A chieftain of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Engr. Buba Galadima, has warned that there is no end in sight to the massive crude oil theft being experienced in the Niger-Delta area of the country.
The elder statesman and renowned politician, who was the Director-General of the Nigeria Maritime Authority (NMA), now known as the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, (NIMASA) from 1996 to 1998, stated this while featuring as a guest on the LibertyTV programme: “Democracy in Practice”, yesterday.
Galadima, who was asked whether there is any hope for Nigeria for an end in sight to the massive crude oil theft in the region, described it as a systemic failure “as long as there’s no political will on the part of those in authority to stop it”.
He accused people he termed as ‘agents of State’ in successive governments over time as conniving to steal Nigeria’s crude oil, saying that there is obviously no political will on the part of those in leadership positions to stem the pilfering.
He further stated that as the D-G of the Nigeria Maritime Authority during the Late General Sani Abacha’s regime, he was given the authority to superintend and check the documentation of every vessel or barge that is carrying crude oil on Nigeria’s high seas, adding that they achieved tremendous success at that time.
According to him, this was the reason why at that time, when crude oil was selling for only $9 per barrel, the Late Head of State, Sani Abacha was able to run Nigeria’s economy successfully even in the face of Western countries’ economic sanctions, saying he was instrumental to that success story.
He lamented, however, that since then the political will has been lacking on the part of the Government to stem the ugly trend, saying that as long as government officials continue to connive with oil thieves to steal the nation’s crude oil, these criminalities would continue to happen.
It is very possible to end oil theft if all relevant stakeholders would take responsibility and play their parts very well, he stated.
Buba Galadima was a member of the Board of Trustees, National Party of Nigeria (NPN) in 1978. He was at some point, the National Secretary of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), a party formed in the run-up to the 2011 national elections as a leading platform for Muhammadu Buhari, which, in the run-up to the 2015 general election, went into alliance with other parties that formed what is now known as All Progressives Congress, (APC).
He is one of the nine signatories that signed the merger agreement between the three political parties that came together, with a faction of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), the CPC, All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), and Action Congress of Nigeria, (ACN) to form the APC.
