During an interactive session on deregulation of the downstream sector organised by the Coalition of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), in Lagos, Monday, petroleum resources minister Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu referred to Niger Delta militants as his “brothers”.
He used the familial explanation to drive home what he considers the foolhardiness of deploying the military option to curb the activities of the vandals in Nigeria’s oil rich region; who have been blowing up oil and gas installations without let, and crippling the country’s economy in the process.
President Muhammadu Buhari has scaled up military activity in the delta, but that hasn’t prevented the Niger Delta Avengers from blowing up oil installations every other day.
“The military barrels (tanks) cannot stop or solve the problem of militancy in the Niger Delta region. I will have to go back to my brothers, they are our brothers…we will go and dialogue with them,” Kachikwu said.
No thanks to the activities of the militants, Nigeria’s refineries are working below capacity. Kachikwu says there’s a plan to ensure the refineries supply 60 percent of the nation’s fuel needs by 2018.
“For the first time, I am putting so much strength in terms of what we do to our refineries, because that ultimately is the solution,” he said.
“I must make the refineries work so that the staff can justify their work.
“I am going around looking for investors to come in a joint venture basis to put in money into the refineries and make them work.
“I can authoritatively say to you that given the constraints that we face, the plan is that by December 2018 we should have reduced our importation of petroleum products by 60 per cent.
“This is because we would have brought enough money to get our refineries working to the tune of about 90 per cent.”
The Kaduna, Warri and Port Harcourt refineries currently function at a combined percentage of below 40.
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