Chief Government Ekpemupolo (aka Tompolo), former leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND), has become subject of controversy since he took on the pipeline surveillance contract between his Tantita Security Service Nigeria Ltd, and the federal government.
The federal government in August 2022, awarded the pipeline surveillance contract reportedly worth N48 billion per year (N4 billion per month) to Tantita to check the massive oil theft in the Niger Delta region.
Despite the controversy that trailed the contract, the company has discovered several illegal connections into major pipelines. According to reports, the company discovered at least 58 illegal connections in Delta and Bayelsa States.
Sometime in October 2022, the then Senate President Ahmad Lawan lamented about oil theft in Nigeria, describing perpetrators as the country’s “biggest enemies”.
The lawmaker said “I strongly feel that if we do not take the necessary measures to stop the thieves immediately, our economy will be devastated, as efforts to provide infrastructure and diversification of the economy would both be thwarted. It is time to take drastic and desperate measures against the thieves.”
Lawan also put the losses from this malaise at between 700,000 to 900,000 barrels of crude oil per day, leading to about 29-35 percent losses in oil revenue in the first quarter of 2022.
“This represents an estimated total fall from N1.1 trillion recorded in the last quarter of 2021 to N790 billion in the first quarter of this 2022.
“The situation has worsened. Recently, the loss of our oil has reached one million barrels per day. Translated into monetary terms, our loss is monumental. The figures show we are not able to meet the OPEC daily quota of 1.8 million barrels per day.”
This sorry state of affairs remains a shame. Those whose duty it was to secure those pipelines simply did nothing about it, or as alleged, were themselves the culprits.
Recall that this contract to Tantita was first awarded by President Goodluck Jonathan when Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke was the Minister of Petroleum and was immediately stopped when President Muhammadu Buhari first came to power in 2015. As if that was not enough, Tompolo was swiftly declared wanted. He was called all sorts of names, not because he failed to deliver but as part of the Buhari administration’s grand plot to demonise his predecessor in office.
Before the cancellation of the contract, the arrangements Tompolo put in place had tackled illegal bunkering and increased Nigeria’s production to over two million barrels per day.
However, Buhari was to return to the former MEND commander, known for his knowledge of the creeks, to monitor and oversee other surveillance contracts, contractors and their activities in the entire Niger Delta.
However, unlike the first contract with Jonathan, where the Bayelsa State-born President was criticised and accused of nepotism and tribalism for appointing the ex-agitator, the Buhari regime, faced with the problem of dwindling resources as a result of the crash in oil prices and the nation’s inability to meet her OPEC quota, ate humble pie and Tompolo was called upon again for help.
And that help he rendered, almost magically, as he began to expose the activities of the high-heeled pipeline oil thieves, confiscating their vessels as well. Naturally, that in itself is more than enough reason to attract envy and hatred from those whose activities he had disrupted.
With the contract having expired this August, and the Federal Government is yet to give any directive for the cancellation or re-award, opposition against renewing the contract has been more vocal from those who are simply envious of Tompolo and want to use their presumed closeness to the government of the day to snatch the deal from him.
It is easy now to forget where we were coming from. It is easy now to say it is wrong to put such a huge responsibility and resources of the nation in the custody of one individual, but when you remember where we were before Tompolo came into the picture then you would realise that he needs to be encouraged and not condemned.
It’s sad enough to find ourselves as a nation in a situation where our institutions have completely failed. It is not a good commentary on the nation that where those institutions of state have failed one individual, a former agitator is succeeding. But the question those who oppose the renewal of the contract must answer is, has Tompolo delivered? If the answer is in the affirmative, then the contract should be renewed.
Why did it have to take a Tompolo to discover those pipelines that have been there for many years? If the federal government must discontinue the deal, will it be now that the government needs all the resources it can get to fund its budget?
President Bola Tinubu must realise that ex-President Buhari was confronted with the same dilemma, and waited for too long to make that vital decision. The nation is in dire need of resources to keep it going, wherever we can get support that will bolster our dwindling resources is welcome.
The Tompolo solution is not new. If those saddled with that assignment before now failed, then Tompolo needs encouragement and commendation. Those who oppose Tompolo only do so because they’re bothered more about what they think he is benefiting, but what they must realise is the greater benefit and gains he has given the nation, considering our precarious position before his intervention.
