CONTENTSAPRIL 2021 vOL. 4 NO. 04

INDUSTRY

5 Nigeria’s March Rig Count Diminishes by One

6 NLNG Train 7: SAIPEM Accused of Sabotaging Nigerian Content

10 High PMS Price, Expensive Subsidy Bill: Tough Choices Before Nigeria

13 RefineriesRepair:PostRehab Operations, Ownership Raise Concerns

16 Hope Alive for $2.6bn AKK Gas Pipeline Project

19 Global Oil Demand Expected to Spike in 2021 — IEA

38 APRIL SHORT TAKES

INTERVIEW30 ‘Decade of Gas’ will be

HighlyBeneficialforNigeria — Dr. Nnadi

GUEST COLUMN34 Fiscal Provisions In

2020 PIB

ENTERTAINMENT40 Despite Legislation,

Authorities Allow LGBT Flock Nigerian Streets

COLUMN: HEALTH RENDEZVOUS42 Why it is Important to

Maintain Qualitative Sleep

Star of the Industry

21Engr. Sarki AuwaluDirector/CEO, Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR)

COLUMN: ROLLING WHEELS44 Using Motorsport to

Fight Crime in Nigeria

AVIATION46 How 5 Airports

Will Boost Nigeria’s Continental Trade

PROPERTY48 Worries as Insecurity

Threatens Property Investments in Nigeria

COLUMN: WOMEN’S CORNER50 Incredible Nigerian

Women in Men’s Places SPORTS51 BASKETBALL: We Will

Not Beg Anyone to Consider Playing for Nigeria―MusaKida

52 European Super League Fallout: City Leads Premier League Teams’ Exodus

COVER STORY

26Can NigeriaFly on Gas?

What informed Nigeria’s decla-ration of 2020

as a year of Gas was un-doubtedly the nation’s pro-longed over dependence on oil, which many see as a curse rather than a blessing. To properly kick start the plan, President Muhammadu Buhari, on Monday, March 29, formal-ly launched what has now come to be known as the ‘Gas Revolution Era’, with a pledge that the Feder-al Government would not hesitate to fully take ad-vantage of the enormous gas resources in the coun-try. The Buhari-led admin-istration’s determination to tap the untapped gas resources in the country is a very welcome devel-opment, which could be-come a game changer in the sector.

Most noteworthy is the rising global demand for cleaner energy sources. While we applaud the Fed-eral Government’s bold

M.B. UsmanNB. Feel free to send in your views and have your say @ 007mbu@gmail.com

Again, reports of pos-sible fuel price hike have continued to dominate the media space, but the Federal Government has dismissed such reports, assuring that there was no cause for alarm. The in-trigues, speculations and assurances are compre-hensively captured in this edition.

Also, in this edition are our regulars: Columns, In-terviews, Entertainment, Health, Aviation and Sports for your reading relaxation. Do have a wonderful time reading.

step in this regard, by de-claring 2020 as Year of Gas, the move would also afford the nation a golden opportunity to exploit the enormous gas potentials in the country. But ‘Can Nigeria Fly on Gas?’ is the rhetoric question posed by this edition’s cover story.

Publisher/Editor-in-Chief

Deputy Editor

Associate Editor

Managing Editor

Graphic Consultant

Circulation Manager

Online Editor

Photo Editor

Legal Adviser

Business Dev. Executives

Contributors

Musa Bashir Usman

Fred Ojiegbe

Eddy Ochigbo

Teddy Nwanunobi

Theresa Ogbonna

Danlami Nasir Isah

Saidu Abubakar

Bashir Bello Dollars

Lamir Kasim Idris (Esq.)

Adeniyi Onifade (South)Abdulkarim Sani (North)

Gideon OsakaAsmau Abubakar

info@thevaluechainng.com @thevaluechainng.com thevaluechainng.com

HeadOffice:1-2 Abu-Rayyan Street, New NDC Layout, Kaduna. Email: valuechainng@gmail.com Contact: 08032324370, 09071492222

AbujaLiaisonOffice:SF 3, Rhema Mall, Ahmadu Bello Way, Opp. NAF Conference & Suites, Abuja.

4

Nigeria’s rig count for the month of March witnessed reduction by one, having re-

corded six as against seven record-ed in February, data from the Or-ganisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Monthly Oil Mar-ket report (MOMR) showed.

On the contrary, OPEC rig count increased by one, as its March re-sult showed 355 against 354 post-ed in February.

However, world rig count suf-fered reduction by 42, having post-ed 1,339 in March against 1,381 it posted in February.

Among the 13–member OPEC, Algeria led the gainers’ pack with its plus three rig count, having posted 25 against 23 it recorded within the period under review.

Iraq also had plus three, as it posted 34 against 31 it posted with-in the period under review.

Saudi Arabia, with its minus three, led the losers’ pack, as its rig count showed 60 against 63 it post-ed within the period review.

Kuwait has minus one, as it re-corded 27 against 28 it posted with-in the period under review.

Eight OPEC members had their rig counts unchanged, including: Angola, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Iran, Libya, United Arab Emir-ates and venezuela recorded 4, 0, 0, 1, 117, 12, 44 and 25, respectively.

As regards non OPEC members, the United States has plus 11, as it recorded 408 in March against 397 it recorded the previous month.

Canada had a huge loss of 63, as it recorded 108 in March against 171 it recorded the previous month.

Mexico had minus 2, as its rig count for March showed 44 against 46 it recorded in February.

Similarly, Norway had its rig count dip by four, as it posted 14 against 18 it posted within the pe-riod under review.

The United Kingdom had its rig count unchanged, as it remained at nine.

The Organisation for Econom-ic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Americas had a huge loss of 55, having recorded 561 in March against 616 it recorded in February.

OECD Europe had minus one, as its rig count showed 55 in March against 56 recorded in February.

OECD Asia Pacific had minustwo, having recorded 18 as against 18 it recorded within the period un-der review.

Non-OPEC 2020 Supply Revised up by 42tbpd - MOMR Report

According to the MOMR report, Non-OPEC liquids supply for 2020 is revised up by 42,000 barrels per day (tbpd), and estimated to have declined by 2.52 million (mbpd) year-on-year (yoy) to average 62.89 mbpd.

US crude and condensate output declined by 0.94 mbpd yoy to aver-age 11.3 mbpd, while liquids pro-duction dropped by 0.8 mb/d y-o-y to average 17.62 mbpd.

Oil supply also declined in Russia by 1.0 mbpd to average 10.59 mbpd.

Moreover, production declined in Canada, Colombia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, the UK and Azerbaijan, while oil supply is estimated to have increased in Norway, Brazil, China and Guyana.

Non-OPEC liquids supply for 2021 is also revised up by 24 tbpd to average 63.83 mbpd.

In terms of growth, however, it was revised down by a slight 18 tbpd, and is now forecast to grow by 0.93 mbpd yoy.

The pandemic-driven crash in oil prices in 2020 caused investors to shy away from the shale industry, forcing companies to look at asset sales and mergers for survival.

However, while most drillers con-tinue to focus on paying off debt and returning capital to sharehold-ers instead of pursuing growth, higher prices could translate into higher production levels.

The drilling and completion trend indicates upcoming robust monthly

growth.Active drilling rigs in the US

climbed by 13 rigs, reaching 430 rigs for the 17th increase in the past 19 weeks.

The US liquids supply growth forecast remained unchanged at 0.16 mbpd.

However, tight crude output is forecast to decline yoy by 0.1 mbpd, while uncertainties persist.

Activity and spending in US oil fields are rising this year as theindustry recovers from last year’s Coronavirus (COvID-19) pandem-ic-driven price crash, according to energy company executives polled by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dal-las in a recent survey.

Nevertheless, following a drop of $144 billion yoy in capital expen-diture in oil and gas upstream (ex-ploration and production) sectors in non-OPEC countries, upstream capital spending in 2021 is expect-ed to remain well below 2019 levels.

The main drivers for supply growth for 2021 are expected to be Canada, the US, Norway and Brazil.

OPEC non gas liquids (NGLs) and non-conventional liquids pro-duction in 2020 is estimated to have declined by 0.13 mbpd yoy at 5.13 mbpd.

For 2021, OPEC NGLs are fore-cast to grow by 0.08 mbpd yoy to average 5.21 mbpd.

OPEC crude oil production in March was up by 0.20 mbpd month-on-month (mom) to average 25.04 mbpd, according to second-ary sources.

Preliminary non-OPEC liquids output in March, including OPEC NGLs, is estimated to have in-creased by 0.93 mbpd mom, mainly in the US, due to production recov-ery after heavy declines in February.

As a result, preliminary data in-dicated that global oil supply in-creased in March by 1.22 mbpd mom to average 93.23 mbpd, down by 7.22 mbpd yoy.

Industry 04:21

Nigeria’s March Rig Count Diminishes by One

–By Fred Ojiegbe

5

Industry 04:21

–By Teddy Nwanunobi

A Milan-based company, Saipem, has been alleged to be sabotaging the Nige-

rian Local Content (NLC) Act in the construction of the $7 billion Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas(NLNG) Train 7.

It was alleged that the Italian company, who in joint venture with Daewoo E&C Co. Ltd and Chiyoda Corporation (SCD Jv), have been awarded by Nigeria LNG Limited the contracts for the Engineering, Procurement & Construction of the Nigeria LNG Train 7 Project to be executed at Bonny Island LNG complex for an overall value above 4 billion USD with Saipem’s share amounts to around 2.7 billion USD, does not intend to get major package items and major value for Nigeri-an vendors on the project.

“What I have seen developing here is that Saipem (does) not, by any means, wish Nigeria well, especially on the Train 7 Project. The approved vendors’ list and the local content plan (are) clear on materials.

“All non-cryogenic materials, such as; air coolers, gas compres-sors and associated materials, gas turbines, electric heat exchangers, flares, diesel generator, various classes of valves, metering sys-tem, cooling water chilling pack-age and other related materials are to be imported 100 per cent by Nigerian vendors,” a source based in Milan alleged.

It could be recalled that the $7 billion Train 7 NLNG project was awarded to Saipem, Chiyoda and Daewoo Joint venture (known as SCD Jv) in December 2019.

NLNG Train 7: SAIPEM Accused of Sabotaging Nigerian Content

NCDMB can’t advocate for 100% local content now – Wabote

6

Industry 04:21

How can a Nigerian company (that) is meant to quote for 100 per cent value be quoting less than 10 per cent of the whole package value? This is absolute wickedness.”

Our source further said that Saipem was believed to have cre-ated a system in Milan, where they have split Nigerian 100 per cent scope of work for packages that are completely non-cryogenic.

“Packages like non-cryogenic valves, heat exchangers, pumps, air coolers and other packages which are 100 per cent non-cryo-genic have already been broken down into lots 1 and 2.

“Examples: using Lot 1 for the OEM products with minor value package items for Nigerian vendor, and Lot 2 for direct Purchase Or-der(PO)fromMilanofficetoOEMwith major package items and ma-jor value, a 90:10 ratio – all with same OEM for same product line originally meant to be imported by a Nigerian vendor 100 per cent.

“This is why Nigerian compa-nies can never ever grow, because (these) people are allowed to poke their fingers intoNigerians’ eyes,and call their bluffs,” the interna-tional gas value-chain and LNG expert further disclosed.

Our source urged the appropri-ate authority to act in the interest of the country and its citizens.

“I weep for Nigeria develop-ment in the midst of plenty. In fact, who is monitoring local con-tent on the project. I worked in Brazil years back, and their local content model is unmatched...

“They (Saipem) must not be al-lowed to touch any non-cryogenic materials meant for Nigerian ven-dors.

“As I write, packages like non-cryogenic valves, heat ex-changers, pumps, air coolers and other packages which are 100 per cent non-cryogenic (have) already been broken down into lots 1 and 2 as described above. Everything should be done to stop this rub-bish, and save Nigeria and Nigeri-

ans from endless deprivation and poverty.

“I mean, how can a Nigerian company (that) is meant to quote for 100 per cent value be quot-ing less than 10 per cent of the whole package value? This is ab-solute wickedness, and must be stopped now. I don’t believe this is happening in today’s contem-porary (oil and gas) industry,” the source added.

Efforts made by Valuechain to contact Saipem on the matter includ-ingthroughitsofficialmediachannelmedia.relations@saipem.com, were not immediately successful.

But Stefano Cao, Saipem’s CEO, had in a May 13, 2020 statement from the company announcing Saipem’s award by the Nigeria LNG Limited the contracts for the Engineering, Procurement & Con-struction of the Train 7 Project, said the new project in Nigeria confirmsthecompany’sabilitytobuild solid relationships, qualify-ing Saipem as a global company.

“The investment decision by Nigeria LNG Limited, which in-cludes several important energy companies, demonstrates that natural gas, in whose value chain Saipem has a recognized leader-ship, will be pivotal to the energy transition,” Cao added.

In what seemed like a response

to the issue that was raised above, the Executing Secretary of the Ni-gerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Sim-bi Wabote, said that NCDMB will not advocate for 100 per cent Ni-gerian content in the industry.

He explained what would hap-pen, if the Board goes on to imple-ment the Nigerian Content Law 100 per cent.

“We will have to stop oil produc-tion in Nigeria, develop non-exist-ing capacity, and then start pro-duction again.

“Minimum Nigerian content lev-els for various industry activities were set in the schedule of the NOGICD Act. In several areas, like engineering, where we had 90 per cent target, we have surpassed the target, and we are doing 95 per cent, and even 100 per cent in some areas. In the low voltage elec-tric cables production, we have also surpassed what the Act prescribed.

“Similarly, there are some ar-eas where we have not met the set target. One of such areas is liquefiednaturalgas(LNG),whichuses specialised and proprietary technology for something like the pressure vessels, and the funding is often tied to technology.

“However, I want to clarify that NCDMB is not advocating for 100 per cent Nigerian content in the oil and gas industry. If we are to

Simbi Wabote

7

Industry 04:21

implement the Nigerian Content Law 100 per cent, we will have to stop oil production in Nigeria, de-velop non-existing capacity, and then start production again.

“There are not enough dockyards in-country, where the hull of big ves-sels, such as the Egina FPSO, could have been fabricated from scratch. Ninety-fivepercentofourconstruc-tion in the oil industry is steel. Yet, we do not have a functional steel mill in Nigeria. The oil and gas in-dustry depends on sectoral linkag-es, including the power sector to deliver, and some of those sectors are not well developed.

“More so, local content is a mar-athon race, and not a sprint. This is why we enforce the law with pragmatism,” Wabote explained.

Wabote, however, said that the industry needs big projects to bol-

ster the economy.“This industry needs big proj-

ects to keep the economy vibrant and create opportunities for ser-vices companies, generate em-ployment and grow local capac-ities. In my recent meeting with the Managing Director of Total Exploration and Production Com-pany, I challenged international oil companies to emulate Total E&P, which despite concerns in the oil and gas industry, had continued to invest in Nigeria. They need to show faith in Nigeria, in our oil and gas industry and the economy, because Nigeria is still attractive and rewarding for oil and gas in-vestments,” he said.

It would be recalled that the in-ternational oil companies (IOCs) in Nigeria are being restrained from investing in the sector due to the non-passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).

Their reluctance may not be unconnected with the fact that the PIB, which was initiated by the Olusegun Obasanjo adminis-tration, was yet to be passed for close to 20 years.

According to observers, the re-peal, when passed into law, would be able to tackle investments from the sector.

Recently, Ovie Omo-Agege, the Deputy Senate President, stated that Nigeria has, so far, lost about $235 billion to the non-passage of PIB by successive administra-tions in the country.

Omo-Agege, who spoke at a one-day virtual national colloqui-um on the PIB organised by News-Guru.com, also said that Nigeria has been losing $15 billion annu-

ally as a result of the delay in the passage of the PIB.

“Nigeria, with more significantreserves, has attracted very little in-vestments. Whereas Egypt, Angola and Ghana, with about half of Ni-geria’s reserves combined, have at-tracted more investments for new projects, because they offer more attractivedeepwaterfiscaltermstoencourage investors,” he said.

Corroborating the Deputy Sen-ate President’s position, Mr. Ndu-kaku Ohaeri, President of the Pe-troleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, (PEN-GASSAN), said the non-passage of the Bill was denying the country lotsofbenefitsthathaveaccruedfrom the hydrocarbon industry.

“Nigeria has lost so much rev-enue that could have accrued to government coffers, as existing investments are stalled and po-tential investors are scared of coming,” he said.

He noted that many other coun-tries that had started the same pro-cess of legislation for their oil and gas industries behind Nigeria, had completed the same, and are now savouring the taste of the exercise.

“We appeal to the government, especially the Technical Com-mittee putting finishing touchesto the new PIB, to ensure greater stakeholders’ engagements to im-proveonthefinaloutcomeoftheBill sent to the National Assembly for consideration and passage. The passage of this very import-ant piece of legislation will give room for meaningful progress to be made in the oil and gas in-dustry in particular, and Nigeria in general,” he added.

Nigeria, with more significant reserves, has attract-ed very little investments. Whereas Egypt, Angola and Ghana, with about half of Nigeria’s reserves combined, have attracted more investments for new projects, be-cause they offer more attractive deepwater fiscal terms to encourage investors,” he said.

