He is the chairman of the Lagos Zonal Council of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG). As a unionist, Alhaji Korodo has no doubt paid his dues and he has gradually risen to his present position in NUPENG because of his obvious popularity among members of the union. In this chat with our correspondent Dapo Olawuni, he addressed contemporary issues pertaining to the downstream operations of the Nigeria petroleum industry.
He is the chairman of the Lagos Zonal Council of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG). As a unionist, Alhaji Korodo has no doubt paid his dues and he has gradually risen to his present position in NUPENG because of his obvious popularity among members of the union. In this chat with our correspondent Dapo Olawuni, he addressed contemporary issues pertaining to the downstream operations of the Nigeria petroleum industry.
Presently, how is the relationship between NUPENG and the Lagos State Government?
The relationship between NUPENG and the Lagos State Government and precisely the LASTMA has been very cordial, before now when they came onboard we did not understand ourselves and that is what led to the confrontations, but these days there has been a positive difference because if there is any issue that concerns tanker drivers, LASTMA will draw our attention to it, and the Lagos State Government also through the commissioner of transportation, will also carry us along on daily basis with discussion on any problem, so there is no cause for alarm.
So, have you bailed out your trucks that were impounded during the raid at tank farms in Lagos?
To me, this was a propaganda, there is no way any of our trucks will be seized that it will not be known to us, as at the time these things were happening, it was the same period that we declared war against the Lagos state government concerning the mass sack of doctors and we said that we wanted the government to reverse it, but you know that as politicians they will want to save face and that is why they used this to provoke us, if we want to fight on behalf of our members, nobody can stop us, we don’t even need to hide under any guise, but as far as we are concerned, none of our trucks were seized, we were also carried along before government asked all stakeholders including the tanker drivers, truck owners and other articulated vehicle drivers to vacate the road and we happened to be the first to vacate Lagos roads, even till date we are still maintaining this, we only have little reservations because before today we let them know that a situation whereby they give a directive and we complied and others fail to comply and nothing is being done, then we will be forced to go back to the road, and it is happening right now, all the containers that were asked to leave the road left at the same time with us, but gradually they have returned to the road and nothing is being done, they should not allow us to be provoked so that we will not go back to the road.
Is it true that tanker drivers were cleverly excluded from the bill by Lagos State to restrict day time movement of trucks?
It is not true, in some of our stakeholders meeting with the government, this issue of night movement has been brought before the stakeholders and I specifically mentioned that there is no way that tanker drivers will subscribe to it, these days, armed robbers highjack and snatch tankers at will without any security being provided for them, a lot of accidents that happened these days involve tanker drivers and we have lost many property, we have lost many of our members, we look at it as a result of the bad roads, when you now subject people to move in the night, certain amenities must first of all be provided in order to ease their movement; we are plying the road in day time and yet we have accidents, not to talk of moving in the night, our trucks are being snatched because of lack of security even in the day time, so what if it is now restricted to night movement. So these are the arguments, if the Lagos State Government does not want us to ply their roads, we will vacate Lagos State for them and if they want to relocate our loading point from here to any other place then we will go, but a situation whereby they will be harassing our members and intimidating them is a thing that we will not compromise, if any bill is passed to that effect and its going to involve tanker drivers we will vacate Lagos roads and whosoever needs petroleum products in Lagos can go to neighbouring state where they want us to ply their roads.
Petroleum tanker explosions have been attributed to inexperienced drivers, what are you doing to sensitize your members?
