Mr President,
I write this as a supporter of your administration and as a Nigerian who wants you to succeed. But support must never become sycophancy. Sometimes, the greatest service a supporter can render is to tell the President what others around him may be too comfortable, or too frightened to say.
Mr President, Nigeria needs more mad men in your government.
And before anybody deliberately misunderstands me, let me explain what I mean by mad men.
I mean men and women who are crazy enough to confront a broken system, step on powerful toes, offend entrenched interests and refuse to accept mediocrity simply because mediocrity has become normal.
We need people who wake up every morning obsessed with results.
We need people who are prepared to become unpopular in Abuja if that is the price of becoming useful to Nigeria.
Look at the Central Bank of Nigeria under Olayemi Cardoso. Whatever disagreements anybody may have with individual policies, there is no question that the institution has undergone a serious reset. Discipline and credibility have returned to monetary policymaking.
That is one mad man.
Look at Mallam Nuhu Ribadu. Nigeria still has serious security challenges, and nobody should pretend otherwise. But there is a seriousness, coordination and strategic direction in the national security architecture that deserves recognition. Ribadu is prepared to work, confront problems and take responsibility.
That is another mad man.
Mr President, two mad men are not enough for a country of more than 200 million people.
We need another one in petroleum.
In fact, give us two more.
Nigeria cannot continue to behave like a poor country sitting on the assets of a rich country.
We produce crude oil. We possess enormous reserves. We have decades of petroleum expertise. We have spent fortunes on refineries. Yet for years we became accustomed to exporting crude and importing the products refined from it.
Also Read:CBN orders banks to freeze terror financiers’ accounts
That is economic madness of the wrong kind.
Now we need madness of the right kind.
Mr President, make the rehabilitation and commercially viable operation of the Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna refineries a national obsession.
And please, no more excuses.
Nigerians have heard enough explanations about turnaround maintenance, contractors, technical reviews, committees, timelines and billions spent.
We want products coming out of those refineries.
If government cannot operate them efficiently, find the structure that can. Bring in world-class technical partners. Introduce private capital where necessary. Restructure them. Concession them if that produces the best outcome. But whatever model is chosen, the objective must be brutally simple:
MAKE THE REFINERIES WORK.
Dangote has shown what is possible on Nigerian soil. Its refinery was designed for 650,000 barrels per day and has reportedly demonstrated even higher throughput during performance testing.
So let us establish an audacious benchmark.
Mr President, let the three government-owned refining complexes target, at minimum, the equivalent of 50% of Dangote’s nameplate refining capacity—about 325,000 barrels per day of reliable, commercially viable throughput. Then push beyond it.
Nigeria should not merely aspire to satisfy its domestic demand. Our ambition should be much bigger.
We should become a refining powerhouse for Africa and a major exporter of refined petroleum products.
And upstream, the instruction should be equally uncompromising.
Your administration already has a stated ambition of taking Nigeria towards 4 million barrels of oil per day by 2030.
Mr President, find the mad man who will deliver it.
Find somebody who considers 1.5 million barrels unacceptable when the national ambition is 4 million.
Find somebody who will fight oil theft, confront bureaucratic paralysis, reduce production costs, unlock dormant assets, accelerate approvals, attract billions of dollars of investment and sit on the neck of every agency standing between Nigeria and increased production.
I don’t want another committee chairman.
I want a mad man.
I don’t want somebody who will spend four years explaining why something cannot be done.
I want somebody crazy enough to do it.
We have had enough clowns.
Nigeria is too important, our problems are too serious and the President’s remaining time is too precious for passengers in government.
Every minister, regulator, agency head and presidential appointee controlling a critical part of this economy should understand one thing:
This is not a retirement home.
If you cannot deliver, leave.
If you are afraid of stepping on toes, leave.
If protecting friendships is more important than protecting Nigeria’s interests, leave.
If bureaucracy frightens you, leave.
If vested interests can intimidate you, leave.
And if you are not crazy enough to attempt what everybody else says is impossible, we don’t want you.
Mr President, you have demonstrated that you can take politically difficult decisions.
Now take another one:
Recruit more mad men.
Give Nigeria a mad man for petroleum production.
Give us another mad man whose only obsession is refining.
Give them measurable targets, presidential backing and deadlines, and then get out of their way while they step on every toe that needs stepping on.
Cardoso is doing his job.
Ribadu is doing his job.
Now find us two more.
Four million barrels per day.
Working refineries.
A Nigeria that refines its own crude and exports petroleum products to the world.
No excuses.
No clowns.
No passengers.
Only results.
Mr President, this is a request.
And it is not negotiable.
Senator Ben Murray-Bruce