Ovie Omo-Agege

8

Industry 04:21

Since late 2020, the begin-ning of a new month often comes with fear, anxiety

and uncertainty for most Nige-rians, because it is the period when the price of premium mo-tor spirit (PMS), better known as petrol, usually goes up.

Increase in the price of PMS, which is the most used fuel for transport and electricity genera-tion at homes and small-to-medi-um scale businesses, often has spiral effects on transport cost, food and ultimately the general purchasing power of Nigerians.

But the PMS price, either at the depot, or retail stations, have since February this year been frozen – thanks to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) who, as the sole import-

er of the product in Nigeria, has pledged to maintain the current price until the end of negotia-tions with the organised labour.

Reports of possible increase in the price of petrol have con-tinued to dominate the public space. Queues resurface and disappear in many cities as resi-dents besiege fuel stations in an-ticipation of yet another season of fuel scarcity.

Since September 2020, the organised labour has been in a series of engagements with government agents over wheth-er to increase the PMS price or not. An agreement the labour unions reached with the Federal Government had led to the sus-pension of a planned nationwide strike and mass protest on the

eve of commencement on Sep-tember28.AffiliatesoftheNige-ria Labour Congress (NLC) and their Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) counterparts have been grumbling over the conse-quences of recent increases, and talks of newer pump price ad-justments have been rejected by the unions which represent hun-dreds of thousands of workers.

The President of NLC, Ayuba Wabba, in a statement in No-vember, warned against any fur-ther increase.

“There is a limit to what the citizens can tolerate, if (these) abysmal increases in the price of refined petroleum products andother essential goods and ser-vices continue,” he said.

State governors and the NNPC

High PMS Price, Expensive Subsidy Bill:

Tough Choices Before Nigeria

–By Gideon Osaka

10

Industry 04:21

have also beenmeeting to findsolutions to the issues of fuel pricing. According to the Minis-ter of Labour and Employment, SenatorChrisNgige,thefinalde-cision, whether or not to increase pump price will be taken by the 36 state governors, and their de-cision is still being awaited.

It was based on the strength of these meetings and nego-tiations that the NNPC, in a March statement, said it was not contemplating any raise in the price of petrol in order not to jeopardise the ongoing engage-ments with the organised labour and other stakeholders on an ac-ceptable framework that will not expose the ordinary Nigerian to any hardship.

Valuechain reports that social dialogue between the Federal Government and labour is billed to hold soon just as governors of the 36 states are being awaited to take a decision on the PMS pricing.

Already, the NNPC has an-nounced that it will, again, not increase the ex-depot price of petrol in May.

The ex-depot price is the price the marketers buy the products from depot owners. It deter-mines the pump price at fillingstations.

“We want to inform oil market-ing companies that NNPC will not increase the pump price of PMS in May,” the NNPC Group Managing Director (GMD), Mal-lam Mele Kyari, said at the end of a closed door meeting with petroleum tanker drivers in April.

Some reports have it that the NNPC will retain the current price

of N162-N170 per litre for, at least, six months so that a price increase does not harm the ordinary Nige-rians, if the planned full deregula-tion must go on. In essence, the NNPC will continue to subsidise the product, at least, for now.

Postponing the evil daysRealities in the oil market give

glimmer hope of how long the government can continue to play its primary purpose of making sure that citizens do not suffer the consequences of what they have not bargained for, i.e in-crease in PMS price.

Every available statistics shows that it may not be possi-ble for the government to con-tinue keeping for long the price of the PMS where it is currently, because of the huge subsidy bill that will be involved.

As it could no longer afford to subsidise the price of petrol, the Federal Government, last year, announced the removal of subsi-dy as crude oil price reached an all-time low.

The announcement of the re-moval of subsidy that time sig-naled the commencement of a deregulated pricing of petrol. At the time the scheme was adopt-ed, crude oil prices were in the $20 per barrel region, and that was why there was a reduction in petrol price.

However, the price of Brent crude, the benchmark for Ni-geria’s crude grade, has hit as much as $69 per barrel. Crude price is projected to rise to $80 by the third quarter of 2021. The price of crude constitutes over 60percentofthecostofrefined

petrol.While the country’s economy

still remains fragile, suffering two recessions recently, and strug-gling to stay afloat from shocks occasioned by the Coronavirus (COvID-19) Pandemic, subsidy re-surfaced as increase in crude oil price sent the pump price of petrol to record high.

NNPC had, in March, dis-closed that the fuel pump price of N165 was not sustainable as it costs the Corporation N120 bil-lion monthly in subsidy to still be selling at the price of N162 per litre – a burden that the Corpo-ration said was too much on its balance sheet.

Kyari, who said NNPC current-ly absorbs the cost differential whichisrecordedinitsfinancialbooks, revealed that while the

While the country’s economy still remains fragile, suffer-ing two recessions recently, and struggling to stay afloat from shocks occasioned by the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic, subsidy re-surfaced as increase in crude oil price sent the pump price of petrol to record high.

Mele Kyari

11

actual cost of importation and handling charges amount to N234 per litre, the government is selling at N162 per litre.

He spoke on the exact amount the NNPC was subsidising fuel monthly.

“Our current consumption is about 60 million litres per day. We are selling at N162 per litre, and the current market price is N234 – actual market price today.

“The difference between the two multiplied by 60 million times 30 will give you per month.

“I don’t have the numbers now, this is simple arithmetic we can do. It is anywhere between N100 billion to N120 billion per month.

“Today, NNPC is the sole im-porter of fuel. We are importing at market price, and we are sell-ing at N162. Looking at the cur-rent price situation, the market price could have been between N211 to around N234 per litre.

“The meaning of this is that the consumers are not paying for the full value of the PMS (pet-rol) that we are consuming, and, therefore, the NNPC is bearing that cost.

“That is why early last year, you will recall the full deregulation of PMS, and we have followed this through until September when the price shifted above N145.

“Disputes came up between us and the trade unions and the civil societies leading to an en-gagement between us and or-ganised labour which prevented the implementation of the actual price of the petroleum product as at that time.

“These engagements con-

tinued and the objective of the engagement is actually not to prevent the implementation, but to make sure there is sufficientframework on the ground to en-sure that consumers pay the ac-tual price of this product, and that they are not exploited,” Kyari said.

On the one hand are the or-ganised labour and the ordi-nary Nigerians, who would not accommodate any PMS price increase, on the other hand is a government heavily constrained byfinancestocontinuesubsidis-ing petrol.

Way forwardSeveral opinions have been

offered as possible solutions to the present quagmire the coun-try has found itself.

One of the positions can-vassed by the NLC to stem the tideofhighpricesofrefinedpe-troleum products is that, while the government fixes the refin-eries, it should declare a state of emergency in the downstream petroleum sector.

As a follow up to this, the union said the government should en-ter into contract refining withrefineries closer home to Nige-ria. This, it said, will ensure that the cost of supplying crude oil is negotiated away from prevailing international market rate so that the landing cost of refined pe-troleumproductsissignificantlyreduced.

On the part of the government, Kyari said the government wants to put some relief such that the potential effects of the fuel price increase are not transferred to the

ordinary people. Part of this is to deepen the auto-gas programme.

“With the auto-gas pro-gramme, we will be able to de-liver alternative fuel for vehicles, including Keke Napep, so that the price per litre equivalent will probably be half of the PMS at its current price,” the GMD said.

The Director-General of Lagos Chamber of Commerce and In-dustry (LCCI), Dr. Muda Yusuf, also offered his opinion on the matter.

“The increasing burden of pe-troleum subsidy is an offshoot of the deregulation conundrum which is a major cause for con-cern,” Yususf said.

He noted that the deregulation of the petroleum downstream sector was inevitable, if the econ-omy must progress, and put an end to the corruption that comes with the subsidy regime.

Yusuf spoke on the way for-ward “There could be a social pricing window in the interim where petroleum products could be sold at a subsidised price.

“The NNPC stations could be so designated since they exist in all parts of the country. The government will have to provide a limited budget for this.

“The other players in the sec-tor should, thereafter, be allowed to buy and sell according to the dictates of the market. We need to free the sector from the cur-rent repressive and suffocating regulatory framework.

“The economy has suffered major setbacks as a result of the over regulation of the sector,” he added.

With the auto-gas programme, we will be able to de-liver alternative fuel for vehicles, including Keke Napep, so that the price per litre equivalent will probably be half of the PMS at its current price,” the GMD said.

12

Industry 04:21

REFINERIES REPAIR:Post Rehab Operations, Ownership

Raise Concerns

What would become of the refineries,intermsofop-eration, ownership and

maintenance, after the comple-tion of the ongoing rehabilitation has become a major concern, and raised issues in the public burner?

Valuechain can report that shortly after assuming office asthe Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in 2019, Mallam Mele Kyari an-nounced that the corporation has adopted a phased repair of all the refineries.

He disclosed that an agree-ment reached with their original builders (ORB) would restore the refineriesto,atleast,90percentefficiencylevelby2022.

According to a statement from

NNPC, a $50 million contract to undertake a full integrity check and equipment inspection of the Port Harcourt Refinery wasreached with Tecnimont SPA and Tecnimont Nigeria Ltd (TNL). The planned revamp would begin with Port Harcourt, and the scope of this deal included a six-month on-site assessment of the refinery,as well as engineering and plan-ning activities which would lead tothesecondphaseoftherefin-ery revamp to a minimum of 90 per cent capacity utilisation.

To deliver on the presidential mandatetofixtherefineries,NNPCin April, signed a rehabilitation contract with Milan-based Maire Tecnimont SpA, for the Port Har-courtRefinery. The signing camea few weeks after the Federal Ex-

ecutive Council (FEC) approved the sum of $1.5 billion for the proj-ect. At the time the FEC approved the deal in March, the Minister of State for Petroleum, Timipre Sylva, said the project will be complet-ed in three phases– the first 18monthswouldtaketherefineryto90 per cent production capacity, with thesecondandfinalphasescarried out within 24 months and 44 months, respectively.

Next stop for the NNPC, accord-ing to its GMD, was to continue this process to also deliver on both theWarriandKadunarefineries.

Nigeriahasfourrefinerieswitha combined capacity of 445,000 barrels per day (bpd): one in Ka-duna, and three in the oil-rich Ni-ger Delta region at Warri and Port Harcourt. The Port Harcourt com-

–By Gideon Osaka

13

Industry 04:21

plex consists of two plants with a combined capacity of 210,000 bpd.SinceApril2020,therefiner-ies have been shut, pending reha-bilitation, losing some N167 bil-lion a year earlier due to inactivity.

Decade-long maintenance problem

Following the successful exe-cution of the EPC contract for the Port Harcourt refinery with theothers to come soon, questions have been asked about the fate of therefineriesafterthecompletionof the revamp.

NNPC has been accused of contributing to the current state of the refineries due to decadesof mismanagement of the plants.

Turnaround Maintenance (TAM) on the plants has long been ne-glected leaving them in a poor state. Even the rehabilitation the Corporation managed to carry out on the plants have been per-ceived to be fraudulent as the re-fineriesfailedtowork.Simplyput,the spare repairs of the nation’s

refineries were replete with un-pleasant tales of corruption. Past GMDs and petroleum ministers set out a number of plans for the refineries,noneofwhichcametofruition.

Public records revealed that NNPC had in the past 25 years spent billions of dollars in turn-aroundmaintenanceoftherefin-eries, the latest being over $396 million spent between 2013 and 2015 with nothing to show for it, according to a Senate Committee findinglastyear.

NNPC Group Managing Direc-tor, while engaging journalists on March 22, 2021 in Abuja on issues emanating from the proposed re-habilitation of the Port Harcourt refineryadmittedthatthecountrydid not do well in maintaining the refineries inthepast25yearsasthe last turnaround maintenance ofthePortHarcourtrefineryhap-pened 21 years ago.

He noted that the huge cost of rehabilitation of the refinery wit-nessed in this present time was

as a result of poor maintenance of the plant over a period of time.

“What we are seeing today is the cumulative effect of our lack of doing proper maintenance over a period of time,” he said.

Valuechain findings show thatthe consequence of this is that petroleum products are import-ed from abroad, subsidised with funds the country can hardly af-ford while jobs that could have come from functional refineriesare unavailable. The refinerieshave operated sporadically due to years of neglect, forcing Afri-ca’s largest crude producer to rely heavily on imports to meets its domestic fuel needs.

With the poor record of main-tenance over the years, questions continue to arise over who and howtherefinerieswillberoutinelymaintained after the rehabilita-tion.

Ownership post rehabWill NNPC still continue to run

the plants after the completion of the rehabilitations? Not too many Nigerians would want the status quo to continue; but a clear and decisive operation and ownership structurefortherefineriesareyetto be made public.

The government was reported to have started holding talks to give up majority stakes in all the fourrefineries.

Last year, Kyari told Channels TV that discussions were taking place on an operating model.

Speaking recently during an interview on Arise TV, Kyari said, “The end result will look more like the NLNG model, with clear in-volvement from the private sector.”

NNPC or the government would be a minority shareholder in the assets.

What we are seeing today is the cumulative effect of our lack of doing proper maintenance over a period of time”.

Timipre Sylva Atiku Abubakar

14

We fear that history could repeat itself. It has hap-pened several times before. If we may ask, why is the Fed-eral Government adamant on throwing money to repair the Port Harcourt Refinery when it can sell it, and save itself lots of troubles? How much could it possibly profit from selling the refinery after spending $1.5 billion for its repair? Wouldn’t it be economically realistic to allow private funds to revamp the refineries since the NNPC has failed woefully to keep them running profitably?”

Industry 04:21

“It means there will be more scrutiny of shareholders, and also becoming more efficient tooperate. That conversation is on the table,” Kyari said, without specifying how the government planned to transfer ownership, or to whom.

The refineries have operatedsporadically due to years of ne-glect, recording perennial losses, and forcing Africa’s largest crude producer to rely heavily on imports to meet domestic fuel needs.

Unending debateWhile the debate over mainte-

nance, ownership and operations of the refineries rages on, a fewother posers continue to dominate discussions on the rehabilitation.

Some pundits wonder why the government plans to spend mon-ey that it does not have to repair a refinerythatitdoesnotneed.

The views shared by the Found-er of Stanbic IBTC and Anap Foun-dation, Atedo Peterside, other prominent Nigerians and groups have prevented discussions on the issue from fading away .

“In 2019, PH Refinery contrib-uted zero revenue, but incurred costs of N47 billion; almost N4 billion a month! Instead of end-ing this nightmare through a BPE (Bureau of Public Enterprises) core investor sale, NNPC wants to enmesh Nigeria into a deeper financial mess by throwing $1.5billion (including debt) at a prob-

lem it created?” he said.“Even with the paucity of funds,

we continue to ramp up govern-ment involvement in sectors that ought to be left to the private sector; with the latest being the ill-advised $1.5 billion so-called rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt Refinery thathas failed to turnaprofitforyears,”formerVicePres-ident, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, said.

Atiku’s views resonate with those of many Nigerians

ThisDay, in its editorial of March 30, 2021 said its position on the stateofthenation’srefinerieshadnot changed.

“We fear that history could re-peat itself. It has happened several times before. If we may ask, why is the Federal Government ada-mant on throwing money to repair the Port Harcourt Refinery whenit can sell it, and save itself lots of troubles? How much could it pos-siblyprofitfromsellingtherefineryafter spending $1.5 billion for its repair? Wouldn’t it be economical-ly realistic to allow private funds torevamptherefineriessincetheNNPC has failed woefully to keep themrunningprofitably?

“We have always argued that the refinerieshavebecomehugecost centres to the government and country and should be hand-ed to credible private entities to restore their full productive ca-pacities. Private businesses are better commercial managers

than governments. A quick visit to thePortHarcourtrefineryanditsneighbour, Indorama Eleme Pet-rochemical Industry which was taken from the NNPC and priva-tised in 2006 reinforces this. If El-emecanberestoredtoefficiencywith private funds and still pays out dividends to the government, privatising Port Harcourt should not be a problem.

“We believe that borrowing $1.5 billion to repair the Port Harcourt Refineryisnotsmarteconomics.This government should do well to resist the lure for borrowing and heaping debts on the country on such patently wasteful ven-tures,” the paper wrote.

Banking on DangoteAs the rehabilitation of the coun-

try’s refineries goes on, Nigeria’sonly hope of ramping domestic cruderefiningintheshorttermisthe startup of the privately-owned Dangote Refinery, which wouldhelp it end its reliance on fuel im-ports. The 650,000 b/d Dangote plant in Lagos – set to be Africa’s largest refinery – is expected tocome on stream early 2022, ac-cording to industry sources.

For now, it is realistically im-possible for the country not to import petrol. The OPEC member imports around 1 million to 1.25 million mt/month of petrol to meet national demand estimated at around 50 million to 60 million liters/day

15

On Thursday, April 8, the Ni-gerian Railway Corporation (NRC) began the haulage

of line pipes from Warri, Delta State in Southern Nigeria to Ita-kpe, Kogi State in North-Central Nigeria. That was a “major boost in the delivery of the Ajaokuta-Ka-duna-Kano (AKK) Gas Project”, according to the Nigerian Nation-al Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). The journey, which commenced by 11:05am on Thursday, April 8, saw a single NRC locomotive carrying 96 pipes at once. It was a massive haul.

