By Crest Okamgba and Modupe Asudo

THE Egina Floating Production Storage and Offloading, FPSO, the world’s largest vessel of its kind has since sailed to its final destination offshore Rivers state south-south Nigeria, but it has left in its trail unending controversies which has continued to take center stage around discussions.

Samsung Heavy Industries the contractor saddled with the responsibility of building this very strategic vessel has currently dragged both its local content partner Ladol and the operator the company that awarded the contract Total before a court of competent jurisdiction over claims of unpaid fees.

In this interview however, the Nigerian Young Professionals Forum, NYPF insists that Samsung or SHI has violated the Nigerian content laws amidst other shady deals which centers on fraud and as such the Korean company must be investigated and brought to book to serve as a deterrent to other foreign companies with intentions of winning contracts only to short-change Nigeria and Nigerians at the end. The Forum’s Chairman, Moses Siloko Siasia in this interview told Biztellers that the NYPF is ready to mobilize tens of thousands of Nigerian youths to the Presidential villa if there is an attempt to sweep this unfolding issue under the carpet.

Excerpts:

Chairman NYPF, Moses Siloko Siasia

BT: There have been reports of controversies surrounding the Egina FPSO, and your group has also been in the news lately over this issue. Can you walk us through this development?

I feel elated that you in the media have shown interest in these developments, especially to hear more from us about our position and stand on this issue. What is happening in the country today is very sad, despite the fact that this is a project that could put smiles on the faces of Nigerians. 200,000 barrels per day is not a joke, hence I will describe the Egina project as project that has come to uplift the standards of operations in the upstream sub-sector of the oil and gas industry. A lot of foundational issues actually went on with that project which we believe needs to be properly addressed.

BT: What do you mean by foundational issues?

The foundation of every issue really matters, and the foundation of this issue is that the lowest bidder for the Egina FPSO contract was Hyundai Heavy Industries Ltd.

Samsung was never the lowest bidder but somewhere along the lines, something happened and the lowest bidder lost to Samsung, and there was no form of explanation to the public as to why the lowest bidder in the Egina contract still lost the bid. Maybe there were some levels of interest, what is that interest? Till date no one knows.

Even stakeholders in the industry, saddled with governments responsibility to protect the sovereignty and interest of the country also compromised in the course of that project, but then it’s ok, that was a foundational problem. Now the job was awarded to Samsung Heavy Industries or SHI. This company now came with a local partner according to our laws, now based on our investigations, that contract must have been awarded to them because they had a local content partner called Ladol.

Now, if they had no local partner with proven capacity there was no way they could have won the job. But now you can also see the controversies between SHI and Ladol.

It has been revealed to us that Samsung did not fulfill its local content obligations. There were lots of abuses and irregularities, and we had a lot of young people from the NYPF who worked on that project, and they fed us with reports.

But at that point we didn’t want to rock boat especially as the project was of national interest, but along the line, as soon as the project was completed all the issues we had been managing became overheated, so we have no choice but to come out now and speak up against the mistakes they have made, while also putting suggestions forward to them.

30,000 man-hours were supposed to be done in country on the Egina project and I don’t think they have achieved up to 10 percent of that.

 BT: Can this be substantiated?

Of Course! We had people working on the project! This isn’t hearsay, we have people, our members both young men and women who worked on that project. Less than ten percent man-hours was done in Nigeria and any government agency or institution doubting our claim should come forward with counter facts as we have our facts before coming out publicly.

At the Nigerian Young Professionals Forum we don’t just come out and speak, we carry out due diligence and research on any subject matter that is of interest to the public and to us. We are not guided by sentiments or emotions rather by facts.

In several places where we’ve been invited, we have received several commendations just for putting out the facts.

BT: do you have figures from the government side as regards the man-hours done in-country as well the level of direct and indirect employment locally?

No! We have no statistics from the government; we are re-acting based on our independent investigations and verifications.

BT: We posed that question to you because of the general notion that almost 50% of the fabrications were done in-country. What’s your take on this?

Are there facts and figures to this effect? Is not just by verbal pronouncements, we need to see verifiable facts to substantiate this claim. We are aware that almost all the jobs were done in South Korea with just about two or three modules done in Ladol facility, and we have empirical evidence to also prove that the modules done in South Korea were far below the few ones done in Nigeria.

