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Very often, we try to glimpse what lies around the corner: the thing that will, or could, or might be. As a result, we forget the fundamentals, why things always go wrong in our country and the reasons why. Some things do not change, and those things are more than just facts – they are truths. It may be unkind to say this, but the truth is that President Muhammadu Buhari lacks the grandeur of a tragic hero. Second truth is that his presidency now in its seventh year, does have the momentum of classic drama. It’s stocked with several characters, dozens of decisions not taken, and some taken that went completely wrong – all driving toward a conclusion that feels sadly and terribly, inevitable. That’s where Nigeria is today.
In all of this, the reality is that both the President and his ruling All Progressives Party(APC) have discovered that it’s easier to win election than to govern. That’s why, time after time, things go wrong. Instead of take responsibility, fire the culprits, they play the blame game. I am talking about the horrifying toxic fuel saga that has brought shame to the country and caused huge economic losses, large-scale deterioration in the performance of millions of car engines of Nigerians, environmental pollution and health hazards that come with it, as well as the failure of regulatory enforcement agencies to do their duties. Worse still, it troubles the mind that when the President gives orders that culprits should be held accountable and appropriately punished, the relevant authorities don’t take him serious, and you begin to ask: why? They have come to realise that the President takes simple issues with zeal but treats serious matters with levity.
No President who knows what the duty of the office entails, to paraphrase former U.S.President Gerald Ford, that the presidency ‘is not a prize to be won, but a duty to be done’, will wait a day longer before firing all those implicated in the contaminated petrol. Rather, what we have seen in the last two weeks is finger-pointing between the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation(NNPC) and petroleum suppliers, who in response to the NNPC allegations, have accused the corporation of playing fast and loose with the facts. Be sure that at the end of the investigations, nothing tangible will come out of the probes. Meanwhile, price of Premium Motor Spirit has gone up as high as N700/litre in some states.
Belatedly, in the maelstrom of this, the GMD of NNPC, Mele Kyari has offered a public apology for the mess the organization has caused. His apology came when he appeared before the House of Representatives on Petroleum Resources Downstream that is investigating the importation of the adulterated fuel. In his apology, Kyari claimed he was not aware of the presence of methanol in the imported petrol. He lied. Recall that the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, a department in the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, whose responsibility includes the inspection of imported petroleum products had told the public that it discovered methanol above national specification in the supply chain. About 200 million litres of petrol were reportedly affected.
Also, Kyari said the loading terminal where the fuel was brought into the country has been supplying petrol for years, not only for Nigeria and other West African countries, but for some European nations. Is that a proof that complicity is not possible? By his own admission, NNPC is required by law to ensure energy security in line with the relevant laws of the country. Therefore, a breach of the law should come with severe punishment. He ended his apology by saying, “for this situation, I assure Nigerians that every necessary step has been taken to restore fuel supply in the country”, adding that the corporation has placed sufficient supplies that will last till next month(March). But long queues still persist in the petrol stations. Normalcy is yet to return.
It’s important to acknowledge that public apology has become a tool that leaders use for admission of error and expression of regret. But, sometimes, it’s a high-risk move. In 2006, Barbara Kellerman, then a Director of the Centre for Public Leadership at Harvard’s John F.Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, stated when a leader should apologize and when not. She says it’s important to understand what apologies can and cannot do. This is necessary to avoid both foolhardy stonewalling and unnecessary contrition.
No doubt, the damage caused by the toxic fuel is incalculable, and the readiness to apologize, as NNPC boss has done, could be interpreted as showing strong character. But everything is wrong with it when such apology is too little, too late, or too transparently tactical. That’s why Mele Kyari’s public apology is not enough. It approximates to malice aforethought. Clearly it’s hard to know whether a prompt apology by Kyari would have forestalled the firestorm that the toxic fuel has brought into public discourse. It perhaps would not have been as intense as it has become if NNPC had been up and doing in the discharge of its duties. Its operations have remained as opaque as its top officials are seen as being synonymous with corruption.
His public apology should be seen for what it was: that staying silent might be worse than not talking at all, and this could threaten future relationships with the corporation’s numerous constituents. It’s close to what M.Douglas Ivester, chairman/CEO of Coca-Cola did in the late 1990s when the company was involved in similar problem. Ivester was slow to apologize to his European customers after complaints that Coke products were making them sick. The Coca-Cola executives based in Brussels played down the problem, exactly the same thing that NNPC did initially. They dismissed as unfounded the widespread complaints of nausea and headache, insisting instead that Coca-Cola drinks could not pose a health hazard. But after growing public outcry and bans placed on Coke products by the governments of France Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg, Ivester had to relent. Up gainst the wall, he agreed to investigate the issues raised by consumers. And he offered the most elaborate public apology ever issued by an American chief executive. Consequently, he stepped down from his position as CEO just two years after assuming the office. It was a personal humiliation and disgrace.
As this example testifies, whether the apology by the GMD of NNPC was authentic or simply strategic, it’s about time we began to hold individuals and organizations accountable for wrongdoing. As scholars like Kellerman and Aaron Lazare(in his book on Apology) noted, there’s a fundamental difference between an apology offered on behalf of an institution like NNPC and that by an individual. The problem with the latter is that a large institution like NNPC is not bound by the same stringent moral imperative that an individual faces if caught in a similar web.
For instance, an athlete caught for doping is likely to be handed a life ban depending on the nature of the offence, but that’s not exactly the case with an organization. That’s why NNPC will likely get away with the unconscionable harm it has caused Nigeria and Nigerians. These are not exactly my words: ‘It’s important we realize that life is a seed’. When you mix petrol with methanol above the specification, you sow the seed you reap in no distant future. The lesson from all this is simple: The dirty fuel crisis is the harvest we are reaping from the revolving door of corruption in our oil industry, perhaps with the connivance of NNPC.
