Maybe President Buhari’s aircraft is up -By Tunji Ajibade

Nigerians should not check the sky. President Muhammadu Buhari’s aircraft is not there at the moment. It had since touched down in Abuja. South Africa was the last country it visited. Before then, the aircraft had taken the Nigerian leader to Tehran in Iran. Iran – the name rang in my mind when I knew our leader was preparing to go there. I was preparing to do a piece on the trip at the time it happened. But the presidential aircraft had proved to be too fast; before I could pick my pen, it was in Malta. Then it moved to France, and lately it was in South Africa. Was the white and green aircraft not in India recently, on the occasion of which I noted on this page that the President looked good in an Indian attire? It could have been in Guinea Bissau, too. But the number one citizen explained recently that he sent former President Olusegun Obasanjo to that place along with Senegal’s Macky Sall, to resolve a dispute and restore normalcy. That was one reason I disagreed with some that Buhari travelled too often these days. No. If he had been in all the places where his attention was needed as the leader of one of the continent’s foremost nations, no one would find him in Aso Villa. Alright, let no one accuse me of being fascinated with the President’s aircraft. It’s the usefulness of his shuttle I’m interested in.

We know that when foreign leaders who are aware that Africa is not one country think about the continent, they remember Nigeria among the first three. If they have not talked to us, they know they are not talking. Don’t be bothered that some fly to Accra and to Nairobi, pretending Abuja doesn’t exist. Sometimes it’s because they find us not so malleable; a diplomat had once admitted that much to me; they aren’t ever so sure as to whom to hold to get Nigeria to dance. Apart from that, where they go is sometimes dictated by the message they wish to pass, the appropriate place to pass it, and the media credit such earns them. Some visits are mere posturing. Their envoys run around here behind the scene though, to get the right ears to whisper into in order to get things moving on the continent. I have been at a few events where such envoys deliver their message, it’s just that their presence doesn’t grab headlines.

Gas in Iran. It’s the issue on my mind. The country’s leader, Hassan Rouhani, invited Buhari to discuss gas. I had once mused on this page about the possibility of Iran’s leader coming to Abuja (“If Jonathan hosts Iran’s Rouhani”, September 13, 2013). Well, it was our leader who went to Tehran. It’s all the same. Iran is moving ahead in so many areas and it baffles me how a nation that is hounded on every side by the West manages to do well for itself. It’s enough excuse in some other climes to impoverish citizens and blame the West. But not in Iran. Its economy is dominated by oil and gas production. It has the Tehran Stock Exchange that’s one of the best performing anywhere. It has 10 per cent of the world’s known oil reserves, as well as 15 per cent of its gas reserves. Statistics give Iran the rank of “energy superpower”. Its exports of oil and gas make up much of government’s revenue. From it, Iran piled up over $100bn in foreign exchange reserves in 2010. In scientific growth, the country occupied first position in the world in 2011.

Iran does relatively well not only in socially-related issues, but in the field of sophisticated technology, putting together weapon materials that got both the United States of America and Israel worried. I like nations that do well for themselves. It says something about their leaders. I wished Nigeria would be like them. So Buhari talked gas when he was in Tehran among other Heads of State and Governments. Imagine, Russia’s strongman, Vladimir Putin, was also on seat, listening to our President as he addressed the gathering. It was a setting for nations in a class of their own, and I wished we realised this and make the most of that natural endowment, gas, which qualified us to be invited to the Tehran event.

The occasion was the third summit of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum. This year’s gathering of the GECF member nations reviewed the current market outlook on gas and discussed strategies for boosting gas production. The summit also provided a framework for exchange of experience, views, information and data, as well as coordination in gas-related developments among member countries. The GECF consists of 17 members, and there are observer nations. Members account for 42 per cent of global gas output, 70 per cent of global gas reserves, 40 per cent of pipe gas transmission, and 65 per cent of global trade of Liquefied Natural Gas. Buhari requested the gathering in Tehran to take appropriate steps towards sustaining the pricing of gas at the international market for the benefit of member countries. Then, he added what any Nigerian would be happy to hear: Our country was taking appropriate steps to turn its abundant gas resources into veritable catalyst for development, he said, noting further that Nigeria “has proven gas reserve base put at 188 trillion cubic feet,” but “it could actually be in excess of 600 trillion when developed.” It’s good news. But the reader knows the trouble with the good news about how much natural resources we have.

I noted earlier that Iran had been a victim of western sanctions. This negatively affected its oil sales, yet it stood. In recent times, Iran has negotiated with the West over its nuclear programme and doors of opportunities are being opened. Iran knows exactly what it wants to achieve as this happens. What that nation wants to achieve calls attention to what Nigeria’s leader wants to do with the nation’s gas sub-sector, and the Ministry of Petroleum Resources of which he is the minister. Iran’s president wants western expertise to modernise the country’s old oil infrastructure. That’s one. Coming back into the playing field, he wants to grab once more the position it used to have as oil’s big producer just behind Saudi Arabia, the US and Russia. Iran is finalising negotiations on new contracts that are in excess of $100bn, the deals extend from exploration to the development of onshore and offshore fields. The gas fields are not left out, and there is work going on in petrochemicals and liquefied natural gas.

My initial plan was to take a brief look at each of the major cities that Buhari visited in the course of his latest trips. But he appears determined to do something positive for the oil and gas industry, so I stick with his trip to Tehran. Moreover, the other time, the only serious outfit doing something about our gas, Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Company, released the funds with which state governments paid workers’ salary. The NLNG placed the funds in the nation’s coffers, and the number one citizen gave the approval that it should be shared among the governors of the 36 states, rescuing them from embarrassment. That singular act must have reminded the President of the huge role the gas sub-sector could play in assisting his administration to turn the fortunes of Nigerians around.

For reasons I still can’t place my fingers on, I entertain optimism about a turnaround in our oil industry. It was one of the reasons this trip to Tehran made sense to me. The President has been there and he has returned. The thing of concern to me is how much of the knowledge he gathered would be translated into action. Turning idea into action is the stage where things go the way we don’t want. At this stage, we can’t afford to miss it anymore. We have been to the very edge and we are back. That we don’t return is in the hands of the President. He needs to see to it that his trip to Tehran counts for the oil industry. If he does, I won’t have to suggest to Nigerians who bear the burden of our oil industry to check where he, not his aircraft, is. They already know it can only be up.