The problem is that Nigerians are not asking questions or carrying out necessary investigations on these people.

BT: There is an agency of government saddled with the responsibility of monitoring the Nigerian content implementation of projects of this nature, that Agency is the NCDMB. Now aren’t they aware of this flagrant disregard of the Nigerian content law? And if they did what was their reaction?

Well you are a Nigerian and see what is happening in various establishments of government. The only way for us as Nigerians to achieve success and sustainable growth is for us to start speaking truth to power. People have actually compromised the standard of professional process that we have in our country today.

While government agencies are giving the project a pass mark are you aware that there were several Koreans that came into the country with a visiting visa on account of this project? And these ones were coming in to work but with tourist visas. Rather than check to correct this anomaly, immigration officers were collecting Samsung Tv sets. We have all these facts.

BT: Recently your group issued a press release and also petitioned the Presidency and the EFCC over this matter. What has been the outcome so far?

We have been engaging with EFCC and we have been getting some level of assurances from the villa stating that the president is looking into some of the allegations we have raised on this project. What we are doing is that we want investors, the right kinds of investors to come in accordingly, we have nothing against them, all we are saying is when they come to Nigeria, and they should help us.

In the course of our engagement with Samsung for instance it was gathered the foreigners made it clear to us that it isn’t their own fault but rather the Nigerian official. It is the way you lay your bed that determines how people will lie on it. We have very corrupt people in our system and they allow all these while the foreign companies simply play along. So we must learn to lend our voices against these irregularities for posterity sake.

We are talking now so that in the near future when another FPSO project is coming up, for example the Zabazaba project is coming up which is estimated at over US$5 billion, it will be clearly stated which company is getting the job and what was the process, what is the in-country man-hours on the project? How many jobs is it providing?

We are dealing with capital flight at the moment as Nigeria currently has over 75% youth unemployment rate! This is absurd and unacceptable!! That’s why you’re having all the militancy across the country including Boko-Haram.

I met a PhD Holder who is a Taxi driver in Abuja and I felt like crying for my country.

Someone who has invested so much in his educational pursuit, parents that have invested so much in their children, they come out of the universities, no job and we are saying we have spent US$3.8 billion for an investment in the oil industry that did not employ our people. What are we talking about as a nation? Who are we protecting?

BT: I saw the last time you held a press conference on this issue and I could relate with the emotional angle of the matter at hand. What we heard in the industry was that this was a success story for Nigerian content and we have continued to accept this as the true state of affairs, but today it is a shock that even Ladol, the local content partners to the project are also in court with SHI. That also speaks volume especially as it was SHI that took Samsung to court.

Now what were your expectations from Nigeria as an oil producing country with regards to this behemoth of a project?

I had expected this project to be a huge pride for Nigeria and indeed the African continent because Nigeria is the largest crude producer. Look at Angola with 1.7 million barrels, Algeria and Egypt with less than a million barrels but do you know the amount of direct and indirect jobs the countries are creating for their youths from their oil and gas sector? But in Nigeria today, if I may ask, how many jobs have we created from the sector. Its easier to come out and praise the project to high heavens but where are the figures and the facts? This is the reason we are still where we are in Africa. If you look at the Whitman, he comes out on issues of this nature and reels out verifiable facts figures, but in this case now where are those figures? When we started this campaign for transparency and fairness on the Egina project we received lots of abuses and threats but we never gave in.

The NYPF is not just any organization, we have international NGO’s as our partners, we receive foreign grants from international institutions and as you know we cant just get to that point without these international governments and organisations identifying us as a worthy resource group.

It is not just we, there is also Connected Development, CODE, and they call them follow the money. When government budget for projects in rural communities CODE follows it to ensure implementation. So these are not boy scouts organisations or national youth council. We are professionals with a lot of research work. So when people keep claiming Egina was so big a project and Nigerians benefited that is simply false.

Now after all the threat calls we have received after we spoke out on this issue with people claiming we are going to truncate a very positive first for Nigeria, we have now been vindicated as the same SHI has taken Ladol their local content partner to court! So we have been vindicated.

