An Open Letter to Petroleum Minister, Amb. Ezekiel Lul Gatkuoth: Nationalize the oilfields
8 min readBy Simon Yel Yel, Juba, South Sudan
August 8, 2016 (SSB) — Before I get into what I want to write, I would first like to preface this article with few remarks. I will begin by thanking the First Vice President H.E Gen. Stephen Taban Deng Gai and the entire SPLM-IO political bureau membership for choosing hope over despair; peace and congeniality not a boomerang of war; rebuilding a prosperous country not destruction of the country, to continue implementing the armistice contrary to what is on Riek Machar’s mind.
This is a great marque decision ever and it will go down the history of this great nation as one of the most momentous event. Though some political and tribal antagonists are firing brads and drats against this decision and branding the SPLM-IO members under Gen. Taban as Machiavellian schemers, I personally believe that it is a right decision taken at the best interest of peace and harmony and many South Sudanese have applauded it irrespective of their political affiliations and ethnicities.
It is very courageous and steadfast decision with one aim of living up to the peace agreement for South Sudanese to live in harmony and peaceful co-existence once again.
Mr. Minister, I know you have already received a lot of congratulatory notes and advice following your appointment but I felt that I should communicate to you by writing an open letter. This open letter purposely serves to alert you on the enormity of the job at vanguard and more importantly to explain some iotas of anger that most youth have regarding how the Oil sector is being managed.
Today you are beginning your first week in the office as a minister for Petroleum who is in charge of oil and gas industry in the country. It is a normal tradition that you are going to be briefed by Director Generals of various departments about what is pending and what is going on; you will too be briefed by the Presidents or managers of Oil companies plausibly on the renewal of their contracts, how the production is going on and many other things.
Mind you Mr. Minister, it is true that you have had a remarkable diplomatic career, however this job you have just recently acquired would be your Waterloo if you are not prepared to take the bull by its horn.
Mr. Minister, The Oil and Gas industry in South Sudan which I had loved to hate is being faced by serious challenges that need urgent and possible solutions. It is unfortunate that your predecessors hadn’t a plan on how to nationalize the oil sector in South Sudan. We are now witnessing its repercussion in fuel shortage across the country and the foreign domination of the oil fields.
Mr. Minister, I can vividly remember the speech which the President Salva Kiir Mayardit gave in October 2012 in Bilpham after he returned from 40th anniversary of Uganda independence celebration.
He said “there are two things which we discovered when we shut down the oil production: The Oil wells which were producing oil since 2005; there were some wells which were not counted and we had never been taking profits share on them, President Bashir was the only one who use to divide the profits share with those Operating Oil Companies. We just discovered this after the production shut down and we are going to sue them (Bashir and Companies) in the International court. The second one is that; within the wells which we had a profit share on them with Bashir, the Operating Oil Companies were not telling how much crude is produced from these well; they didn’t tell us how many barrels per day are produced. They just give us something little and say this is what we produced and the remaining huge quantity of Crude is exported to Khartoum. We are also going to take them to court because there was no transparency”
Having quoted the president above, one may ask questions like, what did the ministry of petroleum and mining do to prevent oil theft in the Oil fields again? Did the government sue the Operating Companies implicated in this crude theft scandal? Did the government train and employ nationals in the oil fields to preclude reoccurrence of crude theft? Regrettably, the state of affairs is hitherto characterized by employment of more foreigners in the oil fields than ever before with the same companies operating in the oil fields.
The possible preventive solution which is supposed to train and employ the nationals in oil fields to prevent crude thievery was taken otherwise by government. In other words, it is visibly seen as sheer ministry’s negligence and complacency to nationalize the oil sector by training and employing nationals in the oil fields. It beats logic and common sense for a country like South Sudan which is dependent on Oil to have few tens nationals working in the oil fields and hundred thousands of foreigners.
Mr. Minister, if, as former British Prime Minister Harold Wilson once said, a day is a long time in politics, then few weeks or months that you will spend in this ministry before Riek returns to sack you with Gen. Taban is more than a lifetime to do something tangible and memorable to remain in the history of the oil and gas industry in South Sudan. As a diplomat by career, methinks you will not turn out to be like Juba-made politicians who enter high offices with a bang but exit with whimper claims that they were inhibited by financial constraints from performing their duties to expectation.
I know it is unfair to gauge how you will perform by others’ performances, however I will be on wait-and-see mood. The reform or nationalization of oil sector doesn’t need decades to happen but it needs a serious nationalist and I have a belief in you that you will bring about some reforms. There are well trained oil and gas technicians already at your disposal who are now loitering in the streets of Juba for one reason or another.
If you load these trained nationals into your back pocket definitely you will nationalize the oil and gas industry very fast.
Mind you Mr. Minister, the ministry you are heading is not only the house where dollar follows out as some people assume, but it is a house which is supposed to be inhabited by more nationals than foreigners which is now the vice versa. Don’t let your gate open to people with individual interest to derail you from your plans that you vow to achieve.
Mr. Minister, I want to appeal to you to take note on these two issues: The issue of fuel crisis in the country and absence of National Workers’ Union in the Oilfields. It is shameful for oil producing country like South Sudan to have fuel crisis. This fuel crisis can only stop if the ministry of petroleum speed up the opening process of local refineries in Bentiu and Malakal.
If you take this issue as your first priority to alleviate fuel crisis in the country, believe you me you are on the right track of leaving a great mark.
It is unfortunate that there is no National Workers’ Union in the oil fields to charter for the welfare of nationals working in the oil and gas industry. The reverberation of the absence of this body is that there are now thousands of positions which are supposed to be occupied by nationals are being occupied by foreigners. The few tens South Sudanese who are currently working in the oil fields even don’t enjoy all rights and privileges that their co-workers enjoy. They are underpaid and overworked.
Therefore, if there is National Workers’ Union in the oilfields, I believe that it will help you a lot in nationalizing the oil sector very quickly. If all oil and other minerals producing countries have such body, why not South Sudan?
Mr. Minister, if this status quo doesn’t change very soon; I am afraid that sooner or later the young qualified South Sudanese in Oil and gas whose their jobs are being taken up by foreigners will wage xenophobic fight against these foreigners. Because it is perplexing for nationals to be deprived from their rights to employment and nevertheless they have the same academic credentials which the working foreigners have.
If South Africans can fight trading foreigners in their country for taking up their business jobs, I think we have good reason to fights these foreigners who are occupying our positions in the oil and gas industry.
In conclusion, Mr. Minister, one thing you should remember to observe at all time is that, ambition is made of sterner stuff. You can’t achieve goals of your vow if you will take instructions and advises from people with individual interests. You will never succeed if you fear taking risk in leadership. To leave a mark, no mountain is too high to scale or stone too big to turn.
If you can commit yourself to pay any price, to bear any burden, meet any hardship, make friends or foes in whatever decision you think is right to undertake for the national interest and furtherance of Oil Nationalization Policy, then your place in the history is assured.
Simon Yel Yel is the co-editor of President Salva Kiir’s speeches and essential writings published as “Salva Kiir Mayardit: The Joshua of South Sudan” He can be reached via maandeng2017@gmail.com or 0955246235
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