Emeka Ugwuanyi
25 January 2005
Chief Executive of Olapade Agoro Investments, an organiser of oil conferences in Nigeria, Mr. Olapade Agoro, has expressed worry over the continued silence of the Federal Government, concerning the presence of the United States Marines in the Gulf of Guinea.
Agoro at recent oil and gas conference held at Sheraton Hotel in Lagos, stated that "with United States (US) current Africa's oil policy and deployment of US military might to the Gulf of Guinea to police economic activities in that region no reasonable African leader should go to bed with his two eyes closed."
He noted this US policy calls for questioning because the American President, George Bush, is a typical American whose policy pursuits aim at favouring first the US before any other person. Therefore, his policy on Africa's oil must not be taken lightly.
With the presence of US in the Gulf of Guinea, Olapado said that Nigeria and other states in the region are gradually losing their sovereignty. To drive home his point, he said that leaders in the Gulf of Guinea should heed Winston Churchill's warning to Britain in 1933 which said "The mood of unwarranted self abasement into which we have been cast by a powerful section of our own intellectuals, many of them writing in the media then and today. These defeatist doctrines had been accepted by a large proportion of politicians. Nothing can save England if she will not save herself. If we lose faith in ourselves, in our capacity to guide and govern, if we lose our will to live, then indeed our story is told."
He maintained that Africans have lost hope and faith in themselves in the capacity to guide and govern themselves which is evidenced by many problems facing the continent and the result is that African leaders have not only submitted themselves and the future of their children. Therefore, nothing can save Nigeria and Africa if they don't save themselves.
Agoro also alleged that the problem in the downstream is being caused by those who import petroleum products into Nigeria. These importers according to him don't want the nation's refineries to work. He noted that he among others had earlier made proposal to the government to build refineries in the country's offshore areas but nothing was done to the proposal. He said that the fuels that are being imported are refined by Nigeria's refineries outside.
His words, "Those who import products don't want the refineries to work. We recommended to the Federal Government that Nigeria should have offshore refineries just like in Cote D'Ivoire. Where we have such fuels that are imported into Nigeria, they are imported by Nigerians from Nigeria's refineries outside Nigeria."
However, he maintained that if Nigeria's refineries are working, such refineries outside will have no work to do. In addition, if Nigeria's industries are working economic migrants from Nigeria to Europe and America will stay back. They go to these continents because the industries are working, he added.
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