“This locomotive carried 96 pipes at once, an equivalent of 32 trailers on the road!” the NNPC said in a terse tweet to announce what looks like a light at the end of a dark tunnel. It would take the next 10 hours 20 minutes for the equivalent of the 32-trailer-load of pipes to reach their destination.

“We congratulate our team on the arrival at 10.25pm 8.4.2021 of AKK gas project line pipes by rail

from Warri to Itakpe – less cost, faster delivery time, safer, pro-tecting our roads and more. The infrastructure revolution is paying up,” an excited Group Managing Di-rector of the NNPC, Mallam Mele Kyari, tweeted on his Twitter han-dle.

Surely, what happened on that day was, arguably, a testament to the seriousness of the government to actualizing the AKK project.

The unfulfilled old days

Nigeria, over the years, has lived with somuch talk about fulfillingits gas-to-power aspirations and the much talked about industrial-isation of the world’s most popu-lous black nation. This is coupled with the fact that nearly every energy forum has discussed the utilisation of Nigeria’s abundant natural gas resources in order to boost domestic gas consumption, improve power generation, and ultimately, achieve an enviable in-dustrialised status.

Unfortunately, that dream, as beautiful as it is, was never real-ised. The reason for this failure is not farfetched. Most of the con-versations hardly went beyond the discussion tables, where they were raised.

According to the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Nigeria, with 203 trillion cubic kfeet (tcf) proven gas reserve and 600tcf unproven gas reserve, has the largest reserve in Africa. Sad-ly, the resourcehasnotbenefitedthe country, especially in meeting energy needs in the area of pow-er generation, domestic utilisa-tion (cooking), industrial use, and transportation.

When one considers how Ni-geria had continued to wallow in power crisis, one would see how worrying the situation was. Nige-ria’s perennial power crisis has remained a cog in its wheel of progress. Arguably, experts have attributed shortage of critical gas infrastructure, notably gas trans-

Industry 04:21

Hope Alive for $2.6bn AKK Gas Pipeline Project

–By Teddy Nwanunobi

16

mission pipelines, to this perennial power crisis.

It is in fulfillmentof thisdreamthat the Nigerian National Petro-leum Corporation (NNPC) decided to come up with the Ajaokuta-Ka-duna-Kano (AKK) Gas Pipeline Project. The idea and hope were that the project would act as a cat-alyst to Nigeria’s industrialisation.

Multibillion-dollar critical gas projects

Following the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) compliance cer-tificate,whichwas issued in July2017, along with the approval of the feasibility study, the Federal Executive Council (FEC), in De-cember 2017, approved the En-gineering, Procurement and Con-struction (EPC) contract for the AKK Gas Pipeline Project. It was launched by President Muham-madu Buhari on Tuesday, June 30, 2020, through a virtual platform. Governors Yahaya Bello of Kogi State and Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State, however, physically flagged off the commencement of works at the Ajaokuta and Rigachikun sites in Kogi and Kaduna states, respectively.

Nigeria, as a country, has re-corded progress on key gas proj-ects. The $2.59 billion worth AKK Gas Pipeline Project is just one of the things the Federal Government is doing to harness the enormous gas potential in the country.

The Brass Gas Hub is expected to be built for $3.5 billion, while the Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline will cost $25 billion. The Nigeria LNG (NLNG) Train Seven will cost $6.6 billion to build, while an additional $5 billion is expected to be spent on wells and pipelines.

Others are ANOH gas project, which is estimated at $1.4 billion; and Obiafu-Obrikom-Oben Gas Pipe-line, also called the OB3 Pipeline, which is estimated at $700 million.

The above projects are known as the critical gas projects, and they are being executed to achieve the decade of gas.

The AKK, which has been de-scribed by many as the single big-gest gas pipeline in the history of oil and gas operations in Nigeria, is a 40-inch x 614-kilometre gas pipe-line project. It is riding on the Trans Nigeria Gas Pipeline (TNGP) initia-tive. It will be fed from the existing Escravos Lagos Pipeline System (ELPS) and Obiafu-Obrikom-Oben (OB3) Gas Pipeline Systems.

Currently under construction, the OB3’s pipes are being laid un-der the River Niger to feed the Aja-okuta end of the AKK gas pipeline project. The importance of the OB3 Pipeline stems from the fact that the AKK is anchored on it. It is from the Ajaokuta end of the OB3 that the AKK gas pipeline project would link up to the northern part of the country.

When completed, the AKK proj-ect is expected to harness the na-tion’s abundant gas reserves by making available gas to generate electricity and stimulate rapid in-dustrialisation using gas as feed-stock for fertilizers, ammonia and other petrochemical applications. It would eventually extend to the North of Africa.

Financing AKKOnfinancing theAKK, theMin-

ister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, in a recent report said that Nigeria will issue a sovereign guarantee to back the bulk of the gas pipeline.

The sovereign guarantee will back 85 per cent of the $2.6 billion pipeline cost, funded in turn by a loan facility from Chinese lender, Sinosure. The loan has an interest rate of libor plus 3.7 per cent with a 12-year repayment period and a three-year moratorium.

The NNPC will cover the remain-ing 15 per cent of the project’s cost.

“We have done an extensive review of this project and we are satisfiedthatthecashflowsfromthe Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano gas pipelinewillbesufficient to repaythe facility. This project is one of the cardinal policies of this admin-istration and it is very strategic to national development,” Ahmed said in March.

Industry 04:21

When completed, the AKK project is expected to har-ness the nation’s abundant gas reserves by making avail-able gas to generate electricity and stimulate rapid indus-trialisation using gas as feedstock for fertilizers, ammonia and other petrochemical applications.”

Mele Kyari

17

BenefitsWhat Nigeria stands to gain

from the above listed cannot be overemphasised. Looking at the AKK,forinstance,thebenefitsarevery obvious for one to see.

Buhari, while enumerating the benefitsoftheproject,saidthatitwould provide gas for generation of power and for gas-based indus-tries which would facilitate the de-velopment of new industries.

He also stated that it would also ensure the revival of moribund in-dustries along the transit states of Kogi, Abuja (FCT), Niger, Kaduna and Kano, adding that the cascad-ing effect and impact of the AKK, when operational, would be im-measurable.

“It has significant job creationpotential – both direct and indi-rect, while fostering the develop-ment and utilisation of local skills and manpower, technology trans-fer and promotion of local manu-facturing.

“When completed, the AKK Gas Pipeline Project will provide gas for generation of power and for gas-based industries which would facilitate the development of new industries and also the revival of moribund industries along transit towns in the corridor States.

“This will ultimately create nu-merous direct and indirect em-ployment opportunities, while fostering the development and utilisation of local skills and man-power, technology transfer and promotion of local manufacturing. The project is, therefore, part of the delivery of our Next Level Agenda for sustainable development and enhancement of the economic prosperity of our country,” he add-ed.

Nigeria has not needed any-thing now more than it needs peace and stability. A successful AKK Gas Pipeline Project means that moribund cottage industry will be resurrected with the avail-able power from the electricity that would be generated from the gas. It also means that farming will be boosted as a result of the fertilizer that would be produced.

Functional cottage industries and booming farming will give birth to job creation. Nigeria needs these gas projects across the country to help it curtail the increased issue of insecurity. With enough job creation in the North, the issue of kidnapping will be reduced and discouraged, as most of the idle young people would be gainfully engaged to earn honourable means of live-lihood. A good number of north-erners are migrating to the south in search of livelihood. This north-ern-southern migration issue is expected to be reduced drastical-ly according to projections.

ChallengesFor once, in a very long while,

the Federal Government has shown that it can venture into serious projects that would be of immense benefits to both coun-try and citizens. The arrival of the pipes at the Kogi axis raises hope for Nigerians. valuechain, however, observed that deliver-ing the pipes to the sites caused serious traffic for commuters who ply the road which is the major link between the northern and the southern parts of the country. Opinions have it that the evacuation of the pipes by trailers at the Itakpe end could have taken place at nights when majority of the commuters were not using the road. Of course, the trucks would move faster at nights, too.

ConclusionRecently, oil and gas stake-

holders, who converged virtually at the ‘Nigeria Gas/Energy Stra-tegic Outlook for 2021 and Be-yond and Review of Petroleum Industry Bill’, which was organ-ised by Energy & Corporate Af-rica, noted the need to address existing bottlenecks in the coun-try’s gas space.

The Chief Operating Officer, Gas and Power of the NNPC, Engr. Usman Yusuf, stressed the need to leverage the investment for sustainable future energy

and technological revolution that would enhance gas uptake in existing and emerging gas markets.

Yusuf noted that the growth in the global energy market would continue as natural gas has a critical role to play in the indus-trial development of the conti-nent.

“Africa has enough gas re-sources to enhance utilisation, but requires adequate invest-ment and favourable policies to provide the necessary infra-structure,” Yusuf said.

The Executive Director, Pro-duction at Seplat, Effy Okon, noted that capital, under-in-vestment, delayed delivery of planned gas infrastructure and poor pipeline network contin-ue to affect the gain of gas re-sources, adding that the lack of cost-reflective tariffs and huge debts in the power sector were affecting the gas market.

“Lack of clear gas fiscal terms for production sharing contracts and the delay in the passage of PIB have reduced investors’ con-fidence in the sector,” he said.

He also raised concern over foreign exchange challenges as investors receive revenue in nai-ra against dollar-based invest-ment.

“Non-bankable off-take agree-ment and lack of a properly-di-versified consumer base for gas suppliers impact investor confi-dence. High loan interest rates, as well as delay in the joint ven-ture funding, make it difficult to fund capital intensive, long-term gas projects,” he noted.

The Executive Director, Asset Management at Total E & P Ni-geria Limited, Patrick Olinma, stressed the need for Nigeria to get the right necessary legisla-tions that would help the coun-try harness its gas resources, while calling for necessary poli-cies that leapfrog domestic gas utilisation in the country.

Industry 04:21

18

Industry 04:21

Contrary to expectations, global oil demand estimate for 2021 is expected to spike, pointing

to further signs that the world econ-omy is recovering faster than pre-viously thought, particularly in the United States of America and Chi-na, the International Energy Agency (IEA) stated in its latest report.

The Paris-based IEA explained that world oil demand is now ex-pected to expand by 5.7 million barrels per day (mb/d) in 2021 to 96.7 mb/d, following a collapse of 8.7 mb/d last year.

Supported by a quick vaccine rollout and a massive economic stimulus package, the IEA said it revised up its US oil demand fore-cast for the second half of the year by around 365,000 (tb/d).

Its Chinese oil consumption forecast for 2021 was also raised by 160 tb/d.

“Oil markets fundamentals look decidedly stronger. The massive overhang in global oil inventories that built up during last year’s COvID-19 demand shock is being worked off, vaccine campaigns are gathering pace and the global economy appears to be on a better footing,” IEA said.

The IEA said the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and De-velopment (OECD) industry stocks fell for the seventh consecutive month in February, down 55.8 or 2 mb/d, led by a sharp draw in prod-uct inventories.

At end-February, total oil stocks stood at 2.977 billion barrels, down from a peak of 3.216 billion bar-rels in May 2020, and reducing the overhang versus the 2016-2020 average to 28.3 million barrels.

In March, industry stocks rose by a combined 15.3 million barrels in the US, Europe and Japan, the

IEA said citing preliminary data.Evenglobalrefinerythroughputs

caught up with year-earlier levels in Marchforthefirsttimesince2019,the IEA noted.

At 75.9 mb/d, however, global refinery runs remained 4.4 mb/dbelow March 2019 levels.

No supply crunchDespite the stronger global eco-

nomic indicators, the IEA said the recovery remains fragile, given ris-ing COvID-19 cases in some key countries and regions, including Europe, India and Brazil.

Despite a wave of new lock-downs in Europe, the IEA said it remainsconfidentthattheregion’svaccination programme will accel-erate in the coming months, allow-ing for a boost in mobility in the second half of the year.

The IEA, however, cautioned that oil prices could yet come under “renewed pressure” in the coming months, as world oil supplies are set to ramp up and shift the market fromdeficittowardsbalance.

Brent crude prices were trading up 1.6 per cent at $64.68 per barrel, as at April 14, having recovered from sub-$62/b levels earlier in the month, helped by rising optimism over the health of the global economy.

It also noted that even though the Organisation of Petroleum Ex-porting Countries (OPEC+) agreed on April 1 to ease its output cuts by more than 2 million barrels per day (mb/d) from May through July, the IEA’s latest estimates show nearly 2 mb/d of extra supply may be re-quired to meet expected demand growth this year.

The IEA, however, reiterated that the oil market does not face an “impending supply crunch”, noting that OPEC+ will still have some 6 mb/d of spare production capacity, while 1.5 mb/d of Iranian crude re-main shut in by sanctions.

“The bloc’s current monthly fine-tuning of supply could giveOPEC+ ministers the flexibility to rampuprelativelyquicklytofillanysubstantial gaps that may emerge,” the IEA said.

Global oil output this year could rise by 1.4 mb/d, the IEA estimat-ed, compared to a 6.6 mb/d loss in 2020.

Non-OPEC+ oil supply is seen growing by 610 tb/d in 2021.

In the US, the world’s biggest oil producer, the IEA said, expects to see supplies ease by 100 tb/d in 2021, after falling by nearly 600 tb/d in 2020.

Global Oil Demand Expected to Spike in 2021 — IEA

–By Fred Ojiegbe

19

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Star of the Industry 04:21

Engr. Sarki AuwaluDirector/CEO, Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR)

21

Star of the Industry 04:21

Engr. Sarki Auwalu, who was born in 1965, is a chemical engineer by training. Before

joining the Department of Petro-leum Resources (DPR), Auwalu had a good record of sterling academic accomplishments. He attended the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria where he

bagged a Bachelor of Engineer-ing in Chemical Engineering in 1989. He, thereafter, proceeded to the Bayero University, Kano where he earned a post-grad-uate Diploma in Management in 1993. Auwalu proceeded to the Chevron Academy where hewasawardedacertificatein

Oil and Gas Handling, Facilities Maintenance and Troubleshoot-ing in 1999.

Auwalu, who did not restrict his education to Nigeria, left for PETRAD, Norway where he got a Diploma in Drilling Risk As-sessment in 2000. Two years later, he got another Diploma in

He joined the DPR in 1998, and has held some key po-sitions as he rose through the ranks to the position of the assistant director. Between 1998 and 2002, Auwalu, as the principal chemical engineer, successfully supervised a number of collaborative projects of the DPR with oil giants such as Chevron and Shell, among others.

–By Danlami Nasir Isah

Engr. Sarki AuwaluDirector/CEO, Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR)

22

Star of the Industry 04:21

Petroleum Policy and Manage-ment from the same institution, before leaving for PetrolSkill USA where he obtained a Diplo-ma in Offshore Technology in 2006. He went back to PETRAD Norway in 2007, and earned yet another Diploma in Petroleum Policy and Operations. In 2017, Sarki Auwalu attended the Na-tional Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru, Jos.

He joined the DPR in 1998, and has held some key positions as he rose through the ranks to the position of the assistant di-rector. Between 1998 and 2002, Auwalu, as the principal chem-ical engineer, successfully su-pervised a number of collabo-rative projects of the DPR with oil giants such as Chevron and Shell, among others.

Obviously, the current Direc-tor for the DPR must have pre-

pared himself for his present position – a fitting helmsmanat the DPR, one would say. So, when, on Wednesday, Decem-ber 18, 2019, his appointment was announced in a statement signed by the Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, it hardly triggered a shock in the minds of many ar-dent watchers of that critical oil and gas regulatory agency. On the contrary, it was one invig-orating piece of news to those that have always desired a new dawn. This was because Auwa-lu, who joined the DPR in 1998, had been a driving force of the agency ever since.

Auwal,ahighlyrespectedfig-ure among his colleagues was recently decorated as a fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engi-neers.

23

APRIL 2021

APRIL 2021

Cover Story 04:21

Nigeria is blessed with an abundance of mineral resources but over the

years, the country has depend-ed so much on oil. The over re-liance of black gold has led to the near abandonment of the development of the other min-eral resources that would have madethediversificationof thenation’s economy an easy one.

The declaration of 2020 as a Year of Gas by the Federal Gov-ernment meant that a sleeping giant may have realized how much its gas could be a saving grace over oil.

Considering the impact of the Coronavirus (COvID-19) pandemic on Nigeria’s econ-omy, it was important to look at why the country’s neglected gas reserves needed to form part of the energy reforms. Then Nigeria’s oil projects were facing threats from the pan-demic as international majors slashed capital spending. That put the onus on the Federal Government to raise its game in terms of competitiveness in gas, as well as oil.

Recent reports suggest that Nigeria may be making steady progress, in terms of its hope on the available gas reserves in the country. In Africa, Nigeria is known to have the most exten-sive gas reserves. Last year, the country made it to the top 10

on the global gas log.The year 2020 was not the

best year for businesses across the world. But it was not the case with the gas-based econ-omies. According to the Par-is-based International Energy Agency (IEA), gas-based econo-mies were largely shielded from the impact of the pandemic in thefirstquarterof2020aspric-es held up.

