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THE recent award of a pipeline surveillance contract by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited to a company promoted by a former Niger Delta militant, Government Ekpemupolo, mirrors the country’s penchant for decisions that compound, rather than solve problems. Possibly driven by desperation, the N48 billion contract (N4 billion monthly) has ignited a controversy that plays up the country’s divisions, its failed security architecture, and the inability to find quick, effective solutions to national problems.
Oil theft is arguably the major reason for Nigeria’s current severe revenue deficit, with 400,000 barrels of crude lost daily and N9.4 trillion expected earnings from crude under threat. Pipelines conveying refined petroleum products across the country are vandalised, resulting in huge losses. A problem of this nature would everywhere else energise the leadership to produce an efficient response to save the national economy. Instead, for many years, the Nigerian state has not been able to fashion effective countermeasures. A series of joint task forces, naval and infantry troop deployments, as well as bribes to militants and community leaders, have not stopped the massive haemorrhage.
The government has now returned to the failed strategy of awarding multi-billion naira contracts to companies floated by ex-militants once allegedly linked to crimes, including pipeline sabotage.
The award to Ekpemupolo, aka ‘Tompolo’, instantly raised eyebrows because the ex-militant leader was declared wanted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in 2016 following bench warrants for his arrest by a Federal High Court in Lagos, where he was charged with involvement in the illegal diversion of N45.9 billion belonging to the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency. The allegations arose from a security project awarded by the preceding Goodluck Jonathan government.
Under the law, everyone is presumed innocent unless pronounced otherwise by a court of competent jurisdiction. To that extent, Ekpemupolo and the companies associated with him can rightly claim legal innocence. Indeed, the courts threw out the cases against him and his co-accused.
However, there are moral/ethical issues, costs, and the government’s seriousness in fighting criminality and corruption. There is also the question of efficacy. Based partly on politics – to gain support from regional groups, and in furtherance of the policy of appeasement – the Jonathan administration awarded pipeline “protection” contracts to regional and ethnic militant groups.
It failed to stop the massive theft. Its main visible achievements were to make billionaires of a few ex-militants who never answered for their alleged crimes and deepened the sense of entitlement of ethnic and regional militias. Rightly, the succeeding regime of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), stopped it.
The sudden U-turn by the NNPC to award the surveillance contract to Ekpemupolo is an abdication of state responsibility. It confirms, as Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State said, that the national security system has failed totally, necessitating the recourse to non-state actors.
Moreover, the move has reopened demands from other militants, ethnic and regional groups demanding similar contracts. Some groups allege that the contract “rewards criminality;” others claim the right to undertake the task within their own territory. Ekpemupolo’s Ijaw kinsmen mostly support him. Youths of the oil-bearing Ibeno Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State have vowed to resist any attempt by the contractor to enter their territory. Urhobo and Edo youths are separately asking for similar contracts. Within the Ijaw community, a rival ex-militant warlord, Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, through his Niger Delta People Volunteer Force, has similarly warned Ekpemupolo’s staff not to venture near his Kalabari ancestral homeland. There is an underlying threat of violence.
Unwittingly, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company may trigger a renewal of violence among rival ethnic, and militant groups claiming entitlement to pipeline surveillance contracts.
Formerly, restive youth groups in the Niger Delta blew up oil wells, stole crude, disrupted the activities of oil firms, and worsened environmental degradation, among other criminal acts. They were only pacified by a costly amnesty programme that according to the National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno, has drained N712 billion largely unaccounted for.
There is widespread collusion by security personnel and officials in theft. This may have prompted NNPC’s desperation. However, handing over pipeline security to controversial private guards did not check crude oil theft in the past. The government is sending a dangerous signal regarding its capacity to protect critical national assets. Apart from the military and the police, the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps was specifically charged with pipeline protection. The agencies should be made to work. Those colluding with criminals should be smoked out, dismissed from the service, and prosecuted for economic crimes.
Most countries deploy modern technology to protect assets. Where the government decides to contract security work to private companies, they engage reputable firms with established track records.
In Canada, the country’s energy regulator oversees over 73,000 kilometres of pipelines in federal jurisdictions. The regulator gets adequate funding to raise pipeline inspections and inclusive audits. In the United States, with substantial intrastate and interstate oil pipeline systems, the federal and state agencies secure pipelines through comprehensive surveillance and robust technology. Ghana also uses such means to detect and deter oil theft.
The government should strengthen and cleanse the Nigerian Navy and the NSCDC and other agencies. There should also be adequate buy-in of stakeholders and host communities. NSCDC personnel should be trained, equipped, and retooled to perform efficiently.
Critical buy-in from communities through which the assets pass should be well-planned, comprehensive, and structured. Ekpemupolo says he is doing just that, meeting communities and stakeholders.
Pointedly, Akeredolu faulted the willingness of the central government to authorise sophisticated arms for private security firms but adamantly rejects requests by states to arm their regional security initiatives. Well-armed, equipped, trained, and motivated state agencies would be better suited for taking on pipeline surveillance than controversial private operators whose loyalties can shift.
The pipeline contract should be reviewed immediately, and effective, comprehensive measures taken to protect pipelines and production sites.
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