing in many parts due to the competition that the deregulation of the downstream sector has caused.

The IPMAN spokesman said the agreement between IPMNAN and Dangote is gradually pushing down the price of PMS.

“By just the announcement that IPMAN and Dangote have met and are ready to transact business, the prices of products have crashed. You would have noticed the drop in prices by N10, N15, or so, and this is due to competition.

“Independent marketers are no longer buying from middlemen. We are going to be buying directly from the producer. So, the competition is setting in. I also want to tell you that before the end of this year, the price will not be as high as what you see now.

“You can see how our meeting with Dangote has significantly removed about N10 from the prices of refined petroleum products. It is a good development. We have not even started. Remember I once told you that prices would drop once IPMAN started lifting from Dangote,” Ukadike stated.

Also confirming the drop in prices, a major oil marketer stated that this was due to the deregulation of the downstream oil sector.

“People are not noticing that prices are going down, primarily because there are no big announcements. Deregulation is in full swing and competition is the order of the day,” the major oil marketer, who spoke in confidence due to lack of authorisation to speak on the matter, stated.

When told that the cost of petrol was still above N1,000/litre and was N1,070/litre in filling stations operated by his company, the dealer replied, “Last week it was N1,080 (in some filling stations) if you were observant.

“You may not see N900; that is below cost. Just stop expecting a permanent fixed price. It can come down and it can go up.”

Deregulation opens imports

While IPMAN has declared its resolve to patronise the Dangote refinery, some major marketers and NNPC are going ahead with the importation of refined products, though they patronise the plant when necessary.

Our correspondent reported on Saturday that within 42 days, the NNPC and other players imported 1.5 million metric tonnes of PMS, 414,018.764 metric tonnes of diesel, and 13,500 metric tonnes of jet fuel.

This is worth about N3tn or $1.8bn. One metric tonne of PMS is equal to 1,341 litres. This means 1.5 million metric tonnes represents 2.011 billion litres of petrol.

The importation of petroleum products continues even as the Federal Government tries to stop it through the naira-for-crude deal with Dangote and other local refineries.

The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries said in a recent report that PMS imports into Nigeria surged in October compared to September.

The Dangote refinery began the sale of petrol in September, but it appears this has yet to reduce fuel imports, especially with the sector’s full deregulation.

A document that provided details of imported refined products during the review period showed that companies like Bovas, AA Rano, Matrix, Fatgbems, Deepwater, Raj, T-Time, Rainoil, Prudent, Chisco, Nepal, AYM Shafa, Northwest, Shorelink, and others received petrol from different vessels in Lagos, Warri, Calabar, and Port Harcourt.

In October, NNPCL and its partners imported a total of 994,446.438 metric tonnes of PMS, with Lagos receiving 555,121.617 metric tonnes, Warri 281,100 metric tonnes, Port Harcourt 94,224.821 metric tonnes, and Calabar 64,000 metric tonnes.

A total of 285,518.764 metric tonnes of diesel was also imported, with Lagos receiving 162,500 metric tonnes, Warri 58,500 metric tonnes, Port Harcourt 56,018.764 metric tonnes, and Calabar 8,500 metric tonnes.

Between November 1 and November 11; a further 358,083 metric tonnes of PMS, 112,500 metric tonnes of diesel, and 13,500 metric tonnes of aviation fuel were discharged at Nigerian ports.

N10bn equalisation fund

Meanwhile, the independent marketers have appealed to the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority to pay their N10bn Petroleum Equalisation Fund after many failed promises.

Recently, the NMDPRA promised to pay N10bn to IPMAN members during a meeting with the Department of State Services and stakeholders in the downstream sector, including the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited.

In October, the National Vice President of IPMAN, Hammed Fashola, told our correspondent that the intervention of the DSS solved many of the problems facing marketers.

Fashola also confirmed that through the intervention, the NMDPRA agreed to pay the association’s outstanding N10bn.

However, barely a month later, the agency has yet to fulfill its promise.

Before deregulation, the Petroleum Equalisation Fund was set up by the Nigerian government to reimburse petroleum marketers for any losses they suffered arising from the sale of petroleum products at uniform prices throughout Nigeria. It was a form of subsidy managed by the defunct Petroleum Equalisation Fund Management Board.

Formed in 2021, the NMDPRA encompasses a merger of three defunct regulatory agencies: the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency; the Petroleum Equalisation Fund Management Board; and the Midstream and Downstream Divisions of the Department of Petroleum Resources.

After President Bola Tinubu announced an end to the fuel subsidy regime, the Federal Government closed down the Petroleum Equalisation Fund, in line with the provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act.

Meetings were held with marketers in 2023 to reconcile accounts and pay those still owed by the government.

However, it was learnt that members of IPMAN still have an outstanding N10bn with the Federal Government.

Speaking with our correspondent, Fashola recalled that promises were made but not fulfilled.

“Our N10bn PEF outstanding is still with the government. They promised to pay us but they have not.

“That money was what the government used to pay to marketers to ensure we sell petrol at a uniform price. For example, if we all buy petrol at the same place, we cannot sell it at the same price due to the cost of transportation.

“The cost of selling fuel in the north will be expensive because of how much it will cost to convey the product to the far north. So, the Federal Government set up the PEF to pay the cost so that we can all sell petrol at the same rate. This was before the sector was deregulated,“ Fashola said.

He added that after President Bola Tinubu deregulated PMS in 2023, the equalisation fund was stopped, but IPMAN members still have N10bn unpaid by the defunct board.

IPMAN Publicity Secretary, Ukadike, said some marketers need the money to pay back their loans.