No doubt, there is a chron-ic shortage of gas in Nigeria, which can be Nigeria’s saving grace, according to Ekpen Om-onbude, a petroleum and min-ing economist.

“It is getting increasingly challenging to get risk capital for fossil fuel projects. (But) natural gas provides a cleaner and sustainable transition for big energy projects,” he said.

The Federal Government had been seeking to increase Nigeria’s gas capabilities. The Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas(NLNG) company, a partnership between the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and international oil majors, in May 2020, closed the deal on its Train 7 gas expansion project.

The project is expected to lift the country’s LNG output by more than 30 per cent.

Omonbude also pointed to Nigeria’s gas-flare commerciali-sation programme as an exam-

ple of the potential shift to gas.In the first quarter, theMin-

istry of Petroleum Resources shortlisted 200 companies to bid for the development of 45 gas flare sites.

The Ministry also launched the Nigerian Gas Transporta-tion Network Code (NGTNC), which aims at enhancing the availability and affordability of domestic gas.

The code seeks to create guidelines for agreements be-tween gas sellers, transporters and buyers.

According to KPMG, the code, alone, does not consti-tute a coherent gas policy, “es-pecially as Nigeria still lacks a comprehensivelegalandfiscalregime for developing its natu-ral gas”.

Nigeria’s decisionFast forward to Monday,

March 29, 2021, when Pres-ident Muhammadu Buhari kicked off a gas revolution era by launching ‘The Decade of Gas in Nigeria’, with a pledge that his administration would fully utilise the enormous gas resources in the country to up-lift the economy and drive in-dustrialisation.

Buhari, who set the tone for the development of the industry in the next ten years, noted that gas has the enormous potential

–By Teddy Nwanunobi

Can NigeriaFly on Gas?

26

to diversify Nigeria’s economy, giv-en the country’s potential of about 600 trillion cubic feet of gas.

“The rising global demand for cleaner energy sources has of-fered Nigeria an opportunity to exploit gas resources for the good of the country. We intend to seize this opportunity,” Buhari said at the virtual Nigeria International Petroleum Summit (NIPS) 2021 Pre-SummitConferenceandoffi-cial launch of ‘The Decade of Gas’.

He told participants at the event

that while his administration has prioritised gas development, and recorded remarkable progress, adding that it is well known that Nigeria is a gas nation with a little oil.

He, however, regretted that Nigeria has focused more on oil over the years.

“That is the paradox that this administration decided to con-front when we declared the Year 2020 as ‘The Year of Gas’ in Nige-ria.

“It was a bold statement to demonstrate the resolve of this administration that gas develop-ment and utilisation should be a national priority to stimulate economic growth, further im-prove Nigeria’s energy mix, drive investments, and provide the much-needed jobs for our citizens in the country.

“Before the declaration of Year 2020 as The Year of Gas, this Administration had shown com-mitment to the development of Nigeria’s vast gas resources and strengthening of the gas value chain by reviewing and gazetting policies and regulations to en-hance operations in the sector as encapsulated in the National Gas Policy of 2017.

“Our major objective for the gas sector is to transform Nigeria into an industrialised nation with gas playing a major role and we demonstrated this through en-hanced accelerated gas revolu-tion,” he said.

Nigeria is capable of being transformed into an industrialised gas-driven economy. According to the Department of Petroleum Re-sources (DPR), Nigeria’s proven natural gas reserves, as at Janu-ary 1, 2020, had become 203.16 trillion cubic feet (tcf). DPR also stated that the nation’s proven crude oil reserve, as at the same period, was 36.89 billion barrels (bb).

With 187 tcf of proven gas re-serves as of 2017, Nigeria ranked 9th in the world, and accounting for about 3 per cent of the world’s total natural gas reserves of 6,923 tcf. Then, Nigeria had proven re-serves equivalent to 306.3 times

Cover Story 04:21

Gas is power and energy. Gas is transport, as in auto gas. Gas is petrochemical, as per feed stock. Gas is manufacturing and industries. Gas is food from fertilis-er. Gas is jobs and employment. As a matter of fact, gas is everything for Nigeria.”

Muhammadu Buhari

27

Cover Story 04:21

Our major objective for the gas sector is to transform Nigeria into an industrialised nation with gas playing a major role and we demonstrated this through enhanced accelerated gas revolution.”

its annual consumption. What it means is that Nigeria has about 306 years of gas left (at current consumption levels and excluding unproven reserves).

According to the latest esti-mates in BP’s 2019 Statistical Review of World Energy, Nigeria exported about 982 bcf of LNG in 2018. By this, Nigeria ranks as the world’sfifth-largestLNGexporter,behind Qatar, Australia, Malaysia, and the United States.

According to the Managing Di-

rectorandChiefExecutiveOfficer(MD/CEO) of the Nigeria LNG Lim-ited, Engr. Anthony Attah, gas is the logical path to Nigeria’s glory.

“This is the decade of gas – an-other decade of sustained oper-ations in Nigeria’s LNG, a decade of Train 7, and perhaps Trains 8, 9 and 10. (It is) a decade of the elim-ination of gas flaring, a decade of more domestic gas in households in Nigeria, and overall, a decade of a fully gas-powered Nigerian economy.

“As I stated at the beginning, this will require solid collaborative efforts and the active participa-tion of all stakeholders, including the National Assembly currently working on the Petroleum Indus-try Bill (PIB). The PIB, I dare say, unilaterally holds the ace to be one of the biggest opportunities for our gas future as a nation. And we should not miss this opportu-nity for any reason.

“Gas is the fastest growing fuel. Gas is the logical (path to) Nige-ria’s glory,” Attah said.

He stated that it was time to unleash Nigeria’s gas potentials, as he challenged Nigeria to rise and unleash her enormous gas potentialsforthebenefitsofNige-ria and Nigerians.

“Gas is power and energy. Gas is transport, as in auto gas. Gas is petrochemical, as per feed stock. Gas is manufacturing and indus-tries. Gas is food from fertiliser. Gas is jobs and employment. As a matter of fact, gas is everything for Nigeria.

“We must use what we have to get what we want. Saudi Arabia and Dubai use oil to move their economies to becoming one of the best in the world. Qatar has used only gas to transform from a fishing economy to becominga global gas giant. Nigeria, on the other hand, has both oil and gas.

“However, Nigeria has, thus far, ridden on the back of oil for over 50 years. But now, the time has come for Nigeria to fly on the wings of gas. That is why at the Nigerian LNG, we believe it’s time to unleash Nigeria’s gas potential through this ‘Decade of Gas’ initia-tive, and that is partly why we also say, ‘It is time for gas’,” he added.

He, therefore, advised the Fed-

Tony Attah

28

Cover Story 04:21

eral Government not to miss the opportunity of grabbing what its gas reserves hold for the country in future.

Attah declared that the Petro-leum Industry Bill (PIB) “unilateral-ly holds the ace to be one of the biggest opportunities for our gas future as a nation”.

Oil Price, competitionThe short-term picture on oil

prices has since improved a little. As at March, Nigeria’s average cost of production per barrel was between $20 and $30, depending on the terrain. However, the cost per barrel in Saudi Arabia is $7. As atthetimeoffilinginthisreport,Brent crude traded at $63.31.

The partial price recovery also provides some comfort for the Federal Government.

But slightly healthier prices do not hide the need for greater com-petitiveness.

For more than a decade, Ni-geria has been considering the passage of a PIB to liberalise the sector and improve transparency.

The aim now is to pass the leg-islation by the end of 2020, but few will be surprised, if the timeta-ble slips yet again.

An oil and gas advocacy group within the Lagos Chamber of Com-merce and Industry has warned that the government’s move to increase the deep-water royalties will worsen Nigeria’s competitive-ness and could cost the country more $15 billion in planned invest-ments in the sector.

The law prescribes a flat rate of 10 per cent royalty on all projects over 200 meters deep and anoth-er 7.5 per cent royalty on frontier and inland basins.

Only countries that can offer the most competitive terms are likely to be seen as viable once the worst of COvID-19 is over.

“Nigeria would have to get more competitive in order to secure in-vestment in field development,”Omonbude said.

Government’s effortsThe current administration has

put in place a few things to ener-gise the gas sector.

Buhari stated that the devel-opment of gas infrastructure has commenced along with the domestic utilisation of LPG and CNG, as well as the process of commercialising gas flares, de-velopment of industrial and trans-port gas markets, and increasing gas to power.

“We also kick-started other policies and projects like the Na-tional Gas Expansion Programme, Autogas Policy and the construc-tion of the 614km Ajaokuta-Kadu-na-Kano gas pipeline.

“After a thorough review of these laudable achievements and successes in the gas space, we acknowledge that Nigeria still has more work to do in the gas space.

“This has led the Federal Gov-ernment to begin a more proac-tive push towards gas develop-ment. This initiative will ensure further optimal exploitation and utilisation of the country’s vast gas resources,” he added.

Buhari pointed out that the NLNG, which contributes about one per cent to the Gross Domes-tic Product (GDP), has generated $114 billion in revenues over the years, $9 billion in taxes, $18 bil-lion in dividends to the Federal Government and $15 billion in Feed Gas Purchase.

Buhari noted that these achieve-ments were accomplished with 100 per cent Nigerian management, and 95 per cent Nigerian workforce, and also applauded the NLNG for winning the award for outstanding business strategy in 2020, for go-ing ahead with the Train 7 during the global pandemic.

“The Ministry of Petroleum Re-sources and NNPC are, in various regards, setting the pace.

“I would like to charge all other relevant MDAs (ministries, depart-ments and agencies) on the need to partner with the international oil companies, the indigenous oil companies and financial institu-

tions to actualise the dream of fully utilising our gas resources to uplift our economy,” he said.

Game-changing projects

Interestingly, the Federal Gov-ernment’s efforts are being compli-mented by what the private sector is doing to boost the gas sector.

The Assa North Gas Develop-ment Project (ANGP) is one of such in this regard.

When completed, the ANGP will produce 600 million standard cubic feet of gas per day (mscf/d) from its upstream facilities. It will process 300mscf/d from the SPDC gas facility under construc-tion to boost domestic gas supply for power generation and general industrialisation.

According to the Shell Petro-leum Development Company’s (SPDC), External Relations Man-ager, Projects and Opportunities, Dr. Banji Adekoya, Assa is a major game-changer in Nigeria’s quest for energy sufficiency and eco-nomic growth.

Adekoya, who emphasised that Shell’s commitment to Nigeria both now and in the future was unshaken, said that SPDC is com-mitted to supporting projects that increase the capacity of commu-nities to deliver credible projects.

“The gas development project in Imo State is one of the priority projects of the Federal Govern-ment of Nigeria because its devel-opment will help the government deliver on its ambition to provide enough gas for domestic con-sumption, power generation and gas-based ammonia and urea fer-tilizers for farmers.

“The Assa North Gas Devel-opment Project will be a major game-changer in our country’s quest for energy sufficiency andeconomic growth and, once again, it emphasises Shell’s unshaken commitment to Nigeria both now and in the future. The project has the potential to be one of the larg-est domestic gas projects in the country when completed,” Ade-koya said.

29

Interview 04:21

What is your assessment of the state of the oil and gas industry now, compared to a decade ago, taking into consideration the im-pact of COvID-19?

The COvID-19 crisis accelerated what was already shaping up to be one of the industry’s most transfor-mative moments. The impact of the pandemic on the oil and gas indus-try in Nigeria has been a two side coin. It has both been detrimental andbeneficial to the country.Detri-mental in the view of Nigeria being a mono-product economy, heavily de-pendent on oil, the impact of the pan-demic lockdown witnessed a decline in the price and demand for crude which resulted in dwindling revenue for the country and an economic downturn with a glut in the interna-tional market for a substantial period.

On the beneficial side, it high-lighted the necessity of the need for economic diversification, andpropelled the implementation of policies and regulations that were previously being considered. For example, we see the move to reha-bilitatethePortHarcourtRefinerywhich will supplement the upcom-ingDangoteRefinery,ensuringad-equate local supply of petroleum products. Also, the bid to replace pipelines and rehabilitate depots is in line with the Federal Govern-ment’s strategic objective to en-hance performance, transparency and excellence in the sector.

Likewise, the Federal Govern-ment is committed to the realisa-tion of the commercialisation of gas and its domestic utilisation in the country. This will ensure align-

ment with the global zero-carbon emission future, and the sustain-able development goals of afford-able and clean energy, climate action, and sustainable cities and communities. Recently, the Na-tional Gas Expansion Programme (NGEP) launched the push for the commercialisation of gas with the autogas launch. The availability of the CNG (clean natural gas) will be a clean alternative to PMS (premi-um motor spirit), and will create new markets, job opportunities and a safer environment. Also, there are ongoing efforts to en-courage LPG as the fuel of choice for domestic cooking.

In the last one year, the oil and gas industry has been found to be quite resilient, encountering chal-lenges, and bouncing back each time, along with the highs and the lows of the economic cycles. There has been considerable growth with marked progress in the Nigerian context. And the story is the same with the experience of the global effect of the pandemic. With the gradual return to business and nor-malisation of economic activities, the growth which has been evident in the last decade will continue to spur economic direction that will benefit the citizens of Nigeria. Onits current path and pace, the in-dustry could now be entering an eradefinedbystrongcompetition,technology-led swift supply, wan-ing demand, investor skepticism, and growing public and govern-ment pressure regarding impact on climate and the environment.

Nigeria is one of the oil-produc-ing countries that still practices the concept of equalisation of fuel price. Give us a sense of how equalisation works here.

With the inadequate distribution ofpetroleumproductsandinsuffi-cient refining capacity, the Petro-leum Equalisation Fund (PEF) was set up to ensure uniform pricing of petroleum products throughout the country. This is achieved by reimbursing a marketer’s transpor-tation differentials for petroleum products’ movement from depots to their sales’ outlets (filling sta-tions), in order to ensure that prod-ucts are sold at approved price nationwide.

The cost of equalisation is in-built in the pump price of the PMS, and the customer bears the cost; every time a litre of PMS is pur-chased, the buyer pays a certain amount. For effective implemen-tation of the equalisation func-tion, the country was divided into depot districts which are parts of the country served by a particular depot. The depot districts are fur-ther sub-divided into zones. These zones are progressive bands of 50-kilometre radius, with the de-pots as the centre-point to the maximum of nine zones, which is a total of 450 kilometres (km).

Marketers, who sell within 100km of a depot, pay in contri-butions, and from 101km to over 450km claim from the PEF(M)B. By compensating marketers for the cost of transporting their products to consumers, the Federal Govern-ment aims to keep the pump price

‘Decade of Gas’ will be Highly Beneficial for Nigeria — Dr. Nnadi

Dr. Goddy Nnadi, an accomplished administrator, is the General Manager (Corporate Services) of the Pe-troleum Equalisation Fund (PEF). Exuding confidence and passion in his duties as the GM (Corporate Services), Nnadi has contributed immensely to the Fund in his nearly two decades of service at PEF. In this interview with Eddy Ochigbo, the media practitioner and communication expert bares his mind on the nation’s oil and gas sector, and other issues of national importance in the industry. Excerpts:

30

in all states the same, regardless of how far a location is from a de-pot. The equalisation scheme is administered by a matrix of rates formulated to even out cost im-pact of distances covered moving from the depot to retail outlets.

Also, PEF(M)B’s business pro-cesses are automated, and con-figuredinourbespokeapplication,Aquila, to determine contributions and claims without intervention. For instance, when a marketer lifts products from Depot A to Depot B, Aquila automatically deducts the necessary contributions, and pre-pares other amounts for claims.

These are all handled transpar-ently and swiftly to ensure that marketers receive prompt pay-ments for unhindered business op-erationsandfacilitationofefficientpetroleum supply and distribution.

Given the current state of the in-dustry, can Nigeria afford to con-tinue the practice of petroleum product equalisation?

Equalisation is a global prac-tice that relates to payments by a federal system of government to other entities to ensure a balance in the differences in resources, revenue or the cost of provision of goodsandservicesforthebenefitof its citizens.

In effect, it is a social scheme that is provided by government to ensure security and welfare of its citizens. With that objective, the practiceisabeneficialone,anden-suring its continuity and improve-mentinitsefficiencyandeffective-ness should be the emphasis. The scheme itself is self-funded, and has been operating as such for

the past four decades with no re-course to the Federal Government, except for the one time, to ensure a backlog of payment was cleared forcontinuedefficiency.

The deregulation of the industry does not counteract the scheme, but rather acts as a supplement for industry-wide value-added ser-vice to the citizens. Also, PEF(M)B

has institutionalised a progressive information technology driven-pro-cess which has enhanced service delivery along with a reservoir of skilled and highly motivated work-force; the institution and scheme is an asset and strategic vehicle in the curbing of socio-economic deficitsthatimpactthecitizens.

Interview 04:21

Also, PEF(M)B’s business processes are automat-ed, and configured in our bespoke application, Aquila, to determine contributions and claims without inter-vention. For instance, when a marketer lifts products from Depot A to Depot B, Aquila automatically de-ducts the necessary contributions, and prepares other amounts for claims.”

Nnadi

31

Interview 04:21

What do you think are the chal-lenges facing the smooth and con-tinued operation of the equalisa-tion scheme?

