CALLS FOR SALE OF NATIONAL ASSETS- THE SQUANDERMANIA CONSCIOUSNESS IN US - STEVE AUSTIN NWABUEZE (OPINION)

What started initially as an innocuous call by none other than Multi-billionaire and Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote  calling for the sale of the Nigeria Liquified Natural Gas Company Ltd has surprisingly spiraled into a worrying chorus by some highly placed  Nigerians notably none other than the Senate President. Alhaji Dangote had penultimate week made this seemingly innocuous but worrisome call and all the proponents have admirably arrived at the same conclusion to wit; to ease the ravages of inflation but different premises. Dangote being an astute business man must have identified a burgeoning business opportunity to leverage upon in order to expand his vast business empire. Of course, it is no news that he is already constructing a Petroleum refinery and may have identified the production and exportation of Petro-allied products such as the liquefied Natural Gas as a veritable tool for expansion of his business. With this mind, Dangote’s comments can be excused on the grounds of business expediency and so he couldn’t have been speaking from a nationalistic standpoint.

For Saraki who apart from being the number 3 citizen of the country was a former Governor who had seen it all in terms of administration particularly with regards to harnessing the natural resources in his home state, Kwara was concerned where he was Governor for 8 years. The implications of a knee jerk reaction of selling off coveted national assets such as the NLNG under the very convenient but thoughtless pretext of tackling recession could not have been lost on the former Governor and Senate President. Both Saraki and Dangote had premised their suggestions on the need to ease the recession. Certainly, Saraki  may have spoken from ignorance, mischief or both. Here is a man presiding over an institution whose relevance is yet to be felt by the average Nigerian. Allowances and emoluments of members of both the Upper & Lower legislative houses run into billions annually and has taken a deleterious toll on the National budget. At a time when Nigerians were groaning under  recession the same man and his colleagues in the Senate went ahead to import SUVs running into millions of Naira against public outcry and rationalized it on the fact that the vehicles were vehicles they were entitled to under the 2015 budget. 

The National Assembly had been on recess since July and only resumed plenary this week after lavishly luxuriating with their families on vacation with tax payers’ money. The real take home of a single Nigerian Senator has been shrouded in mystery. Not only have the Senators  refused to divulge the full details of their emoluments they have robustly defended any attempts by anybody to expose the true cost of governance in the National Assembly while amassing more perquisites of office. If Saraki’s unguarded utterance in this wise was born out of a genuine Nationalistic concern for the Nigerian polity as he wants us to believe, shouldn’t he have blazed the trail by calling for a downward review of the gargantuan allowances and emoluments of National Assembly members starting with himself? Wouldn’t  it be wise to start the damage control from the top most top instead of tampering with our National Assets? Or is this suggestion a grand plan to ensure the ostentatious lifestyles of our “Honourable” Senators are maintained and not affected when and if the recession trickles into the next fiscal year? With the deep seated corruption of our system one would expect the proceeds from any sale of such assets to be either diverted or ultimately pilfered by top government functionaries

 It would be wise if not expedient, to highlight albeit briefly, the history behind the Nigeria Liquified National Gas Company. The Nigeria LNG Limited was incorporated as a limited liability company on May 17, 1989 to harness Nigeria's vast natural gas resources and produce Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) and Natural Gas Liquids (NGLs) for export.

​The establishment of NLNG is backed by the NLNG Act.

The company is owned by four shareholders, namely, the Federal Government of Nigeria, represented by Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (49%); Shell (25.6%); Total LNG Nigeria Ltd (15%) and Eni (10.4%). 

It has wholly–owned subsidiaries: Bonny Gas Transport (BGT) Limited and NLNG Ship Management Limited (NSML).

With six trains currently operational, NLNG's plant, on Bonny Island in Rivers State, is capable of producing 22 Million Tonnes Per Annum (MTPA) of LNG, and 5 MTPA of NGLs (LPG and Condensate) from 3.5 Billion (standard) cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of natural gas intake. NLNG's near term expansion plans include construction of a seventh train to complement the existing six train structure, which when in operation will up the company's total production capacity to 30 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) of LNG.

As the arrowhead of Nigeria's efforts to eliminate gas flaring, NLNG's operations have helped reduce Nigeria's Flaring Profile from 65% to below 25%. The company also supplies about 80% of the annual domestic LPG (Cooking Gas) consumption.

In all its business and social activities, NLNG's driving force remains its vision to help in building a better Nigeria.

 The Mission statement of the company reads;

“To market, produce and deliver Liquefied Natural Gas and Natural Gas Liquids to buyers safely, reliably and profitably, growing our company and its people to their full potential, and being a trusted partner with all our stakeholders in the sustainable development of Nigeria’s gas industry and of NLNG’s host communities”.

