Lagos — Recent reports that Nigeria now spends all of $1.8billion every month to import premium motor spirit (PMS) for domestic use could only come across to many as yet one of the many absurdities of a country that missed its way.

The proportion of tragedy comes out in bolder relief when it is realized that petrol is only one of many petroleum products that Nigeria has been importing in huge quantities for decades.

A member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and one of the leading crude oil producers worldwide with reserves estimated at 30 billion barrels, Nigeria has remained an embarrassment to its people and its peers in the OPEC and elsewhere.

The racket of importation of petroleum runs back in time. Our sorry situation is highlighted by the fact that in 1990, Nigeria imported about eight cargoes per month of petrol but now imports about 30 cargoes of the same product.

It must be noted that wholesale importation of petrol and other petroleum products was not an accident that happened on Nigeria. Over time and deliberately, our government leaders and agencies ensured that Nigeria's four refineries in Port Harcourt (2), Warri and Kaduna were run down and made dysfunctional.

Simultaneously, the same people or their relations positioned themselves as petroleum products import merchants to fill the void. At a period in our country, cargoes bearing the products arrived our ports hours after contracts were awarded for their supply, confirming insider dealings and the anchoring of ships just outside Nigeria's exclusive territorial waters.

Venezuela, a South American oil producing country started the race for development with Nigeria in the 1960s. Today, some of the money-spinning refineries in the United States of America and other parts of the world are owned by Venezuela. In like manner, the South American nation's equivalent of our own Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is ranked high among the Fortune 500 companies of the world. Petrobras of Brazil, another equivalent of our state-owned oil corporation is one of the most profitable companies which plays on the world stage. In the case of Nigeria, NNPC is not known for having any quality investment anywhere. Indeed, it is generally regarded as the domain of all that is corrupt.

The implications of the wholesale dependence on importation of petroleum products are many and varied. For a start, it is a huge shame that a country which produces and exports crude oil, and which owns four refineries depends on imported petroleum products.

Furthermore, each liter of imported petroleum product represents the export of a job that should have been domiciled in Nigeria. In addition, the injection of $1.8 billion into our healthcare system will ensure such transformation that our hospitals will no longer be "mere consulting clinics". We can only imagine how much the same sum can do to our education sector where the Federal Government and Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) are perennially at daggers-drawn.

The combined forces of inefficiency, corruption and importation have ensured that Nigerians have been made to pay huge pump prices for the products. During the regime of President Olusegun Obasanjo, fuel price hikes almost became on annual event and certainly a contentious issue between the administration and Nigerians.

It is sad that the recent effort to divest part of government's stake in some refineries was contaminated, compromised and corrupted leading to its cancellation. The same refineries were handed back to those who mismanaged them.

The meaning of this is that we are along way from refining products locally since licensed private refiners are not yet ready for business.

President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua who is also the energy minister has a responsibility to save Nigerians from this $1.8billion rip-off in the name of monthly petrol import. Should we continue to live by the bank of a river and still be using spittle to wash our faces?