One main challenge is that the PEF(M)B does not have the legal mandate that is required. Despite this, the Board has ensured that within its mandate and capacity, processes are in place to ensure compliance to its requirements before payments are made. We have utilised technology to a huge extent in our processes, and we will continue to, along that line, in collaboration with other govern-ment agencies. The Downstream Automated Fuel Management In-formation System (DAFMIS) is an ongoing project that is designed to deliver an end-to-end petroleum tracking and inventory monitoring solution across the distribution value chain for the benefit of thedownstream sector and industry stakeholders. So, we have been mitigating and managing challeng-es, while working at ensuring that theidentifiedareasareresolved.

How efficient is PEF in uniformpricing policy?

PEF(M)B has impacted on pe-troleum products price stability. It has compensated for infrastruc-turedeficits,andhasbeenapalli-ative and buffer for the adverse ef-fect of price fluctuations and gaps in the sector. The ability to reim-burse marketers the cost of trans-portation of petroleum products has encouraged and driven pro-ductivity in the sector and regions of the country, serving as a buffer to price exploitation and sustain-able development in remote areas.

Also, the efficiency of the fundhas encouraged micro and small businesses which, as you know, are fundamental to economic de-velopment and job growth. For instance, we see the initial impact of Aquila on the investment in tank farms, retail outlets and trucks with ensuing generation of employ-ment. The impact of the scheme is far-reaching, and consequences of discontinuing the scheme without the establishment of the reasons

for which it was created may be devastating to the economy with an adverse effect on the citizens.

The deregulation of the down-stream petroleum sector has sparked debate over the continued existence of an agency called PEF. What do you say to people clamour-ing for the scrapping of the agency?

Like I mentioned, the reasons for which the agency was established are yet to be addressed. Market-ersarebusinesspeopleandprofitdriven. If they do not see the bene-fitsofsupplyofproductstoareasthat are far away, the regions will suffer decrease in the volume of products supplied to the areas, and supply will be focused on ar-eas where there is high demand. In this instance alone, you see that PEF provides stimulus to market-ers to go to regions that will, other-wise,havebeenunprofitable.

One of the issues raised con-cerning the PIB 2020 is around petroleum agencies such as PEF, and what exactly the government

wants to do with it. What, in your opinion, would be the role of PEF post PIB?

PEF(M)B is poised to deliver its experience of over 45 years, a high-ly motivated and skilled workforce and world-class technological infrastructure for continuous ser-vice to the nation. With the focus on the commercialisation and do-mestication of gas in the country. These resources that have been deployed in the petroleum sector can be utilised in the gas sector with the added capability of the promotion of infrastructural devel-opment in the industry.

Itseemsdifficulttoknoworhaveaccurate data of PMS consump-tion in Nigeria. Tracking of Nige-ria’s PMS consumption figures isalmost impossible, why is this so?

PEF(M)B has been a source of credible data for the sector. One of the objectives of the DAFMIS project is to be a source of energy information that will provide busi-ness intelligence for economic, social and security planning. With the collaboration of sister agen-cies and other government institu-tions, the supply, distribution and consumption of fuel will be effi-ciently monitored for enhanced de-cision-making by the government.

What’s your take on gas replacing PMS as transport fuel and Nigeria going through 2030 as decade of gas?

This is a highly beneficial de-velopment for the country and the global community as well. As I mentioned earlier, this will align with the United Nations Sustain-able Development Goals (UN-SDGs) 3, 6 and 7, while providing a cleaner, safer, available, accessible and affordable source of energy for the nation. There has to be an alternative to PMS for the bene-fitof thecitizens. Itwillalsospurgeneration of jobs, employment, businesses and infrastructural de-velopment.

Nnadi

32

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E� ective from February 2020

Guest Column 04:21

–Professor Omowumi O. Iledare

Background:The challenges facing the petro-

leum industry in Nigeria in the last ten years include, but not limited to: declining number of active rigs, declining number of producing wells, declining reserves additions, declining production, declining petroleum revenue, and declining contributions of the oil and gas in-dustry to the economic output of Nigeria. The provisions describing the fiscal frameworks, if properly

adjusted and negotiated in good faith, have the chance to accom-plish the well-defined objectivesas articulated in Section 258 of Chapter 4 of the 2020 Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).

The charts below show why establishing a progressive fiscalframework that encourages invest-ment, balances risked investment rewards appropriately, and enhanc-ing government’s access to reve-nue is inevitable. Unquestionably,

COvID-19 and the dynamism of energy transition have added new dimensions to render the fiscalframework outcomes that were en-visaged when the PIB was original-ly initiated in 2000, and even at the time the PIB 2020 was submitted to the National Assembly in 2019. There seems to be a general con-sensus that the level of uncertainty regarding future crude oil demand is extraordinary, making invest-ments for the optimal petroleum resource development business increasingly stochastic. There are some of us who subscribed to the fact that, if Nigeria is to overcome the peculiar challenges facing its oil andgasindustry,apragmaticfiscalreform is desirable – a reform that would forego the prosperity of the few today for prosperity of many in the future.

The premise that the useful-ness of oil in the global energy supply mix has become a thing-amajig in the negotiation process to facilitate the acceleration of pe-troleum exploitation in emerging petroleum countries, and by exten-sion, matured basins like Nigeria. It is, therefore, notable that several amendments have been proposed since NASS public hearings on the PIB 2020. Stakeholders have been jostling to get one advantage or the other, not necessarily in direct negotiation with NASS. This ac-tion seems to me a reminiscence of what happened to the PIB 2008 with the interagency report tagged ‘IAT 2009’. I must, however, com-mend the 2019 NASS for the de-termination to stay the course and avoid the perception of being just a rubberstamp of the wishes and

Fiscal Provisions in 2020 PIB

Chart 1: Nigeria Oil and Gas Outlook, 2010-2019

34

Guest Column 04:21

wants of the executive drafters of the 2020 PIB.

Of course, balancing prolificgeologic prospects with adequate rewards for risked investments is an art and not a science. More so, when competition for capital in-vestment in petroleum exploration and exploitation is keener than it was in the past years. There is no doubt that the world is still awash with petroleum and the world does not seem to be running out of it for some several more decades to come. Thus, optimising individual stakeholder’s interest to develop petroleum in Nigeria would depend quite interestingly on skillful nego-tiations of terms and conditions before the 2020 PIB becomes an Act by May 29, 2021 for political pragmatism. I must commend the executive team for the dedication and desire to get this bill passed once and for all.

The aim of this pedagogical on PIB2020fiscal framework, there-fore, is to facilitate good under-standing of some of the critical elements in the PIB, such as: roy-alty, the dual taxes, the incentives, and the arrangements, from a per-spective of what ought to be rather than what is, in order to maximise stakeholders’ mutual interests. Let me say, without mincing words, that the design of the fiscal ele-ments in the PIB 2020 follows the acceptable core principles and fiscal rulesofgeneralapplication.The clarity of the objectives and administrative mechanism are perceptible. Perhaps, the conjec-tural issues are the optimality con-ditions from the differing perspec-tives of stakeholders, majorly the community of investors. This is certainly understandable, making the balancing of stakeholders’ mu-tuality of interests critically import-ant, if the Bill is to become an Act.

Provisions regarding classical fiscal system elements in PIB

Preamble: The Fourth Chapter of the original executive 2020 PIB to the National Assembly has about 50 provisions or sections plus 6 related schedules on petroleum.

Chapter Four of the 2020 PIB pres-entsthefiscalframework,whichisanchored on the dual tax system – corporate income tax and hy-drocarbon resource tax. There is also a dynamic and flexible royalty system that is anchor on produc-tion, terrain and price to lessen the regressive effects of royalty on in-vestment performance.

The design of the tax and roy-alty system portrays, in my opin-ion, government’s aversion to risk, and a glaring preference for early rent-seeking in the quest for enhancing government’s access to petroleum revenues. I would, rather that the government reca-librates its royalty and tax struc-ture to deemphasise early rent ex-traction mechanism, and embrace a mutuality of interest approach to fiscalsystemsthataredesignedinorder to achieve Pareto Optimality Conditions for all stakeholders.

Regardingfiscal terms forgas,the idea of generating revenues from gas for the next ten years must be carefully evaluated. Yes, there is a possibility of abuse, with respect to tax and royalty holidays, but an easy instrument to encour-age and accelerate gas develop-ment is inevitable, and PIB 2020 must invoke such instruments. Tax and royalty holidays that are based on output seem better than incentives based on efforts. A superficial imposition of fiscalarrangements in the Bill needs clarity. If at all possible, govern-ment must avoid imposing direct contractual agreements with any lessee.Perhaps,havingaspecifiedmodel PSC in the Bill seems at odd within the context of the reform objectives in Section 258.

Fiscal Administration: Section 259definestherolesoftheinstitu-tions responsible for the adminis-trationofthefiscalprovisionsinthe2020PIBintermsofthefiscalele-ments – royalty and taxes. The Fed-eral Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) is responsible for the assessment and collection of hydrocarbon tax, and the corporate income tax, while the Petroleum Regulatory Commis-sion (PRC) has the responsibility to

determine and collect rents and roy-altydefinedinSection306.

There is apprehension for some regarding the transactional cost incurred for the collecting role of these institutions rather than man-dating payments directly to the des-ignated federation account. Per-haps, for the sake of transparency and governance cost minimisation, the responsibilities of these admin-istrative institutions may be limited to just the determination of pay-ment dues, and let the collection re-sponsibility be executed through di-rect payments to the treasury with limited intermediaries.

Hydrocarbon Tax (HT): The in-troduction of the hydrocarbon tax mechanism or instrument in the upstream petroleum space rep-resents a significant departurefrom the single tax system (the petroleumprofittax)thathaspre-vailed in the Nigerian upstream industry since 1959. Most of the provisions in Chapter 4 describe in details the mechanism of this tax instrument. It is not an uncommon taxation approach over and above the familiar corporate income tax. In fact, it is a useful instrument to incentivise hydrocarbon invest-ment without compromising gov-ernment’s access to revenues, if needs be. To argue against its in-troduction, using double taxation label, is acting wily. It is also incor-rect to state that PPT is being split into two. It is not only because the base for the calculation of corpo-rate income tax is diffident, butthe two tax rates are not additive. Furthermore, the allowable deduc-tions are not the same, either.

Let me, in the following para-graphs, make some important ob-servations on some key aspects for consideration as the process for the PIB progresses to becom-ing an act.

The hydrocarbon tax is applica-ble to liquids petroleum (oil, NGL, condensates) by terrain (onshore, shallow offshore, and deep off-shore (>200m of water depth)); but not applicable to associated gas, non-associated gas. There were six classes in the original

35

Guest Column 04:21

PIB, and the HT can be consoli-dated for each of the terrains, but no consolidation across terrains is allowed. There seems to be quite a lot of ongoing amendments post NASS public hearings. The very one amendment that agitates my mind the most is the request to not apply HT to deep offshore. I really think this is absurd, and such requests must be disallowed. I want to take a clue from the zero royalty in the PSC 1993 arrangements. I really would think it unwise to let go of an acceptable fiscal systems de-sign principles in exchange for the new demand for royalty payments from all deep offshore production. I would rather allow HT to be deduct-ed than to let go of it entirely in deep offshore, irrespective of whether the assets are matured or new.

Further, another amendment in consideration in this section is in reference to a periodic review of the fiscal instruments every sev-en years. Looking at the long-term nature of the petroleum business, seven years pronouncement in the law may create additional uncer-tainty that may threaten contract sanctity. Perhaps this is to create an opportunity to introduce HT back in seven years. I opine strongly that subjecting the fiscal instrument toreview every seven years may be un-wise. A more pragmatic approach than the specification of periodicreview of the terms is to introduce a self-adjusting mechanism that could be tied to new oil bloc is that the terms have to change.

Section 266 on the deductibility of acquisition cost for HT calcula-tion reminds me of the depletion allowanceclausesintheUSfiscalregimes of old. Yes, whatever is doable to make Nigeria attract-ive to capital investments must be pursued, but not without com-promising core principles of pet-roleum fiscal systems and rulesof engagement. Provisions design for a target group can become a problem in not too distance future. This provision, which attempts to differentiate rights from assets for tax calculation purpose, though looks good now, but might be

problematic in the future.Section 267 described the HT

rates (%) by terrain (frontier basins exempted until renewal) as follows:

Discussions are ongoing to con-solidate the rates for converted old assets in onshore and shallow water terrains at 37.5 per cent and 20 per cent for new assets in the terrains. I commend these efforts. I am bewildered, however, at the suggestion or request to exempt deep offshore assets old or new from HT, and I alluded to this much earlier. Twice beaten, once shy. The absence of royalty in production in the PSC arrangement of 1993 beyond 1000 metres of water cre-ated some bickering among stake-holders. The suggestion to exempt deep offshore assets from HT does not make much sense more so for matured assets with no meaning-ful risk exposure. Could this be a back door tactic to ameliorate the Deep Offshore Act of 2019, which demands for deep offshore royal-ty payments? If I am to advise the government, I will advise them not to exempt deep offshore perpetu-ally from HT with the hope to re-instate after seven years. Put the 10 per cent HT for deep offshore, and perhaps, tie it to a scale time, cumulative production, or R fac-tor. Do not put ‘exempt the HT’ for deep offshore.

Domestic Base Price of Gas: If and when this Bill is passed, it becomes an Act, putting a base number for gas in an Act creates a perpetual market distortion and an inhibitor to gas development. Per-haps, there can be a lesson to learn from the US Natural Gas Policy Act of1978,whichspecifiedwellheadprices for different categories of natural gas for the interstate and intrastate markets, then. This is the responsibility of the authority, in my opinion. Avoid over legislat-

ing. Section 167(c) really does not belong to the PIB.

Production Allowance: The Sixth Schedule of the PIB introduced a new concept to guide incentives tied to output. very commendable instruments in comparison to in-centives based on efforts such as investment tax allowance, up-lifts and the darling of them all in the PSC 1993, the investment tax credits mechanism. However, there is something with the min-imum of $2.50 per barrel and the 20 per cent of the fiscal oil pricethat I just cannot fathom – per-haps, the absence of sunset. The reasoning behind the absence of sunset to these incentives beats my imagination.

The production allowances for new leases are very generous – lowerof20percentoffiscalpriceper barrel or US$8 per barrel up to a designated cumulative production. Thereafter, the production allow-ance for projects under this Act is the lower of 20 per cent of fiscaloil price and US$4.00 per bbl. The fact that the allowance is tied to cumulative production and terrain makes the new regime progressive. I am, however, surprised that these allowances remained unchanged, even though the HT rates may change as negotiation progresses.

Cost Price Ratio: The reason-ability of this instrument is not conjectural. One of the challenges of petroleum development in Nige-ria is the rising cost of production. It is not that allowable deductions would not be fully recovered, but there is a limit of revenue that could be used in a period.

Royalty Rates by Volume: Usu-ally, royalty in whatever form, is considered to be regressive by investors, because it shows the risk averseness of the govern-ment. One, however, understands why government prefers royalty to taxes. The design of the royalty schemes in PIB 2020 did attempt to reduce the regressive impact, using sliding scales tie to produc-tion and terrain as follows:

A field-by-field calculation ofroyalty makes a good sense, and

Onshore Shallow Offshore

Deep Offshore

New Leases

22.5 20% 10%

Converted Leases

42.5 37.5% 5%

36

Guest Column 04:21

the fact that the Commission de-termines the royalty payments removes any suspicion or lack of transparency. However, if I have my ways, I would suggest the re-

duction of the maximum royalty onshore to 15 per cent, maximum shallow water rate to 12.5 per cent, and keep deep offshore maximum to 10 per cent, but expand the cap to 50,000 for the first tranche. Imay even reduce the rate to 5 per cent, but keep the HT for deep off-shore. The reasoning for these rec-ommendations is to improve the

competitiveness, attractiveness, and progressiveness of fiscal re-gimes in Nigeria (see the charts below). In addition, royalty by price is additive to royalty by production, which further makes a regime less progressive, but the progressivity of a regime is not affected that much when tax instruments are properly applied. Of course, this my type of thinking may not be popular for rent-seeking hawks, but those in pursuit of output expansion under-stand that what makes fiscal re-gimes attractive to investors in

most cases is delaying rent extrac-tiontoafterprofitisdeclared.

Royalty Rates by Price: I do not subscribe to the idea that this roy-alty by value provision is for the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA). As I said in my last issue of the Valuechain Maga-zine, the constitutionality is left for the lawyers. Albeit, if this is doable for the SWA, why not do the same for the Host Community Fund? It is important to note that royalty rate by price is linearly estimated per dollar over and above $50 cap at 10 per cent when the price was $150 in 2020 real dollars. It means that at 50 real 2020 dollars, there is no royalty such that at $100, roy-alty by value rate is 5 per cent to be added to royalty by production, whichmakesthefiscalregimelessprogressive, if royalty by value is a line that must not be crossed.

I sincerely suggest that royalty by production be limited to a max-

imum rate 15 per cent onshore, 12.5 per cent shallow offshore, and 10 per cent, with production slid-ing scale. However, the reduction in the cap must be complemented with HT payments in all terrains. Frommyfiscalsystemsschoolofthought, it is better to increase the HT rates than to increase royalty rate, if output expansion is the aim ofafiscalregimereform.

