Whispering Drums With Maigani
by Musa Ibrahim
The stewardship of David-West
"To be successful, a man needs friends.Three weeks before they were sacked from the high citadel of power, the cantankerous trio of Buhari, Idiagbon and Rafindadi had prepared a surprise package to be released to all Nigerians on, or before, the country's Silver Jubilee Anniversary, on October 1, 1985. The package contained, among other things, the regime's first and major cabinet reshuffle. But the attempt was more than a reshuffle because six ministers were going to be sacked and eleven top military officers including three generals and four governors were going to be retired from the Nigerian Army. But as good fortune I would have it, the package never saw daylight and before the gigantic trio knew it, their plan had boomeranged. They were themselves sacked and relieved from their posts with ignominy and their stewardship buried into the bottomless ash-heap of history.
To be very successful, a man needs enemies..."
"God defend me from my friends.
As for my enemies, I know how to take care of them..."
(Wenninist apopthegms)
Among those on the hit-list was Professor Tam David-West, Buhari's Oil Minister then, and, thanks to Sani Abacha, still is. Since this event, a lot of water has passed under the bridge which is why I have found it necessary to discuss the stewardship of David-West as Nigeria's years..." Oil Minister from Buhari to Babangida. Prompting this analysis are two things: the first is the place of the oil industry in Nigeria's economy, while the second has to do with recent events in the country's oil ministry and even beyond.
To say that oil has, since the seventies, been the live-wire of Nigeria is to make a trite statement indeed. First discovered in commercial quantities in 1956 by Shell- BP in what is now Rivers State, Nigeria's first commercial shipment of crude oil was made in February 1958, with a production level running at about 5,000 barrels a day (in monetary terms, Nigeria, I am sure, got less than £3000 for those barrels). But some 20 years later, Nigeria was deriving from the sale of its oil alone, a revenue put at some 21 billion naira (N21 billion) annually, providing some 85 per cent of federal revenues and 30 percent of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The pivotal role oil has come to play in the country's economic development was demonstrated in 1978 when the government's poor crude pricing policy led to a slump in production, a drastic decline in federal revenue. and foreign exchange, and an economy in recession. This pivotal role has also manifested itself in the number of gigantic projects and development plans spewed all over the country.
And yet the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC), the organisation responsible for marketing most of Nigeria's oil as well as mounting its own exploration and production ventures, has never been the most dynamic of organisations. The NNPC's weaknesses came to light when ex- President Shehu Shagari appointed a five- man investigation team to look into the 'oil-gate' scandal of 1980. In the published report, the tribunal castigated the NNPC at length and said that the NNPC had no "efficient management structure, had a glaring absence of supervisory staff at all levels and that there has always been serious friction between the chief executive and the board," (the chief executive then was Festus Marinho). Most strongly criticised was the NNPC's accounts department which was described as a "shambles which had not kept or published accounts for the previous five years.
Perhaps it was with a view to minimizing the damage done to the NNPC that the Shagari administration decided to have the NNPC come directly under the President, with Yahaya Dikko (a staunch Shagari loyalist) manning the ministry and advising the President on a day to day basis. This bold move, along with the credibility and discipline of Yahaya Dikko (he is still respected among international oil dealers as a disciplined person for resisting the temptations of personal enrichment) helped to instill some measure of confidence in the NNPC. But this confidence was short- lived when Buhari came onto the scene and re-appointed Festus Marinho as the Chief Executive of NNPC. Tam David- West for only a brief period became an onlooker while Marinho and Buhari dictated the pulse of Nigeria's oil industry.
The serious friction that had existed between Marinho and members of the NNPC board re-surfaced and David-West was engulfed in it. Anybody with principles would have resigned, but in African politics, the adage is "if you can't beat them, join them," so David-West callously joined the gang into the countertrade and counterfraud negotiations and many other questionable deals, bartering the country's oil for cheap and perishable commodities.
At international oil seminars and at OPEC meetings, David-West stands in for Nigeria. Lacking in diplomacy, arrogant and haughty at times and unserious, the oil minister's performances at these meetings have always been disastrous. More so, with the unholy alliance con- tracted between David-West and an American, Carl Bunnett of Mobil, Nigeria's position concerning oil prices, production quotas or limits are no longer kept secret. In fact, word from the grape- vine has it that it is Carl Bunnett who prepares memos and drafts for David- West to read at OPEC meetings and to present to the President. Sources also disclose that it was this discovery by Buhari that was to have led to David- West's termination of appointment. It is for these reasons and many more that a lot of people who are in the know wonder why David-West was re-appointed Minister for Petroleum Affairs by the Babangida regime at all.
Whether it is because Babangida was able to discover the "real David-West" (which is baloney), or whether it was because of pressure from friends (which seems likely), there is one fact the President must take into consideration. Oil is all that Nigeria has got now. If the country is going to recover from its dreadful economic state, the President cannot afford to play with the country's one and only asset. The NNPC must come under the direct personal supervision and control of the President and a person of independent intellect must be brought in to take charge of the oil ministry. David- West has been less than successful in this task and his continued presence is embarrassing.
Somebody up there must be brave enough to tell him that enough is enough, his close friendship and personal relationships with those that matter notwithstanding.