Ukadike appealed to the NMDPRA to ensure prompt payment of the N10bn for ease of doing business.

“We appreciate the NMDPRA for the intervention to pay the N10bn to marketers. This will ease marketers’ efforts to be in business and to buy more petroleum products. It will also encourage them to distribute petroleum products nationwide,” Ukadike said.

He disclosed that banks are running after some marketers over unpaid loans, pleading that the fund be paid soon.

“The banks are on us. So, if we get this money, it will help to ease the difficulties marketers are facing and also pay banks their loans. So we appeal that they (NMDPRA) should release this fund as quickly as possible,” the spokesperson requested.

The NMDPRA has not reacted to the matter. The spokesperson of the agency, George Ene-Ita, has yet to reply to messages seeking information about the fund.

Dangote seeks loan

The Dangote refinery is aiming to raise billions of dollars to import crude oil and increase production, according to new reports.

This comes despite the launch of the naira-for-crude deal last month, which resulted in the initial supply of four cargoes to the refinery.

A report by Financial Times, quoting officials familiar with the matter, on Sunday said the Chairman of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, is in talks with commercial lenders, development banks, oil traders and other industry participants to raise funds for crude supplies to turn into refined products.

Another official familiar with the matter said it would cost about $2bn every 90 days to secure a minimum supply of 300,000 b/d.

According to the report, the refinery needs to secure more crude to reach the refinery’s capacity of 650,000 barrels per day for the project tagged as a “game changer” for the country.

Earlier this year, a senior executive at the group, Devakumar Edwin, said the refinery bought crude from the US and Brazil and, in July, was in talks with African suppliers such as Libya and Angola to ramp up production.

Recall that last week, the refinery signed an off-taker agreement with IPMAN to lift petrol, diesel and other products directly from the refinery.

The plant began producing jet fuel and naphtha at the start of the year and petrol in September, raising hopes that Nigeria could finally end decades of reliance on imported fuel.

The report further noted that investors have expressed frustration at Dangote’s inability to gain a steady supply of crude, according to one banker involved in the fundraising.

Another added that there was also a major concern among potential financiers over exposure to Nigeria’s currency, the naira, which has fallen sharply following two devaluations over the past year.

“The refinery may never make a profit in real terms,” said the second banker. “It was built over budget, and the naira, which is a major currency of future revenue, has devalued massively.”

The Africa Finance Corporation, a pan-African development lender based in Nigeria that is already an investor in the project, is one of the institutions involved in the talks to raise money.

The AFC led a financing round in December for funds to source the initial capital to get the refinery up and running as a commercial operation.

Last month, the government, through the Technical Sub-Committee on Domestic Sales of Crude Oil in Local Currency, agreed to supply the refinery crude in naira for six months in the first instance, pending further review.

The deal will last six months in the first phase because crude oil, being an international product, is priced in dollars, sources confirmed to PUNCH.

But stakeholders including Dangote, have questioned NNPC’s ability to supply the crude the refinery needs because it has sold significant quantities of oil on forward contracts.

Even if NNPC comes through with the crude, Dangote would need another 185,000 b/d, or more than 5mn barrels a month, to meet his target of 550,000 b/d by January and more still once the refinery reaches full capacity.

NNPC has a 7.2 per cent stake in the refinery, which was watered down from 20 per cent after it failed to pay the balance of a deal worth $2.7bn. NNPC paid $1bn upfront in cash in 2021 and the other $1.76bn was supposed to be paid for in crude supplies.

Dangote Industries declined to comment further on the fundraising or the industrialist’s talks with the president.

NNPC did not respond to requests for comment on the fundraising or meeting.

The AFC declined to comment on the discussions over fundraising.

News

Tinubu fires DG names replacement (photos)

Published

20 minutes ago

November 18, 2024

Kayode Sanni-Arewa

By Kayode Sanni-Arewa

President Bola Tinubu has fired Nura Sani Kangiwa as Director-General of the National Institute for Hospitality and Tourism (NIHOTOUR).

Recall that Sani Kangiwa was appointed NIHOTOUR DG in September 2020 by former president, Muhammadu Buhari.

Though no official reason was provided for the dismissal, it is possible that his tenure had come to an end.

However, in his place, President Tinubu on Thursday last week appointed Abisoye Fagade as the new Director-General of NIHOTOUR.

Dr. Abisoye Fagade is a marketing communication professional.

He is the founder and managing director of Sodium Brand Solutions.

President Tinubu urged the newly appointed officer to discharge his duties with dedication, patriotism, and excellence.

News

Banditry! Police Officer feared K!lled As Gunmen Attack Lawmaker’s Convoy in Abia State

Published

23 minutes ago

November 18, 2024

Kayode Sanni-Arewa

By Kayode Sanni-Arewa

A policeman attached to the member representing Isialangwa North and South Federal Constituency of Abia State, Hon. Ginger Onwusibe has been feared dead.

The incident happened around 9pm at Ubakala Umuahia South.

According to a police source, gunmen dressed in black and wearing police-style armor jackets had blocked the convoy of the House of Representatives member with a Toyota Corolla.

The lawmaker was not in the vehicle when the incident happened but at least two police officers and a driver were in the vehicle.

The gunmen opened fire on the escorts after they identified themselves as police officers.

In the process, a police officer was killed, while another officer was injured. The attackers fled the scene, and the police station at Ubakala responded with gunfire.

Attempts to contact the Abia State Police Command’s Public Relations Officer (PPRO) was unsuccessful. Police sources said officers of the command are on the trail of the suspects it believes are kidnappers.