Provisions on Gas Royalty and HT: While still on royalty, it is good that gas is exempted from royalty by value. I also know for a fact that ongoing negotiation would prefer to have zero royalty for gas, more so, if the gas is for domestic use. Again, I have a word of caution. Lessons from Louisiana are appro-priate on how not to tie incentive to events or designated activities. It usually may come back to hunt the government. In the late 1990s, if I remember correctly, Louisiana tied severance tax cut to horizon-tal technology. The tax break was not meant for shale wells produ-cing shale gas for there was no single shale gas wells envisaged. At the end, it was applied to Shale gas dwindling state revenue from severance tax. Thus, I will keep royalty on gas, but suspend the payments for a while, following after the Deepwater Royalty Relief Act in the United States. Further, I will recommend HT on gas and suspend it as well until gas propels itself in value creation. The fiscalregime must be flexible, dynamic, attractive and competitive without compromising a design principle.

Tranche (B/D)

On shore

Shallow Deep

First 5,000

5% 5% First 15,000

7.5%

Next 5,000

7.5% 7.5% >15,000 10%

>10,000 18% 16%

Oil Royalty Rates (Inland basin is 7.5% flat)

37

Industry 04:21

Oil Market to balance in H2’21 – Analysts

Although the European corona-virus lockdowns and U.S. winter storms caused disruptions in March, as shown by the crude and petro-leum products market price struc-tures, analysts have projected that the global oil market is likely to be in balance in the second half of 2021.

NNPC, Total Nigeria Promote CNG Autogas

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and Total Ni-geria Plc have commenced a move to promote the CNG Autogas pro-gramme.

Standard Chartered named Glob-al Coordinator for Seplat’s $650m Bond Issuance

Standard Chartered Bank (Stan-Chart), alongside three other banks, acted as Global Coordinator for Se-plat’s$650millionfive-yearbond.

Warri Refinery: 3 Security Guards Arrested for Alleged Vandalism Operatives of the Delta State Po-lice Command have arrested three persons for allegedly vandalising ar-mored cables and other electrical in-stallationsattheWarriRefineryandPetro-Chemical Company (WRPC) in Ekpan, Uvwie Local Government Area of the state.

Nigeria to generate N10bn through increased LPG use

Managing Director of Rain Oil Limited, Dr. Gabriel Ogbechie, has said Nigeria would be able to gen-erate over N10 billion ($27 million) annually, if 50 per cent of kerosene userscanswitchtousingLiquefiedPetroleum Gas (LPG) or cooking gas.

Nigeria revokes Addax’s PSC licences, re-awards them The Nigerian government has re-voked the four Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) operated by Addax Petroleum in the country.

PH Refinery: NNPC, Tecnimont Sign $1.5bn Contract

The duo of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and

Maire Tecnimont have signed a $1.5 billion contract to repair the Port HarcourtRefinery.

Oil Prices Gain on Weaker US Dollar

Oil prices gained earlier in the month, following a drop in the U.S. dollar, which made crude a more at-tractive buy, paring losses of more than 4 per cent incurred overnight on the prospect of producers return-ing more than two million barrels per day of supply to the market by July.

NPA, NLNG Commence plans to curb CO2 Emissions

The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and the Nigerian LiquefiedNatural Gas Limited (NLNG) have commenced moves to reduce car-bon dioxide emission, and embrace the use of cleaner and safer sources of energy.

Nigeria’s Crude Oil Capacity to Decline by 200,000bpd – IEA

Low investment will affect Nige-ria’s crude oil capacity, according to International Energy Agency (IEA), which forecasts that it would drop by 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 1.6 million bpd (mbpd) in 2026 due to low investment.

Nigeria’s 10-month Oil Production Fell by 10.25% – NNPC Data

Nigeria’s oil production from Jan-uary to October 2020, according to the latest data from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), fell by 10.25 per cent, when compared to similar period in 2019.

Banner Energy begins Autogas Conversion in Abuja, Nigeria

The Managing Director of Banner Energy Limited, Mr. Nuhu Yakubu, has said his company has started converting petrol and diesel-pow-ered vehicles to autogas in Abuja.

South Africa to see Petrol Price increases in April

The price of petrol is set to in-crease by between R1 and 95 cents a litre as of Wednesday, the Depart-ment of Mineral Resources and En-ergy (DMRE) said.

OML 55: Seplat blames N41.1bn Loss on “Fall in Oil Prices”

Seplat Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), a leading up-stream oil company in Nigeria, has blamed the loss of N41.1 billion ($114.4 million) it suffered from its interestinOML55on“significantfallin oil prices”.

FG Targets Warri, Kaduna Refineries’ Rehabilitations Contracts in June

The Federal Government targets to sign the contracts for the reha-bilitation of the Warri and Kaduna refineries in June, GroupManagingDirector of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), has revealed.

Gas Operators Eye $32bn Pension Fund

Nigeria’s gas operators have set their eyes on the nation’s $32 billion pension fund, urging the National Pension Commission (PENCOM) to make the money available for the execution of critical infrastructure projects in the gas sector.

NNPC Assures Kebbi State of commitment to Renewable Energy Project

The Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has restated its commitment to the partnership with the Government of Kebbi State for the production of biofuels, de-

APRIL SHORT TAKES–Compiled By Saidu Abubakar

PHRefinery:NNPC,TecnimontSign$1.5bn Contract

38

Industry 04:21

scribing the project as viable and in tandem with the global transition to renewable energy.

Sylva inspects Oil & Gas ParkThe Minister of State for Petro-

leum Resources, Timipre Sylva, has inspected the site of the ongoing Nigerian Oil and Gas Park Scheme (NOGAPS) at Emeyal, Ogbia LGA in Bayelsa State.

Nigeria to receive 98.44 Oil, Gas Projects – Report

Nigeria is expected to receive over 98.44 oil and gas projects (over 23 per cent) from a total of 428 new projects that are billed to start op-erations from 2021 to 2025, a new report by GlobaData, a leading re-search body, said.

AKK: NRC Begins Haulage of Line Pipes

Haulage of line pipes from Warri, Delta State in Southern Nigeria to Itakpe, Kogi State in North-Central Nigeria has begun by the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), the Ni-gerian National Petroleum Corpora-tion (NNPC) has said.

Oza Oil Field: San Leon’s Decklar Contracts Drilling Rig

San Leon Energy, a Nigeria-fo-cused oil and gas exploration, de-velopment and production compa-ny, said that its investee company, Decklar Resources, has contracted a drilling rig for re-entry and testing operations on the Oza-1 well.

ADM Energy Lifts More Crude From Aje Field

ADM Energy, which holds a 9.2 percentprofitinterestintheAjeOilField, has announced the comple-tion of the 15th crude oil lifting at the Ajefield–partofOML113offshoreNigeria.

NNPC to Establish Gas Power Plant in Borno – GMD

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), in collaboration with other stakeholders, is to estab-lish a gas power plant in Maidugu-ri to address the problem of power supply in Borno.

Oil Prices Climb on Favourable Outlook for US Fuel Demand

Oil was little changed earlier in April amid hopes that fuel demand

was picking up in the U.S. as the summer driving season approaches and COvID-19 vaccinations there ac-celerate, although rising case num-bers in other countries were keeping a lid on prices.

OML 141: Nigeria’s Eunisell, ADM Energy Enter Exploration Agree-ment

Nigerian-owned oil and gas pro-duction solutions company, Eunisell, has entered into an agreement with natural resources investment com-pany, ADM Energy, to carry out de-velopment of the Barracuda Field in licence OML 141, and associated work-related activity in Nigeria.

Why We Approached NCDMB for Collaboration – Nigerian Amnesty Boss

The Presidential Amnesty Pro-gramme (PAP) has declared that it decided to approach the Nigerian Content Development and Monitor-ing Board (NCDMB) based on the board’s industry role, which will be ofimmensebenefittogettheex-agi-tators to become entrepreneurs and employers of labour.

$2.8bn AKK: Infrastructure Revolu-tion is Paying off – Kyari

Excited Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mallam Mele Kyari, has declared that Nigeria’s “infrastruc-ture revolution is paying off”, after 96 pipes were successfully delivered from Warri, Delta State to Itakpe in Kogi State by a Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC)-operated train.

NNPC Records 37.21% Drop in Oil Pipeline Vandalism in January

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has announced a 37.21 per cent decrease in cases of pipeline vandalism across the country in the month of January 2021.

FG Denies Revoking 32 Refinery Licences

The Federal Government has de-nied a report that it revoked 32 re-finery licences that were issued tosome private companies across the nation.

Cooking Gas: Only FG Can’t Crash Price – Marketers

The Federal Government, alone, cannot crash thepriceof Liquefied

Petroleum Gas (LPG) across the nation, the Nigerian Association of LiquefiedPetroleumGasMarketers(NALPGAM) has said.

Why We’re Building 200,000bpd Refinery — BUA

Chairman of BUA Group, Abdul Samad Rabiu, has said the group was proposing the 200,000 barrels perday(bpd)refineryinAkwaIbomState to help Nigeria cut the huge costof liftingcrudeoil,refiningandimporting the products.

Oil Theft: NSCDC Parades Fake Naval Officers, 29 Others

The Nigeria Security and Civil De-fence Corps (NSCDC) has paraded eight fake naval officers, arrestedfor illegally escorting a vessel laden with stolen petroleum products.

ICYMI: Why Shell, Chevron, Other Oil Majors Are Leaving Nigeria

Fresh insights as to why the oil majors are gradually scaling down their operations and planning their exit from the country has been un-raveled.

No Plan to Increase Petrol Price in May – NNPC

There is no plan to increase the pump price of premium motor spir-it (PMS), popularly known as petrol, for the month of May, said the Nige-rian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

Petrol Queues: Kyari Briefs Buhari, Promises to End Fuel Scarcity

Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mele Kyari, has frowned at the re-emergence of pet-rol queues across the country, as-suring that the situation would nor-malise in hours.

NNPC Boosts Daily PMS Truck-out From 550 to 1,661 to Tackle Fuel Queues

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has increased the daily supply of premium motor spirit (PMS), otherwise known as petrol, across the country from 550 trucks to 1,661 trucks to combat the buildup of fuel queues in some parts of the country

39

The acronym, LGBT, is no longer new in today’s Nige-ria as human beings now

live in a society where same-gen-der attracts each other, either ro-mantically or sexually.

The acronym, which stands for Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay, Bi-sexual and Transgender, is one of the common practices in the country. However, it is not as conspicuous in Nigeria as other developed countries of the world where it is rife.

Although LGBT is not rampant in Nigeria, a pocket of people fall under that category. Popular among them is Idris Olaranwaju, popularly known as Bobrisky.

Others include: Stephanie Rose, Miss Sahara, Noni Salma

and Mandy la Candy.Most of the aforementioned

began practicing transgender in the country before making their way abroad to widen the LGBT community in their domain, while others practiced the trend se-cretly without necessarily being in the public glare.

However, the question that comes to mind in any Nigerian is that law enforcement agen-cies allow the LGBT community to flock the streets without being apprehended or reprimanded.

This is because there is an ex-isting law aimed at punishing any and every Nigerian who is either a transgender, gay, or bisexual. But this law is not being applied as it is expected.

A classic example in the past was that of the then erstwhile Director-General of the Nation-al Council for Arts and Culture, Otunba Olusegun Runsewe, who had a verbal fracas with contro-versial transgender (Bobrisky), where the latter was offended for being described as a threat to the Nigerian moral fabric.

“Bobrisky is a national dis-grace. He started by selling and using bleaching creams. Now, he has grown boobs, bums and hips. If a Bobrisky is doing well with his immoral lifestyle, how do you convince Nigerian youths to do the right thing? Bobrisky has the right, but not within the Nige-rian environment,” Runsewe had said angrily.

Entertainment 04:21

–By Adeniyi Onifade

Despite Legislation, Authorities Allow LGBT Flock Nigerian Streets

Olusegun Runsewe Bobrisky

40

Entertainment 04:21

The NCAC DG, who felt dis-gusted by the trend, further stat-ed that, “My job is to protect and preserve the fabric of our good culture. Bobrisky is not a role model or an icon that Nigerian youths should look up to. We should all condemn him so that he would go back to how he was created. He has a right to leave Nigeria for any country that prac-tices and encourages transgen-der lifestyle. If he is caught on the streets of this country, he will be dealt with ruthlessly.”

However, to the shock of many Nigerians, Bobrisky responded by saying, “I heard someone in government talked about me a few days ago. Please tell him I’m waiting for him. It’s then he will know that I roll with his bosses in government, not someone at his level. So, he left serious issues in Nigeria to address Bobrisky. But I popular sha…”

Till date, Bobrisky has never been arrested or reprimanded. Rather, he is gaining more pop-ularity, while many young Nigeri-ans are now practicing what he does as he is now seen as a role model

Also, a popular Blogger, Linda Ikeji quoted lawyer and human rights activist, Festus Keyamo, as saying that Bobrisky and oth-er transgender cannot be arrest-

ed, except they are caught in the act.

“For me, you have to be caught in the act. Yes, it may amount to corrupting public morals when you go on social media to an-nounce you are gay, but we are talking about the law here and not sentiment. And if we are talking about the law, the person has to be caught in the act. Ex-cept the person says he is gay, and refers to a particular gay act thatcanbeverified.

“For example, if Mr. A comes out on social media to say I am a thief, he cannot be arrested be-cause his declaration that he is a thief cannot be linked to a partic-ular act of stealing. Anybody can come out to say I am a kidnapper, but if you do not link that declara-tion to a particular incident that happened, that person cannot be arrested. So also, if a person comes out to say I am gay, and you can’t link it to a particular gay act that actually happened or that he was caught in the act, I think it is wrong for such a per-son to be arrested.

“You can only be arrested when you consent to the act that canbeverified.Hecanbearrest-ed for saying that he is gay, but it must be linked to a gay act that happened. You cannot be arrest-ed for just saying you are gay,”

Keyamo was quoted as saying.

What the law saysAlthough there are about 27

countries of the world that are legally permitting same-sex mar-riages, many African countries have prohibited marriages be-tween same-sex couples.

In the case of Nigeria, the country’s legislators enacted the Same-Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act in 2014. By the Act, same-sex marriage, in its entirety, is prohib-ited and criminalised, with a pen-alty of 14 years imprisonment where convicted.

While the law focuses on as-sociation of same-sex persons, there is no provision of law that takes a position on the right of an intersex person or a transsex-ual person who has undergone a gender reassignment surgery.

However, for instance, in states under Shari’a law, the penalty for same-sex marriage or anyone practicing LGBT is express death sentence, and it only applies to persons who have agreed to the jurisdiction of Shari’a courts as well as all Muslims.

However, states that are not under the Shari’a law have a pen-alty of 14 years’ imprisonment.

For example, if Mr. A comes out on social media to say I am a thief, he cannot be arrested because his dec-laration that he is a thief cannot be linked to a partic-ular act of stealing. Anybody can come out to say I am a kidnapper, but if you do not link that declaration to a particular incident that happened, that person cannot be arrested. So also, if a person comes out to say I am gay, and you can’t link it to a particular gay act that actually happened or that he was caught in the act, I think it is wrong for such a person to be arrested.”

41

Column: Health Rendezvous 04:21

Having a good night’s sleep is just as important as eat-ing healthy and exercising.

It powers the mind, restores the body, and fortifies virtually everysystem in the body. Unfortunate-ly, there is a lot that can interfere with natural sleep patterns. Peo-ple are now sleeping less than they did in the past, and sleep quality has decreased as well.

Here are some reasons why having a good night’s sleep is in-credibly important for your health and wellness.

1. Short sleep duration is associ-ated with increased risk of obe-sity

Poor sleep is strongly linked to weight gain. People with short sleep duration tend to put on weight more than those who get adequate sleep. Studies have re-vealed that short sleep duration increases the risk of obesity in children by 89 per cent and 55 per cent in adults.

The effect of sleep on weight gain is mediated by numerous factors, including genetics, hor-mones and motivation to exer-cise. One major factor involved in sleep-mediated weight gain is appetite.

Studies have shown that sleep-deprived individuals have a bigger appetite and tend to eat more calories. Sleep deprivation disrupts the daily fluctuations in appetite hormones, and thereby, causing poor appetite regulation. This includes: having higher lev-els of ghrelin – the hormone that stimulates appetite, and reduced levels of leptin – the hormone that suppresses appetite.

Contrarily, there are people who experience excessive weight loss due to short sleep duration. Ei-ther way, abnormal weight gain or loss could be detrimental to your health. Thus maintaining qualita-tive sleep duration is absolutely crucial.

The question you may be ask-

ing is: what sleep duration is con-sidered qualitative? Scientific re-searches have made it clear that sleep is essential at any age.

According to Sleep Foundation guidelines, adults (18 to 64 years) are advised to have seven to nine hours of sleep per night. However, the hours recommended for ba-bies, young children, and teenag-ers are even higher to enable their growth and development. Older adults (over 65 years old) should also get seven to eight hours per night.

