An industrialist, who is also a key player in the oil and gas sector of the Nigerian economy, Wole Oyekanmi, has attributed the inability of the nation's four refineries to function effectively to the deliberate action of a tiny group of cabals that are benefiting from the systematic rots in the industry.

Oyekanmi made this known while speaking with Daily Independent in Lagos on Thursday.

He said the cabals make so much money from the rots in the system, that they would do every thing humanly possible to frustrate any attempt at fixing the refineries.

"For example, you will be surprised that in the system, we have what we call product trip. These cabals will take petroleum products from the NNPC at cheap prices; they will then take it back to the Nigerian territorial waters and bring back the same products as if it was imported by them.

"First, they took the products at discounts from the government, take it out and bring it back again to sell at higher prices and at the same time, collect subsidy from the government on the products which runs into billions of Naira," he said.

Oyekanmi said at the end of the day, the masses that were supposed to benefit from the subsidies, are not benefiting, adding that this is the disconnect between subsidy and the reality.

On the issue of deregulation, Oyekanmi said deregulation is inevitable because the reality on ground is that the way we run our affairs in Nigeria, government is not a good manager of any venture.

He added that without deregulation private sector can not thrive; they can't come into the system to operate profitably particularly in the operation of refineries, which is targeted at meeting local demands.

He further stated that since it is only a tiny cabal that has been profiting from the system at the expense of the masses, the best thing to do is to deregulate. "Remove subsidies, but with a caveat and the caveat is that, we should first sit down as a people and agree on the basic needs of Nigerians and without playing politics, let us put the infrastructure in place. Let there be good roads, let the railway be working, let there be power, let there be other basic things that make life comfortable for the people," he added.

Speaking on the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) pending before the National Assembly, Oyekanmi described the bill as the first actual attempt by the government to right the wrongs inherent in the country's oil industry.

"This is the first attempt on the part of the government to do something concrete to actually enable Nigerians to benefit from the natural resources God has endowed them. The desire of the bill is to remedy the key physical, operational and sectoral challenges in the oil and gas sector," he explained.

Oyekanmi said that by the bill, government is making attempts to increase its stake particularly for deep water exploration, government want to create a new joint venture structure that will allow NNPC to seek external financing rather than been subjected to budget appropriation each year .

"Those are the attempt being made by the PIB," he noted.

He added that if the bill is passed, and we allow it to run, it will allow the huge amount of money being appropriated yearly to be ploughed back into the critical areas of the economy such as education, health, roads and other infrastructure that will have direct positive impact on the citizenry.

"PIB will be the driver that will encourage the development of natural gas over crude oil. Naturally, Nigeria has more of natural gas than crude oil and we can make more money than what we are presently making from oil if we harness our natural gases," he said.