The National Chairman of the Association of Online Media Practitioners in Nigeria, (AMPCON), Mogaji Wole Arisekola, has decried the activities of all economic saboteurs planning to hinder progress in reform being implemented by President Bola Tinubu’s administration in the oil and gas industry. According to his statement, made available to The Guardian today, Wherever any meaningful reforms take place in the world even in the West, there will surely be people showing resistance. He urged the government to ignore such occurance and forge ahead with efforts to develop the state. “Gone are the days when Trade Unions, like PENGASSAN or NUPENG, civil societies will be protesting, calling for strike and other industrial actions, or a situation whereby lawyers will come up with frivolous litigations as vehicles and tools to distort progress. We are also aware that many have been paid to do hatchet jobs and to stir up the hornets nest, by raising false accusations against Ministry, Departments, Parastatal, Agencies of government and political appointees in the oil and gas sector. “No economic saboteurs will survive under this regime, Nigeria is bigger than any of us. Enough is enough. We must all be committed to giving this administration an opportunity to grow and develop at the speed of light socio-economically.” Arisekola lauded the presidents inputs in the petroleum sector, adding that the improvements in the country’s main source of revenue generation is now expanding the frontiers of good governance, blocking leakages and deepening democratic practice in Nigeria. Speaking at a policy dialogue in Lagos, he said, “This dialogue seeks to consider the economic, financial and social implications of not embracing reforms in the petroleum sector and thankfully, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has shown capacity, direction, purpose and willingness to add value to our petroleum industry. “Together with the board and management of NNPC and other relevant subsidiaries of the ministry, they have been able to proactively eliminate the perennial fuel queues across the country, to a large extent stabilize the price regime of petroleum products, scale-up our oil export output from an abysmal low level to above the projected targets per day, and stabilise the often volatile Niger Delta. He is also resolving issues of crude theft, lack of oil investments, and further development of the country’s oil assets to increase revenues from the petroleum sector.” He stated that policies passed by President Tinubu’s administration are geared towards making the country utilise its gas potential for power generation, distribution, clean cooking, auto-use, and industrialisation. “Most recently, President Tinubu also made a seismic shift with the aim to engender transparency and accountability, by ordering the Central Bank of Nigeria to take over the responsibility for crude oil sales from Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL). Under this new arrangement, NNPC will submit receipts for crude oil sales to CBN for vetting and documentation with immediate effect. This is a total departure from how things used to be done to how things ought to be done,” he added.
AMPCON Decries Activities Of Saboteurs In Oil & Gas Industry