The recommended sleep dura-tion for 0 to 17 years old individ-uals are as follows: newborn (0-3 months old) 14-17 hours, infant (4-11 months old) 12-15 hours, toddler (1-2 years old) 11-14 hours, preschool (3-5 years old) 10-13 hours, school-age (6-12 years old) 9-11 hours, teen (13-17 years old) 8-10 hours.

2. Good sleep improves concen-tration and productivity

Sleep fortifies variousaspectsof brain function. This includes: cognition, concentration, pro-ductivity, and performance. All of these are negatively affected by sleep deprivation.

According to a certain study, medical and healthcare practi-tioners on a traditional sched-ule, with extended work hours of more than 24 hours made 36 per cent more serious medical errors than those on a schedule that al-lowed more sleep. Short sleep is suggested to negatively impact some aspects of brain function to a similar degree as alcohol intox-ication.

–Ibrahim Suleiman Ph.D.

Why it is Important to Maintain Qualitative Sleep

42

On the other hand, good sleep has been shown to improve prob-lem-solving skills, and enhance memory performance of both children and adults. It also im-proves accuracy, reaction times, and mental well-being.

Another thing that your brain does while you sleep is processing your emotions. Your mind needs this time in order to recognise and react the right way. When you cut that short, you tend to have more negative emotional reactions and fewer positive ones.

Chronic lack of sleep can also raise the chance of having a mood disorder. One large study showed that when you have insomnia, you are five times more likely to de-velop depression, and your odds of anxiety or panic disorders are even greater. About 90 per cent of people with depression complain about sleep quality. Poor sleep also increases the suicidal ten-dencies of depressed individuals.

3. Sleep deprivation increases the risk of metabolic and cardio-vascular disorders

While you sleep, your blood pressure goes down, giving your heart and blood vessels a bit of a rest. The less sleep you get, the longer your blood pressure stays up during a 24-hour cycle. High blood pressure can lead to heart disease, including stroke. Short-term downtime can have long-term payoffs. A review of 15 stud-ies found that people who do not get enough sleep are at far great-

er risk of heart disease or stroke than those who sleep seven to nine hours per night.

Similarly, sleep deprivation af-fects blood sugar level and reduc-es insulin sensitivity. It was report-ed that restricting sleep to four hours per night for six consecu-tive nights resulted in symptoms of prediabetes. These symptoms were resolved after one week of qualitative sleep duration.

Therefore, you should not make it a habit to sleep for less than six hours per night. This has been shown to increase your risk of Type 2 diabetes.

4. Sleep improves your immunitySleep deprivation has been

shown to impair immune func-tion (your body’s ability to fightgerms and stay healthy). To help you ward off illnesses, your im-mune system identifies harmfulbacteria and viruses in your body, and destroys them. Lack of sleep changes the way your immune cells work. They may not attack as quickly, and you could get sick more often.

5. Too much of a good thing?Sleep needs vary, but on aver-

age, sleeping regularly for more than nine hours a night may do more harm than good to adults. Re-search found that people who slept longer had more calcium buildup in their heart and blood vessels. This increases risk of some cardiovas-cular disorders and causes less flexible leg arteries.

If you often wake up in the middle of the night, or still feel ex-hausted after an adequate num-ber of hours of sleep, it implies poor sleep quality.

Here are few things you can do to improve your sleep quality:Avoid sleeping when you have had enough sleep.Going to bed around the same time each night.Spending more time outside, and being more active during the day.Reducing stress through exer-cise, therapy, or other means.Choosing a mattress that is supportive and comfortable, and outfitting it with quality pillowsand bedding.Minimising potential disrup-tions from light and sound while optimising your bedroom tem-perature and aroma.Disconnecting from electronic devices like mobile phones and laptops for a half-hour or more before bed.Carefully monitoring your intake of caffeine and trying to avoid consuming them in the hours be-fore bed.

Summarily, sleep is a vital, of-ten neglected, component of ev-ery person’s overall health and well-being. Sleep is important, because it enables the body to repair, and be fit and ready foranother day. Getting adequate rest may also help prevent excess weight gain, heart disease, and in-creased illness duration

Column: Health Rendezvous 04:21

Chronic lack of sleep can also raise the chance of having a mood disorder. One large study showed that when you have insomnia, you are five times more likely to develop depression, and your odds of anxiety or panic disorders are even greater. About 90 per cent of people with depression complain about sleep quality. Poor sleep also increases the suicidal ten-dencies of depressed individuals.

43

Nigeria is a country that is so blessed abundantly with nu-merous resources in human

and nature. With over 200 million people, Nigeria can boast of ven-turing into any field of life it de-sires, as well as compete strongly forhonoursinthechosenfield.

With Nigeria’s population, it is only natural that the good, the bad, and the ugly would be found among Nigerians. This has given rise to increased crime in the coun-try. Consequently, fighting crimehas become a very tough job for the agencies that are charged with the responsibility of combating and eradicating crime.

violent crimes, such as: armed robbery, kidnapping, rape and gang-related crimes have become very common among Nigerians. Government, at all levels, has been makingeffortstofightcrimes,es-pecially among the youths. Gov-

ernment agencies – the police and others – have been discharging their duties, as best as they could.

But the truth about the matter is that crimes have eaten so deep among the youths. The major rea-son for this is lack of employment for the teeming Nigerian youths.

Sports, however, have been iden-tifiedbymanyasagoodinstrumenttofightagainstcrimes in thesoci-ety. Across the nation, some com-munities and even local government areas have adopted sports as an in-strument to help them fight youthcrimes,becauseitischeap,efficientand popular.

It is very easy to attract the teeming idle youths to a particular sportsfiestaforaday,aweek,oramonth–dependingon thefinan-cial capacity of the organisers to hostthesportsfiesta.Whilesomeof the youths would be participat-ing as the principal actors, others

would be part of the spectators.This is exactly what was wit-

nessed in Nasarawa State during the 2021 Easter season. It was the debut of themotorsport fies-ta which thrilled the people of the state. Themotorsport fiesta wasattended by more than 200 racers and racing enthusiasts.

It was the maiden edition, which was facilitated by the President of the Nasarawa State Motorsports Community, Sanni Jibo. Although it was a one-day event, it brought out boredom from both the racers and the racing enthusiasts. The one-day motorsport event, which litupthecapitalcityofLafia,waswon by Habeed Nagode, who hails from Zuru, Kebbi State.

Nagode beat Capo and Kawu Yola to the second and third posi-tions, respectively.

Speaking at the end of the event, Jibo said the event aimed at

Column: Rolling Wheels 04:21

–Teddy Nwanunobi

Using Motorsport to Fight Crime in Nigeria

Habeed Nagode in a joyous mood with other riders on his 3 Series BMW, as they celebrate their trophies at the end of the maidenNasarawaMotorsportsChampionshipinLafia,recently…

44

bringing value to the stakeholders.“We are glad the sport is well ac-

cepted in the state. One thing we must note is that before the for-mal running of this project, several groups had been engaging in the sport at different levels within and outside Nasarawa. This event is an attempt to coordinate it and bring value to all stakeholders,” he said.

He said the interest in the sport was already present, adding that the atmosphere the visiting racers, riders, and other groups created confirmed the state as a hotbedfor motorsports and diverse wheel sports.

“We are glad the government saw value in the empowerment that the sport can bring, especial-ly its impact on the local economy and the huge potential of becom-ing a dragnet for tourism in the state,” he added.

Bikers and different categories of skaters were also featured at the event, which Jibo has assured he would liaise with the govern-ment and state-based tourism op-erators to maximise the benefitsfor all stakeholders by liaising with key motorsport communities with a view to giving the needed depth to the sport.

“The government has shown im-mense support to this project, and his reception to some of our touring athletes during the event speaks vol-umes. We would liaise with key mo-torsports community to give depth and put the state and its potentials to the fore,” he said.

Some of the motorsport com-munities that were represented at the inaugural Nasarawa Auto Sports competition were: Abuja, Minna, and Zuru.

Yes, it was not a joke. Motor-

sport event actually took place in Nigeria, and it happened in Nasar-awa State. The credit goes to the Stateforbeingthefirststatetonotonly organise the event, but the firsttodososuccessfully.

Governments at all levels and stakeholders should borrow a leaf from Nasarawa State. More of such event, even in other sports, needs to be organised at intervals, but on yearly basis. Even if the financial muscles would not beenough toorganise thefiestaan-nually, it would not be a bad idea to have it come up biennially.

On the federal and state gov-ernments’ parts, functional sports policy that would give the teeming Nigerian youths a sense of belong-ing need to be put in place.

Column: Rolling Wheels 04:21

The controversial ‘On-street Parking System’, popularly known by the residents of

the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) as ‘Park-and-Pay’ policy will make a return on May 1, 2021. So many FCT car owners have expressed shock at the announcement, which was issued by the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) on Tuesday, April 13.

The arrangements to re-intro-duce the controversial policy have already been concluded, sealed and delivered. What it means is that the policy is only making a re-turn seven years after it was vehe-mently resisted by some residents of the FCT in 2014.

Going by what the Acting Sec-retary, FCT Transportation Sec-retariat, Usman Yahaya, said, the policy was to bring about sanity in the city. There is no doubt that the nation’s capital needs some sanity, especially as it regards indiscrimi-nate parking of vehicles within the

city. It is a good move to see that the city regains some sanity, no matter the area it starts from.

However, one would like to note some of the issues that were raised while the policy was op-posed to when it was first intro-duced. First, residents had decried the high handedness of the opera-tives, and queried the ownership of the companies that were used for ticketing and enforcement.

Then, the policy, which was in-troduced in 2011, required that vehicles parked within the city between the periods of 7am and 7pm during workdays were to pay for the space and time they were parked, except on Saturdays and Sundays.

But as laudable as the policy was, it was marred by the adminis-tration, which seemed to have de-railed in its mission, as its staffers, acting on instruction, abused the implementation of the policy. For instance, it was the duty of the on-

street-parking attendants to man their posts and ensure that driv-ers parked are duly charged. But they would rather stay away from visible points where they could be contacted, and payment made for an amicable service upon the exit of the drivers. They would call their supervisors who would come to clamp the vehicle for the bigger cash of N5000 and above than for the N50 or N100 tag for 30 min-utes and one hour, respectively.

The policy created bad blood between the drivers/car owners and the operators, and by exten-sion, the administration of the FCT which empowered the operators, as the car owners groaned under the policy.

Having noted some of the things that were wrong with the policywhenitwasfirstintroduced,one would like to believe that the authorities have thoroughly done their homework to avoid the case of once beaten, twice shy

‘Park-and-Pay’: Has FCT Learnt from 2014?

45

Aviation 04:21

The long-awaited African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement

came into effect on January 1, 2021 with a lot of prospects, as the market was valued at about $3 trillion. AfCFTA took off this year to liberalise trade among Af-rican countries.

Considering its position on the African continent, Nigeria is seen as one of the countries that will make maximum use of the bene-fitswhichthemarketbrings.

Accordingly, the Federal Gov-ernment has designated fiveinternational airports to sup-port the implementation of both AfCFTA and Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) agreements. SAATM aims to achieve the open sky agenda of the African Union ahead of 2063.

The airports are: Murtala Mu-hammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos; Nnamdi Aziki-we International Airport (NAIA), Abuja; Mallam Aminu Kano Inter-national Airport (MAKIA), Kano; Port Harcourt International Air-port (PHIA), Omagwa; and Akanu Ibiam International Airport (AIIA), Enugu.

Following the decision, the Federal Government and stake-

holders have been discussing on how these airports will boost Ni-igeria’s continental trade, as well as its economy.

Speaking on the readiness of the airports to carry out these tasks, the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, said efforts have been on how to upgrade these airports’ terminals to a compet-itive global standard, with PHIA and NAIA already in operation.

How 5 Airports Will Boost Nigeria’s Continental Trade

–By Adeniyi Onifade

46

Sirika disclosed that similar Chinese terminals in Lagos and Kano would open at the end of April, while Enugu will come up later in the year.

The Minister said he had been advocating special support for theaviationindustry,specificallyto fast-track systems’ upgrades in Lagos, Abuja, Kano, Port Har-court, and Enugu to match inter-national standards.

“In our modest way in Nigeria, wehavedevelopedthesefiveair-ports. We have completed Abuja and Port Harcourt, and put them to use. Kano and Lagos are com-pleted, and will be put to use in March. Enugu will join in due course,” Sirika said.

The Minister was upbeat about the prospect of the liberal-isation policies and their implica-tion for aviation growth.

“Aviation, as an elitist sector, is a myth. Civil aviation is for all. It connects markets and busi-nesses, nations, cultures, histo-ries and traditions, schools and children, and so on. If SAATM is implemented, it means there will be more access to civil aviation, more connectivity, and that would bring down prices, and make civil aviation affordable. Implemen-tation of SAATM means aviation will be for all of us,” he said.

Similarly, the Director for Afri-ca at the International Air Trans-port Association (IATA), Funke Adeyemi, further explained how both AfCFTA and SAATM would work for African countries.

“We believe aviation can be an accelerator for the AfCFTA, and so does African Union, which is why they have three flagship projects which they launched

in 2018 and 2019, starting with SAATM.

“What SAATM is designed to do is to create a Pan African air transport market; almost a domestic market across Africa that connects cities by air. The AfCFTA is to create one Afri-can market, which is proposed to be the largest trading bloc in the world by 2035, if it is done rightly. And of course, we have another initiative called the Free Movement Protocol for people and goods, which looks at visa and customs regimes across the continent. These three togeth-er are dedicated and ensuring the smooth facilitation of peo-ple, goods, and services across Africa to help the African Union and all Africans to realise the ob-jectives of integration towards prosperity and unity,” Adeyemi explained.

Adeyemi added that factors that would help market integra-tion in Africa to build a sustain-able system for trades, goods, and services through aviation are improved connectivity, open bor-ders, andcargo-specific, amongothers.

She noted that it is going to be difficulttorealisethebenefitsofany framework agreement with-out connectivity - be it SAATM or AfCFTA.

“Connectivity is essential, in terms of the ability to connect people and goods by different means and the airlines are go-ing to support us to do that in accelerating the growth and the implementation of AfCFTA. And it is for both passengers and car-go. Connectivity of course also bringsotherbenefitswithitsuch

as growth in GDP and socio-eco-nomic development and so on.

“Open border is what we talked about in terms of free movement protocols. We need the visa re-gime to be able to help people move around. We also need the right customs regime and the right border automation border control and so on, to support the movement of people, goods, and services to the development, growth, and sustainability of Af-rican economy as we begin to recover from this pandemic,” she said.

In the same way, the Direc-tor-General of the Nigeria Civ-il Aviation Authority (NCAA), Capt. Musa Nuhu, added that, with a population of 1.3 bil-lion and gross domestic prod-uct (GDP) of $2.6 trillion on the continent, the open trade agreement would offer a huge potential for continental avia-tion.

“Being the dominant market in Western, Central Africa and the continent, Nigeria has ex-cellent opportunities and po-tential that has been largely ignored, or not exploited over the years.

“It is a significant opportunityfor Nigerian airline operators to go into the cargo business and trans-port these goods massively and in a few hours to their destination countries. It will be cheaper and it gets there faster, which will lead to the growth of this market,” Nuhu added.

Although the secretariat of the AfCFTA is domiciled in Ghana, Ni-geria is still regarded as a strate-gic stakeholder, owing to its large economy and trade volume.

Aviation 04:21

Aviation, as an elitist sector, is a myth. Civil aviation is for all. It connects markets and business-es, nations, cultures, histories and traditions, schools and children, and so on.”

47

Property 04:21

There are heightened con-cerns in Nigeria’s real es-tate sector, as investors

are apprehensive that the hous-ing deficitmayworsen, and in-vestments would drop due to security challenges in the coun-try.

They acknowledged that the rising insecurity and ten-sion arose from dissatisfaction among the population of jobless youths, activities of insurgents, bandits and herdsmen, which resulted in the loss of lives and destruction of property.

Data obtained from the Unit-ed Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) revealed that over 3.2 million people are displaced, including about 2.9 million internally displaced per-sons (IDPs) in north-eastern Ni-geria.

UNHCR said $848 million (N259,488,000,000) is needed to provide basic amenities such as water and shelter to the most vulnerable people inside Nigeria.

It is also seeking $135 million (N 41,310,000,000) to help dis-placed people across the Lake Chad Basin region, where nearly 2.4 million people in total have been displaced due to Boko Ha-ram insurgency, which started in Nigeria in 2009.

Similarly, a report by World Bank shows that since com-mencement of the Boko Haram scourge in 2009, about 956,453 (nearly 30 per cent) out of 3,232,308 private houses; 5,335 classrooms and school build-ings in 512 primary, 38 second-

ary schools and two tertiary in-stitutions; 1,205 municipal, local government or ministry build-ings, 76 police stations have been affected in Borno State.

Currently, insecurity has spread to other parts of the country, including Benue, Ad-amawa, Kaduna, Sokoto and Plateau states, as well as the South-West, where there had been rise in kidnap for ransom in Lagos, Ekiti, Ondo, Oyo and Osun states. There were also similar cases in the South-South and South-East regions.

The Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and valuers (NIESv) recently sounded the alarm on the state of insecurity.