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The website of the Company has also couched its vision statement in these words;

Nigeria LNG will be a global LNG company renowned for its operational excellence, cost leadership, high HSE standards and for honesty and integrity. We will be helping to build a better Nigeria by utilising the country's gas resources and helping to put out the flares, thus diversifying the economy and cleaning up the environment.

We will set the standards in community relations and technology transfer to Nigerians and actively promote the sustainable development of Nigerian businesses. We will provide to our shareholders a good return on their investment.

We will provide for our staff an exciting and fulfilling place to work and the opportunity to develop their potential. We will execute and operate our business in Nigeria with an international outlook and mindset.

 The benefits of having a company like the NLNG cannot be quantified and it is apposite to highlight some of the advantages we stand to gain as a nation if we harness the latent potentials of the company. NLNG mops up gas that would otherwise be flared, thus making significant contributions to the nation's income, delivering in the last thirteen years over USD13 billion in dividends. The company has paid over USD18 billion on gas purchases from oil producing companies, of which the Federal Government of Nigeria owns 55%-60%. Nigeria's overall earnings from NLNG is now over 70%, comprising of the 49% dividend, 30% CIT, and other taxes. 

With its plant construction, the company has generated considerable Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) for the country. NLNG contributed about 4% of Nigeria's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). As a good corporate citizen, the company also contributes immensely to national wealth and to the wellbeing of states in which it operates, by paying all applicable taxes and tariff. in 2014, NLNG remitted over N200 billion for its 2013 Company Income Tax (CIT) to the Federal Government, making it the highest Company Income Tax ever paid by a company in a financial year in the country –

Nigeria LNG (NLNG) Limited provided more than 2,000 jobs each construction year. Overall, the major sub-contractors employed about 18,000 Nigerians in technical jobs in the Base Project.

Through each Nigerian Content plan for its contracts, NLNG has promoted the development and employment of Nigerian manpower. For instance, six hundred (600) Nigerians will be trained in Nigeria and at the contractors’ (Hyundai and Samsung) shipyards in Korea as part of the Nigerian Content deliverables tied to the construction of six new LNG vessels by Bonny Gas Transport (BGT), a wholly owned subsidiary of NLNG.

Those six hundred Nigerians, with enhanced skills in welding, hull assembly, pipe fitting, electrical, mechanical, painting and ship design will join the country's workforce, providing a support base for technology transfer and industrialization.
Thirty-five of the Nigerian trainees are currently in Korea for participation in the ship construction and six Nigerians are already working as ship managers (two Production Managers, two QA/QC Managers and two HSE Managers) in the ship construction at the shipyards in Korea

NLNG supports the development of community and Nigerian contractors to enable them achieve standards of excellence.

In its various host communities, through the initiative to empower local contractors via the Finima Legacy Project, local contractors have made capital investments in their companies thereby expanding their operating capacity. The capabilities of local vendors have also been developed through mentoring and engineering of partnerships between the more established Nigerian vendors and the community vendors

While it is safe to say that the NLNG has not been able to meet its set targets and goals no thanks to poor administration and management, the manifold benefits of harnessing the potentials in the company cannot be over-emphasized particularly coming at a time when the general consensus is to diversify an economy that had hitherto solely relied on oil. Revamping the structure and management of the company therefore would be a great way to start positioning this company for the national good. An outright sale of the company would only solve the immediate need of cash crunch and no more. While fighting the ills that have bedeviled the company for years especially corruption would yield dividends in the long run.

My informed guess is that business men like Dangote would not pass up an opportunity to acquire such supposedly comatose companies and turn it into a veritable wealth-spinning machine. The bidding process for the sale of such a big enterprise would most likely favour the business man to the detriment of the nation. The nation is in dire need of cash and would be more desperate to sell than the business man would be willing to buy. 

Political office holders like Saraki certainly have the means and the clout to acquire such concerns even if they have to do so through their cronies. the government therefore needs to be on the look out for these danger signals

The Presidency in spite of public outcry has retained 10 Presidential jets in the Presidential fleet with dire consequences for the economy. A lot of money goes into maintaining the air-crafts. With the free fall of the naira against major currencies, one would expect even higher costs of maintenance of these aircrafts in the 2017 budget. The President has surprisingly paid deaf ears to the frantic calls for the sale of these air-crafts. Traveling for major global functions has now become characterized by a large entourage as we saw during the on-going United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York where two of the President’s daughters and the First Lady were all in tow.

Reducing the cost of governance is not only imperative at this point; it is the desideratum to get us out of this problem and not selling off our National Assets that could be better harnessed into a strong revenue generating base.