Whosoever said this is being unfair to us, if you compare us to other organizations we spend much money and resources on training and re-training of our members, tanker driving is a very tedious job, being a driver cannot even qualify you to drive a tanker because as a tanker driver we train you on how to drive a truck, we train you on how to move the truck with the content, it is liquid content, as you are moving the product is also moving you, if you are descending a hill, the product will be pushing you, if you are also climbing it will be drawing you back, so we usually train them on such situations, we also train them on how to handle the petroleum product. Being a driver if you are not trained you cannot handle it successfully because it is highly inflammable, so based on these, we train our members on regular basis, some set just came back from a training programme in Dubai, I am also leading another batch for another international training in Dubai on Monday (today) and they are all tanker drivers, so whosoever said we are not training them is not closed to us or they are trying to be mischievous, if we are talking about a reliable organization in this country, NUPENG is number one and it is second to none, this is why we also go outside our jurisdiction to even fight for the right of others. The accidents that you see on Lagos- Ibadan expressway is as a result of bad road, even if you are driving your personal car the road can highjack it from you, not to talk of a big truck with petroleum product as its content and you want to ask them to move in the night. Those that were entangled in these fire accidents is as a result of lack of exposure and knowledge, when you see a tanker over turned with its products gushing out from it, if I were you I will keep a distance, if it is diesel it cannot easily spark off, but if it is petrol, it can spark within seconds, so you must leave whatever property you have on the road, be it your car or whatever and you must run for your safety, but some people will even be trying to take some personal belongings before they are finally entangled, so the most important thing is that the public needs to be educated, the government should also do their own bit by having a motorable roads for everybody, so that life and property will be saved.
What are you doing to improve condition of drivers at the loading depots?
This is a country that we do not have leaders, some of them are so corrupt that they only think of themselves and their immediate family, they asked drivers not to urinate on the roads and yet they did not provide alternatives, yet a man must obey the call of nature, it is only in Nigeria that you will see somebody erecting a shopping mall without considering packing space for customers that will patronise them and the convenience and yet they want to make money, when you go outside Nigeria and will see a very small shopping mall with a very wide space for parking, is it not the same government that gave approval to the tank farm owners to build tank farms and the ministry of physical planning opened their eyes and allowed them to construct tank farms without considering the tankers that will load there, and if they don’t have such, wherever there is depot you must feel the presence of tankers, yet there is no provision for them to park, so they park anywhere. This is what made us to confront the administration of Fashola when he came onboard with LASTMA towing tankers, we engaged ourselves until he finally got our stand and we were given Orile truck park, the Orile they gave us is not even enough, it can only accommodate 3,000 trucks if it is fully renovated, out of the three phases it was only one that was completed and this can only accommodate 600 tankers, and I am telling you that we have not less than 2,500 tankers in Lagos that move around on daily basis, when we were in the military era, we only had seven loading points in Lagos State, but now that the civilians came on board, they have bastardized the whole thing, we have nothing less than 52 loading depots in Lagos alone and these depots load average of 200 trucks per day without provision for where to park trucks. Nobody should blame the tanker drivers, you can only chase us away from one point to another, and we know what to do as a responsible organization, ours is to shut down the system until a parking space is provided but it is you and I that will suffer it because the aftermath of it is fuel scarcity, this is why we put Nigeria’s interest at heart before we take decisions. It was on that note that the administration of Fashola begin to understand us more, look at the one at Ogere now you will see tankers parking indiscriminately on the road as if there is no parking space there, the one that was built there which was supposed to be given to NUPENG to manage was given to NURTW and we have no business with NURTW, there is no way you can co-exist the tanker drivers and the NURTW members, we are handling a highly inflammable product, they are reckless in their affairs at times, any little spark can raze down the whole place and that is why we say that government should give us a demarcation, but because we are not so useful to them during the elections and they use NURTW the way they want, this is why government has decided to pitch tent with them to the detriment of Nigerians, this is the problem on that road and it will continue like that until a listening government is ready to hear us. So, on the issue of welfare of our members, we are trying our best and that is why we are fighting for parking spaces, like what is happening now in Rivers State, the government just gave a 42 hectare of land for the building of tankers village that will include all the amenities like fire service stations, the filling stations, a big hall, a chalet for sleeping and so on; these are the people that move the economy.
Do you support the relocation of Apapa tank farms as a permanent solution to the traffic situation?
The way tank farms spring up in Lagos is like mushroom and it is very devastating, formerly we had seven tank farms in Apapa and they fed the nation, now we are having about 53 and yet most of them have no stock, so what is the essence of having depots without products, if it is only three that are functioning it is okay, but they gave these tank farms licenses to kill the government- owned depots, now across the federation, 80% of the NNPC depots have been dead for over 10 years without loading, this is why they said they want to dispose them to be shared among themselves. So I will subscribe to it if it is possible to relocate them, but because government gave out these licenses, the tank farm owners can also challenge them in court so I don’t see how possible it is to relocate them.
