Tracing the Reform Dividend from Fiscal Savings to Public Spending, Social Protection and Measurable Results
There is a reputable nationwide dialog available about the price, construction, transparency and effectiveness of Nigeria’s pipeline surveillance structure. There can be a reputable argument about whether or not communities within the Niger Delta ought to derive better financial worth from the safety of the pure sources extracted from their atmosphere.
When that dialog is decreased to ethnic insinuations, unverified figures and an obvious try to justify one contractor by attacking one other, the nation dangers dropping sight of the larger problem: vitality safety is a nationwide safety matter, not a tribal entitlement.
That is the place Asari Dokubo seems to have missed the purpose. In a video circulating this week, the Niger Delta activist questioned why Government Ekpemupolo, popularly often known as Tompolo, has confronted criticism over pipeline surveillance whereas, in line with him, the Olu of Warri, Ogiame Atuwatse III, and Dr. Osahon Okunbo had been receiving as a lot as N2.7 trillion yearly for safeguarding pipelines.
Dokubo initially referred to the quantity as month-to-month earlier than correcting himself to annual. Importantly, nonetheless, no documentary proof was offered within the video to substantiate the N2.7 trillion determine, and stories carrying the allegation have expressly handled it as unverified.
That distinction just isn’t beauty. It is key. A declare of N2.7 trillion yearly for pipeline surveillance is so extraordinary, that it calls for concrete documentary proof. Contracts, procurement information, fee schedules, scope of labor, contracting entities and authorities approvals must be positioned earlier than the general public.
Without such proof, the determine stays an allegation – Not a reality. That is maybe the very first thing Dokubo missed.
The arithmetic of the allegation in public area – Therein is one other downside the place Dokubo’s allegation seems to break down totally different entities, people and contractual relationships into one large monetary association.
Osahon Okunbo is related to Pipeline Infrastructure Nigeria Limited (PINL), the place he has served in senior government capability. The Olu of Warri has additionally been publicly related to PINL’s management construction. The relationship between a monarch, an organization and a pipeline surveillance contract can’t merely be translated right into a declare that the monarch personally receives the complete worth of a company contract.
Indeed, this isn’t a brand new controversy. In 2022, reporting on the pipeline surveillance association particularly recorded a denial that the Olu of Warri personally owned PINL, whereas figuring out PINL alongside Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited and Maton Engineering Nigeria Limited amongst corporations awarded pipeline surveillance contracts.
More current reporting identifies Osahon Okunbo as a key government of PINL, with the corporate working on crucial pipeline infrastructure.
The distinction issues as a result of company contract worth just isn’t mechanically private revenue.
What Dokubo Gets Right
To be truthful, there’s a reputable query beneath Dokubo’s provocative presentation. If a number of corporations are receiving public cash to guard crucial nationwide infrastructure, Nigerians are entitled to understand how a lot every contractor receives, what kilometres of infrastructure every is liable for, what efficiency indicators apply and what outcomes have been achieved.
That is a severe governance query – So too is Dokubo’s broader argument that the Niger Delta ought to profit economically from the safety and growth of its pure sources.
That argument ought to result in a dialog about clear procurement, group participation, native employment, measurable safety outcomes and accountability – Not ethnic arithmetic(s).
Pipeline safety can’t grow to be a contest over whether or not an Ijaw, Itsekiri, Bini or another Nigerian is entitled to a specific contract.
Nigeria’s oil infrastructure belongs to Nigeria. The duty to guard it’s subsequently nationwide precedence – This is the place Osahon Okunbo turns into related.
Perhaps the best irony in Dokubo’s intervention is that he seems to have ignored what the rising pipeline-security mannequin represented by PINL is definitely attempting to do.
Okunbo has publicly argued that sustainable infrastructure safety can’t rely upon power alone. At the World Economic Forum in Davos, he emphasised inclusion, group engagement and indigenous partnerships as crucial to securing vitality infrastructure. He has additionally spoken in regards to the significance of affected person capital and group buy-in to Nigeria’s vitality future.
In a public account of PINL’s operations, Okunbo described an method constructed round conventional establishments, youths, native management, surveillance expertise and steady stakeholder engagement.
That is a materially totally different proposition from merely placing males on boats and round pipelines. Modern vitality safety entails intelligence, expertise, group relations, fast response, environmental safety, infrastructure upkeep and the creation of incentives for communities to guard – Not destroy the belongings round them.
Indeed, host-community teams have publicly credited PINL’s engagement mannequin with improved pipeline safety and group relations, though such claims ought to themselves be assessed in opposition to independently verifiable manufacturing and safety knowledge.
The Tompolo query is reputable to an extent, however the comparability is improper. Tantita’s position in pipeline surveillance is itself an essential a part of Nigeria’s evolving safety structure. Reports have put the corporate’s annual contract worth at about N48 billion, following a federal authorities award reported in 2023.
The applicable query, subsequently, just isn’t whether or not Tompolo deserves a contract, whereas any person else doesn’t. The applicable query is whether or not each contractor is delivering worth commensurate with public expenditure.
That normal ought to apply equally to Tantita, PINL and each different contractor. If Dokubo believes the Federal Government is paying an excessive amount of for pipeline safety, let the contracts be revealed.
If he believes one firm is receiving preferential therapy, let procurement information set up it. If he believes Niger Delta communities are being short-changed, let the info reveal it.
If he believes there may be corruption, the suitable establishments can examine, however as soon as the argument strikes from proof to ethnicity, the substance begins to vanish.
Energy safety is greater than Dokubo’s quarrel, as Nigeria has spent many years paying the value for oil theft, pipeline vandalism, unlawful refining and manufacturing disruptions. Every barrel prevented from reaching the market impacts authorities income, overseas change, funding confidence and the capability of the nation to finance growth.
Pipeline safety is subsequently not merely about who will get a contract. It is about whether or not Nigeria can safe the infrastructure by which its financial lifeblood flows.
That is the purpose Asari Dokubo seems to have missed. His intervention may have opened a precious nationwide debate about procurement transparency and the economics of Niger Delta safety.
Instead, by advancing a rare N2.7 trillion allegation with out documentary proof and framing the matter partly by ethnic id, he dangers turning a severe national-security dialog into one other quarrel over who owns the Niger Delta.
Nigeria wants extra accountability, no more suspicion; extra proof, no more allegations; extra collaboration, no more ethnic polarisation. The pipelines have no idea the ethnicity of the lads defending them.
In a nutshell, the Nigerian economic system doesn’t both want such distraction(s) – What issues is whether or not the infrastructure is safe, whether or not oil manufacturing is protected, whether or not communities profit, whether or not public cash is correctly spent and whether or not each contractor, no matter title or origin, can account for the worth delivered.
That is the dialog price having and that’s exactly why vitality safety ought to by no means be twisted on its head.
•Ayoola Ajanaku is a Communications and Advocacy Specialist based mostly in Lagos, Nigeria