A leading member of the body stated: “The security challenges in Nigeria today, to say the least, are worrisome – from the intrac-table Boko Haram insurgency, which has claimed thousands of lives, and condemned sever-al others to Internally Displaced Persons camps.

“The Southern Kaduna con-flict, agitations in the Niger Delta, as well as calls for succession in the former Biafra Republic, vio-lent clashes between the Fulani herdsmen and farmers all over the country, renewed surge in kidnapping in major cities, and villages among others, Nigeria is now one of the hotbeds of conflict in Africa,” NIESv Presi-dent, Sir Emmanuel Wike, said.

According to him, the crises have huge economic implica-tions on business, including the real estate, coupled with an in-

tersection with poverty as a re-sult of rising food prices, which can be linked clearly to the inac-cessibility of farmlands taken over by criminal herdsmen and rampaging bandits.

While commending the gov-ernment’s efforts in address-ing these challenges, the body called on the government to re-invent and rearrange the entire security architecture and appa-ratus.

However, fillers from theproperty market in the regions, especially North-East show that insecurity has affected real es-tate development (investment) in both negative and positive ways.

“(On the negative side), it de-stroyed thousands of homes, and made the populace home-less. However, on the other hand, some desperate real es-tate investors (go) into acquir-ing those destroyed properties, or property that are located in a crisis area at cheaper prices, and kept them for speculation,” Jambil Suyudi, NIESv Chairman, Bauchi/Gombe branch, said.

Suyudi, who doubles as the Head of Department of Estate Management and valuation, Abubakar Tatari Ali Polytechnic, Bauchi, disclosed that, though a lot of people have been flee-ing Maiduguri, many displaced families have also settled in the relatively safer city. The popula-tion shift spiked the real estate prices, and helped dealers make majorfinancialgains.

He cited instances of a proper-

Worries as Insecurity Threatens Property Investments in Nigeria

–By Danlami Nasir Isah

48

Property 04:21

As it stands, if the worsening insecurity continues to thrive in the country, stakeholders fear that the real estate sector may not achieve the desired growth and contribute its quota to nation growth.

tydevelopmentfirmthathadupto 50 clients seeking for places to stay, and their service teams were overstretched in meeting the needs of new entrants as prices of property within the cit-iessignificantlyincreased.

Lately, the prices of such property have grown massively, after a relative return of peace in some parts of the city. People are beginning to return to some of the towns in Maiduguri sub-urbs.

“Those fleeing the attack- prone areas sell their properties at a very cheap rate. A house of N3,060,000 could be offered at N765,000,” he stated.

While speaking on the North-East experience, Suyudi said, “Maiduguri – a dusty landscape of relative peace – is changing fast. In the last few years, doz-ens of buildings have popped up, and several new buildings are under construction. Inves-tors and property developers

have returned to the city. High-end supermarkets, schools, churches, town halls, residential buildings and government-fund-ed camping settlements have significantly increased acrossthe city.”

The Chairman of NIESv, Kano branch, Mr. Salam Oyewumi, told a national newspaper that people target areas that have in-frastructure and relative securi-ty in their quest for apartments, especially the airport axis and Sabon Gari area, as well as mili-tary neigbourhoods.

Oyewumi revealed that the prices of houses and lands in those areas have skyrocketed due to their preference by pro-spective homeowners. He said premium locations attract up to N15 million for a plot of land, while the lowest plot goes for N5 million.

According to him, the govern-ment reserved areas (GRAs) are being sold under economies of

scale. He said that investors buy and unbundle them into small sizes, which has now attracted speculators. An unbundled plot, which earlier went for between N25 million and N30 million, is presently being sold for N50 million.

He said the commercial prop-erty, which are saturated with informal operators, are affect-ed by the insecurity in the area because of the restriction of ac-tivities. Oyewumi disclosed that some of the shopping outlets have embraced online market-ing, while some estate agents are offering rent discounts or dropping rentals as high as 25 per cent to woo tenants.

As it stands, if the worsening insecurity continues to thrive in the country, stakeholders fear that the real estate sector may not achieve the desired growth and contribute its quota to na-tion growth.

49

Although the UN’s Global Goal 5 advocates for gender equal-ity and the empowerment of

women and girls as a fundamental human right, the truth is that there is no country in the world where girls and women are yet have equal opportuni-ties to boys and men. The case is not different in Nigeria where females are still getting the short end of the stick on most growth and developmental indices. The National Bureau of Sta-tistics (NBS) reveals that from 2010 to 2015 only 38 per cent of federal employees in Nigeria were women on average. Meanwhile, the International Parliamentary Union (IPU) states that women make up less than 6 per cent of Nigeria’s parliament. The situation is worse, although true, that Nigeria has the highest rate of maternal mortality in the world.

Despite the statistics, some Nige-rian women have shown that they do not need to waste their time talking about equal rights or gender equality. These women have to challenge the statusquo,andfightforaworldwherethey are truly equal.

Kafayat Sanni: For what she achieved at just 22 years, Kafayat would take the lead. The Nigerian Air Force (NAF), for 55 years, never had afemalefighterpilot,until2019whenKafayatbecamethefirsttomountthatpodium.

“It was what I wanted to do. And I felt that everyone is not supposed to fold their arms and watch what is hap-pening in our country. Everyone could always play their part. So, I did not think there was any reason for me to think that it is not possible for me to actually fly the jet because there was no female that ever flew the jet. I believe I could achieve it and I did. It is a privilege for me to bewinged as the first femalefighterpilot in theNigerianAirForce,”

she told ThisDay in 2019.She is also the firstwoman to go

through regular combat training at the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) to bewingedforafixedwingfighterair-craft. Kafayat also trained in the US, and was named the overall best pilot at the NAF 401 Flying Training School, Kaduna State, in 2017.

Perhaps, the only lady that came close to Kafayat’s feat was late Flying OfficerTolulopeOluwatoyinSarahAro-tile,whowasthefirst-everfemalecom-bat helicopter pilot in the NAF. Late Tolu,who contributed significantly tocombat operations against insecurity in the northern states of Nigeria, died on July 14, 2020 at the Nigerian Air Force Base Kaduna, Kaduna.

Sandra Aguebor: known as Lady Mechanic, Sandra, who has managed her own garage (Sandex Car Care Ga-rage) for 22 years in her 32-year career, isNigeria’sfirstfemaleautomotiveme-chanic.

“Becoming thefirst ladymechanicin Nigeria is not a bed of roses – men have been doing this for generations. ThementhoughtIwascrazyatfirst.Ihadtoworkfivetimesharderthanthemen to prove myself,” she told CNN in 2020.

Sandra is, no doubt, challenging one of the biggest stereotypes in Nigerian society:thatonlymencanfixcars.

Lois Auta:Loishasdefiedeverybar-rier she’s faced as a woman living with a disability in Nigeria, despite suffering from polio at age two which perma-nently put her in a wheelchair. She ran for a seat in Nigeria’s lower legislative house in 2019, and became the firstperson living with a disability to do so.

“I am an advocate of inclusive leg-islation. I am glad that the Persons with Disabilities Bill has been recent-ly signed, which means we will have better access to infrastructure, health

care, and transportation. If I win the elections, I will sponsor bills that pro-vide an enabling environment for per-sons with disabilities, especially in the area of education. I will also ensure there is a 10 per cent (reserved quo-tas) in every organisation for gradu-ates with a disability,” she told the UN in 2019.

Adenike Oyetunde: Adenike’s life changed completely when she lost her right leg to bone cancer at the age of 20. But that did not cut short her dreams, as she chose to challenge the barriers life in Nigeria threw at her. To-day, she is a disability advocate, lawyer, media personality, author, social media influencer, and life coach.

She got a law degree, and she went on to grow a successful radio career, and started the Amputee United Initia-tive, a campaign that advocates for the rights of persons with disabilities. She also volunteers with the Irede Foun-dation, a nonprofit organisation thatworks with kids who have had ampu-tations and provides them with pros-thetic limbs.

“I am trying to teach people like myself, amputees, to love themselves because society does not accept them even though it is not their fault,” she told PUNCH in 2017.

Through her work, Oyetunde has been able to shed much-needed light on the challenges facing people with disabilities and last month she was appointed as a Special Assistant to the Lagos state governor on Persons Liv-ing with Disabilities (PLwB).

In Nigeria, women are still getting the short end of the stick on most growth and developmental indices. But these incredible women have challenged gender stereotypes in male-dominated professions, and have rightfully earned their places of honour.

Column 04:21

WOMEN’S CORNER

–Asmau Abubakar

Incredible Nigerian Women in Men’s Places

50

Sports 04:21

BASKETBALL: ‘We Will Not Beg Anyone to Consider Playing for

Nigeria’ ― Musa Kida

–By Saidu Abubakar

The Nigeria Basketball Fed-eration has said that it will not beg any player to con-

sider featuring for Nigeria.Valuechain gathered that while

the Federation remains open to the choice of inviting the best Ni-gerian players at any given time, the NBBF also leaves open, the decision to play for Nigeria to the players who have all at some point identifiedwithNigeriaoneway or the other.

NBBF President, Engr. Musa Ahmadu Kida made this known as calls for inclusion of rising Nigerian stars who recently got drafted into the National Bas-ketball Association (NBA) league grow.

“They’re on our radar, they are in constant contact with the Technical team, which is in charge of contact with players. For us, they have proudly waved

the Nigerian flag but we know that to play or not will be their personal decision,” he stated.

Eight players of Nigerian de-scent currently dominate the 2021 draft class and the feder-ation believe that the D’Tigers Technical crew have enough selection worries in the future if things go according to plans.

Kida reiterated that in line with the board’s decision to give all Nigerians an opportunity to rep-resent their fatherland, the door is open to any interested play-er who wants to suit up for the teams (male and female).

“My sworn sense of fairness for all Nigerians is that we invite the best we can figure at anytime. So, yes, they are on our ra-dar and they are in constant talks with the technical team which is really in charge of contact with players.

“For us, they are Nigerians, they have proudly waved the Ni-gerian flag but we also know that to play or not, at the end of the day will be their personal deci-sion”, Kida continued.

Precious Achiuwa (Miami Heats), Udoka Azubuike (Utah Jazz), Isaac Okoro (Cleveland Cavaliers) Onyeka Okongwu (At-lanta Hawks), Zeke Nnaji (Den-ver Nuggets), Desmond Bane (Boston Celtics), Daniel Oturu (LA Clippers), and Jordan Nwora (Milwaukee Bucks) all got draft-ed which added to the ever-swell-ing pool of Nigerians already in the NBA.

While appealing to their emo-tional side, Kida is of the opinion that playing for Nigeria, which they have proudly associated with during their draft night, will be more rewarding and satisfy-ing in the long run.

Amadu Musa Kida Some D’Tigers’ players in a training session

51

All six Premier League teams involved in the 12-team European Super

League (ESL) have now formally withdrawn from the competition.

Valuechain gathered that Man-chester City was the first clubto pull out after Chelsea had signalled their intent to do so by preparing documentation to withdraw.

The other four sides - Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham - have all now fol-lowed suit.

Italian side Inter Milan are also set to withdraw as they no longer wish to be involved with the project.

A BBC Sport reports that boss-es at the Serie A club are prepar-ing for their exit following dra-matic developments.

The Super League, set up by the seven afore-mentioned teams and Spain’s Atletico Ma-drid, Barcelona and Real Madrid and Italy’s AC Milan and Juven-tus was announced on Sunday to widespread condemnation.

“Despite the announced de-

parture of the English clubs, forced to take such decisions due to the pressure put on them, we are convinced our proposal is fully aligned with European law and regulations,” the ESL said on Wednesday, adding it was “con-vinced that the current status quo of European football needs to change”.

In an interview with Italian newspaper la Repubblica, Juven-tus chairman Andrea Agnelli said the remaining clubs will “press ahead” and the project still had

European Super League Fallout: City Leads Premier League

Teams’ Exodus

Sports 04:21

–By Saidu Abubakar

52

“a 100% chance of being a suc-cess”

“Real Madrid President Floren-tino Perez is insisting on the idea of keeping the group together to push for change,” says Spanish football expert Guillem Balague.

“Barcelona say they agreed to the ESL, but only if the Season Ticket Holders Assembly approve it, which could be their way out.”

Manchester City confirmedthey have “formally enacted the procedures to withdraw” from the Super League.

Liverpool said their involve-ment in the proposed breakaway league “has been discontinued”.

Manchester United said they had “listened carefully to the reaction from our fans, the UK government and other key stake-holders” in making their decision to not take part.

Arsenal apologised in an open letter to their fans and said they had “made a mistake”, adding they were withdrawing after lis-tening to them and the “wider football community”.

Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy said the club regretted the “anxiety and upset” caused by the proposal.

Chelsea confirmed they have“begun the formal procedures for withdrawal from the group” that they only joined “late last week”.

UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin welcomed the reversal, adding: “I said yesterday that it is admirable to admit a mistake and these clubs made a big mistake.

“But they are back in the fold now and I know they have a lot to offer not just to our competitions but to the whole of the European game.

“The important thing now is that we move on, rebuild the uni-ty that the game enjoyed before this and move forward together.”

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson posted on Twitter: “I welcome last night’s announce-ment. This is the right result for football fans, clubs, and com-munities across the country. We must continue to protect our cherished national game.”

Labour leader Keir Starmer added that this “must be a water-shed moment, where we change ourgametoputfansfirstagain”,while Liberal Democrats leader Ed Davey tweeted: “This must be the start of a fans-led football revolution.”

In a statement, the European Super League said: “Given the current circumstances we shall reconsider the most appropriate steps to reshape the project, al-ways having in mind our goals of offering fans the best experi-ence possible while enhancing solidarity payments for the entire football community.”

English football’s ‘big six’ were part of a group that announced plans to form the breakaway league, which they hoped to estab-lish as a new midweek competition.

It was condemned by fans, football authorities and gov-ernment ministers in the UK and across Europe by Uefa and league associations.

Around 1,000 fans gathered outside Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge ground before their game against Brighton on Tuesday to protest at their club’s involvement.

Chelsea legend Petr Cech pleaded with fans to disperse

outside the ground before their match against Brighton.

Manchester United executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward, who was involved in the Super League discussions, has an-nounced he will step down from his role at the end of 2021.

Leading players at some of the six clubs signalled their disap-proval of the planned breakaway league.

Liverpool captain Jordan Hen-derson said on social media his side’s “collective position” is they do not want the Super League to take place.

“We don’t like it and we don’t want it to happen,” read a mes-sage that was also posted by many fellow Liverpool players.

AfterCityconfirmedtheirwith-drawal, England winger Raheem Sterling posted: “Ok bye.”

UEFA had hoped to stave off the threat of a European Su-per League with a new 36-team Champions League, which was agreed on Monday.

In announcing their proposals for a Super League that would eventually comprise of 20 teams, the 12-club group said the Cham-pions League reforms did not go far enough.

Real Madrid President Flo-rentino Perez, who was named as the ESL’s chairman, said the competition was set up “to save football” because young people are “no longer interested” in the game because of “a lot of poor quality games”.

None of the Spanish and Ital-ian sides has yet released a statement after the six Premier League teams pulled out.

Despite the announced departure of the English clubs, forced to take such decisions due to the pressure put on them, we are convinced our proposal is fully aligned with European law and regulations,” the ESL said.

Sports 04:21

53

Market Arena 04:21

VALUECHAIN EXCHANGE & COMMODITY UPDATES AS AT 23RD APRIL 2021

–Compiled By Danlami Nasir Isah

EXCHANGE RATES PRICE (N)Official Rate Buy/SellGBP 526.1657/527.554Euro 456.5055/471.71USD 379/380Parallel Market GBP 662/672Euro 570/577USD 480/485

PETROLEUM PRODUCTS PER LITER PRICE (N)

Diesel 221-265PMS 163

PRECIOUS STONES PRICE (N) PER GRAM

Diamonds 1,690,875.4924 karat gold     23,524.76Silver         318

CRUDE OIL PER BARREL PRICE ($)

WTI Crude 61.51Brent Crude 65.42Nigeria (Bonny Light) 63.83Brass River 63.84Qua Iboe 63.84Arab Light 64.64

LAND PRICE (N) PER PLOTJahi (Abuja) 45,000,000Dawaki (abuja) 18,000,000Gwarinpa 50,000,00010 Hectares of Land in Gwagwalada 25,000,000 -150,000,000Office space per square meter/annum 30,000 – 41,000

FOOD COMMODITIES PRICE (N)50kg Bag of Rice (foreign) 32,000 – 35,00050kg Bag of Rice (local) 20,000 – 27,000100kg Bag of Beans (white) 30,000 – 50,000100kg Bag of Beans (brown/drum) 28,000 – 60,000100kg Bag of Maize 20,000 – 30,000100kg bag of Groundnuts 15,000 – 40,000100kg bag of Sorghum 22,000 – 25,000Basket of Tomatoes 6,000 – 20,000100kg bag of Soyabeans 20,000 – 35,00050kg bag of Garri 20,000 – 28,000100kg Onions 10,000 – 20,00025 litres of Vegetable Oil 20,000 – 25,00025 litres of Palm Oil 14,000 – 25,000A kilo of Beef 1,800 – 2,200A Tuber of Yam 600 – 1,000

The following are the average prices of land in the following districts in Abuja

54