How will you react to accusations that NUPENG is trying to hold the nation to ransom with its frequent strike actions?
NUPENG is well known as the mouthpiece of the masses and in as much as we don’t have a very strong opposition party in the country, it is only labour that comes in as opposition to the government when certain policies are being implemented wrongly, so whosoever labelled NUPENG as such is just unfair, where were they when NUPENG forced the military back to the barracks in 1993 and also agitated for the enthronement of June 12? We know how much we lost, our union was proscribed, we know what went wrong because we want to liberate Nigerians, most of the politicians that are enjoying today all absconded from the country then, but we faced the military and fought them without carrying arms and today they have gone back to their barracks for life, nobody saw us as if we were fighting unjust course then, it is one person that will clear a foot path before millions of people begin to pass through, we want our name o be written in gold in the history of this country, as an organization that fight for the right of common people. I have never seen how a professional doctor will be sacked unceremoniously as the Lagos state government did (even during the military government), you cannot be a civilian government and yet be dictatorial, this is why we joined the clamor for the re-instatement of the Lagos doctors and if not for our involvement, they would not have been called back, when I was called by one of the leaders in the State House I told the person that even when the father of the Governor fell sick during this problem the governor flew him abroad, he should have left his father at the mercy of the young doctors and let them use him for experiment, but how many Nigerians can afford such? A lot of people died during that crisis and a lot of maternity casualties were recorded, this was what prompted us, nobody induced us and we can never be induced, people can say whatever, but we are less- concerned because our conscience is right.
How can government put an end to illegal bunkering and use of illegal jetties to siphon petroleum products?
It is the same government that created the avenue for illegal bunkering and illegal refineries, when the government was introducing deregulation, we kicked against it for one obvious reason, we said that the intention of government is inimical to the interest of Nigerians, people were not taking us seriously, we said that government intention is an import- driven deregulation which can never do this country any good, but we said that if at all we want to embrace deregulation, it should be the one that will empower Nigerians economically. Our refineries are not working optimally and yet government sees no reason why they should be rehabilitated, we now depend largely on importation of petroleum products, this approach can only create jobs for outsiders from where we bring in the product, it will also create redundancy for the little staff we have at the refineries, crime rate will also go up, so is this deregulation? If government wants to talk about deregulation they should put everything in place, so if Nigerians want to pay more they will know it’s coming back to their economy. If government do not want illegal refineries to operate, they should also revamp the ones that they have, they gave licenses so some individuals to build refineries, where are they? They have not even secured land to build not to talk of commencing operations, they have all turned into petroleum importers, look at what is happening as a result of the subsidy probe, they have bastardized the country, when you present your passport outside this country, they will subject you to a lot of hardship as if we are all criminals but the real criminals parade themselves at the corridors of power, so if government wants to checkmate illegal bunkering, then they must do the right thing and liberate the industry.
What is your assessment of the regulatory agencies in the petroleum industry?
What are they regulating? Is it possible for the agencies to regulate what they are not producing? PPPRA will give licenses to people to import what they are not producing, even the government’s NNPC depot for the past 12years have not been loading kerosene, in my own area of jurisdiction in western states – Oke-Oye in Ilorin, Kwara State, Apata in Ibadan Oyo state, Ore in Ondo state, Mosimi in Ogun State, Ejigbo in Lagos state are all NNPC-PPMC depots, and for the past 12 years, none of them lifted a litre of kerosene, government put us at the mercies of these private tank farm owners who are core businessmen and capitalists, they are in the business to maximize their profit, how can you have control over them when you are not giving them the product? Some of them buy FOREX to get this product into the country, there is no way they will import on higher price and you expect them to sell it for lower, if the government make it available for N40 as it claims, none of them will sell above the price, if it is made known to us as captains in the industry, we will fight it. In as much as we can fight for other things outside our jurisdiction, nothing stops us from fighting for our industry to let Nigerians benefit more.
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