‘Jet A1 scarcity: ‘A ploy to blackmail Buhari administration’
Minister of State Aviation Senator Hadi Sirika
BIODUN AKOMOLAFE
An aviation expert and Chief Executive Officer of Centurion (Aviation) Security and Safety Consults, Group Captain John Ojikutu has described the current scarcity of aviation fuel also known as Jet A1, as a ploy by the cabals in all sector of the economy to blackmail the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari to submission by some political elites in the oil and gas and aviation industries in Nigeria.
Ojikutu who has consistently remained as one of the few crusaders of anti corruption in the aviation sector, gave the hint while responding to questions from African Business Travel (ABT) on why Jet A1 scarcity has suddenly resurface in the aviation sector shortly after the federal government approved price deregulation for Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) from N85 to N145.
The former Commandant of the Nigerian Air Force, Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos want the marketers and airlines to tell Nigerians the real causes of the scarcity.
“Can the oil marketers and the airlines tell us the real causes or their challenges? Are the foreign airlines facing the same problems or where do they get their fuel? If they get the fuel from neighbouring countries? How much cheaper than the cost in Nigeria? Are the problems still due to high cost of fuel or cost of foreign exchange for import? Where do the importers of PMS get their foreign exchange and how much cheaper to the cost of jet-A1 importers?
“The answers are known to the airlines, the marketers, the importers and the politically exposed ones amongst them in government authority. Their aim is to blackmail the government to be submissive to their antics so as to continue manipulating the fuel market only to their interests,” He responded..
The Chief Executive, Centurion Security outfit, however challenge the media to dig deeper into the cause of the scarcity by talking to stakeholders in the subsector to unearthen the root causes of the scarcity.
Insisting that the scarcity was artificially caused by some powerful cabal in the sector, Ojikutu who wanted to know why the airlines are shouting out to the government and not the importers to find solutions into the problems, alleged that the marketers and importers whose sponsors are the politically exposed remain silent on the issue.
“I advise those of you in the media to talk to each one of these and you will get the answers to the scarcity. Note that in all these, it is only the airlines that are shouting and only to the government not to the marketers. The marketers and importers whose sponsors are the politically exposed are not talking. Remember also that the transporters have a major role of cost in all these. Soon, the politically exposed persons in government with interests in each of all these will initiate a dialogue between the government, marketers, importers and the airlines,” he said..
Ojikutu therefore advised the government to ignore the call on it to address the politically motivated scarcity and see if the situation would not stabilize itself in a very short time.
“Except the government damn the consequence of the perceived scarcity and watch the events as it will soon be evolving.
Proffering a lasting solution to the incessant case of Jet A1 scarcity in Nigeria, Ojikutu who noted high level of insincerity of the cabal in the downstream sub sector of the oil and gas, suggested that airlines should repair the pipelines that supply Jet A1 from Ejigbo and Mosimi to Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos if Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC ) was not willing to fix the ruptured section..
“Just as the marketers are not sincere, the airline operators too are equally guilty. Ask yourself, why is there no PMS scarcity and there is scarcity of kerosene and jet-A1 even when government has given an open door to whoso ever wants to import?
“There have been evidence that some marketers were selling kerosene as jet-A1 especially where there have been no sufficient established specifications for jet-A1 by Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) Kerosene and Jet-A1 are both cheaper to import than PMS. It cannot be a problem of foreign exchange for as long as importers of other petroleum products are not complaining. What is happening is the work of d cabal in the industry.
“It has been suggested severally that d airlines could repair the pipelines that bridge fuel fm Ejigbo & Mosimi to MMA airport that consumes 70 per cent of the aviation fuel if NNPC is not willing to do it. The aim is to reduce d cost of bridging d supply with hundreds of tankers and the cost of demurrage on them at the airports. These are additional cost to the cost of aviation fuel,” he suggested.
He, however, regretted that owners of tankers which are used to haul Jet A1 from the ports are holding the Federal government by the jogular and may not want such idea to work.
“Unfortunately, these tankers owners are very powerful with their allies in government. That is why the pipelines that got damaged since 1992 are not repaired and that is a reason why the railway line project by Oando to transport fuel from Apapa to other parts of the country may not come on stream. Unfortunately too, it seems to me that some airline operators have some unseen hands in the mess; they pretend to be helpless but their voices are not loud. They go talk to government officials in low voices and they all pretend they have no solutions to the problem,” Ojikutu lamented.
To demystify the cabal in fuel tanks, Ojikutu suggested: “First line solution? Find those who own the tankers, those who import fuel and some owner s of defunct airlines with AOL that have no aircraft flying but still have access to fuel with the marketers and sell at ridiculous price to operating airlines”.