BT: so in all of this what do you make of companies who come into Nigeria to carry out jobs that Nigerians are also capable of performing? And in the long run where does that leave our economy?

As a trustee of prosperity I can tell you that I am very concerned about the issue you just raised now because it is glaring that the country as it stands now is not ready to create employment for the teeming youths

Our young people have also been so docile over the years. I can tell you that a lot of jobs are given out annually to foreign companies and no one is asking them how much jobs they would be creating locally from the contract they are getting. Right now we have also created enormous jobs through our directorate of employment of the Nigerian Young professionals Forum in partnership with Connected Development and we are working with three major industries, oil and gas, maritime and the power industries. Any contracted awarded to a foreign company that is above $10 million must also be clear to us on how many jobs it wishes to create for Nigerian youths.

This is our own initiative and we aren’t getting any form of support from government. Its been privately done even as we continue to face some bottlenecks but this is our generation and we must protect, preserve and contribute our own quota to the national development especially as employment is part of the Millennium development goals.

We have written to all the establishments involved, consultants and government agencies to ensure they adhere to this and come clear to us in concrete terms on the issue of job creation per contract award.

BT: What obligation do these government agencies have to your group?

I pay my tax as a Nigerian and as a group we de have a right to know.

BT: So under what law are you making these demands?

The freedom of information bill! We can’t force them, we are simply persuading and appealing to them, especially as we have very insensitive people in the system and the level of joblessness has become alarming.

In neighboring Angola companies like SHI and all other top companies in the world both European, Chinese and American cant just go over there and do whatever they like or desire, they have laws out there and they also have people who know that the sovereignty of their nation must be protected and they are ready to discharge their responsibilities without fear or favour. But over here it’s a dumping ground because of corruption.

So our appeal is that, a responsible government with this level of outcry from its citizens should not keep mute. If it were to be other countries, I know by now their governments would have stepped in. Let me ask you this, can a Nigerian company go to South Korea and get a job of this magnitude? See, we are not fighting for any personal gains but for the collective interest of young people in Nigeria.

BT: But there is the notion that Nigerians don’t have the technical capabilities for major projects like the Egina FPSO?

I disagree with you. Nigerian professionals are some of the best anywhere in the world. Today you are seeing the news all over that a 26-year-old boy is the highest paid robotic engineer in the USA. There are lots of such people in Nigeria. We have a lot of Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg in Nigeria, but the lack of conducive environment, especially a government that is proactive to project the collective interest and abilities of their citizens to make them achieve their goals in life. If Mark Zuckerberg were to be in Nigeria his dreams of Facebook would have died, if Steve Jobs were in Nigeria his dreams of the computer age would have died and Apple would have remained just a fruit.

I’ve said it earlier that the modules that were done in Nigeria were of better quality than the ones done in Korea. We have people working on that project and we know this for a fact. So why is that we are not encouraging our own? They programed management processes to ensure that those topside modules were not checked.

Contracts were given to foreign companies and they bring in stuffs without due checks from our government agencies. Even on this Egina project a lot of Filipinos and South Koreans were brought in and when the Senate committees or relevant agencies of government comes for inspections these undocumented workers would be hidden in toilets and vessel underground and when the inspectors leave they bring them out.

Just ask around and do your investigations, these South Koreans will tell Nigerian Engineers who are even more qualified than them to kneel down and raise their hands. It got so bad that they will tell some of them to lie down while they pee on them.

All these happened in Samsung Yard inside Ladol facility. Do your investigation and speak to young people who work on that project to corroborate these facts or otherwise. A lot of young people resigned, as they were not being paid properly. Ladol facility was shutdown by the workers if Samsung in the early part of the year.

That protest happened due to our intervention. Did anyone bothered to even ask why the protest took place? Where was NCDMB when these workers were protesting?

Now they will tell you the project has sailed albeit quietly. Do you know why that project sailed away in that manner without any fanfare or celebration?

BT: That was a question we were planning to pose to you. For a vessel of that magnitude is it ok to sail away like that?

In other countries this would have been a legacy. A celebration of huge success with all the fanfare, sending messages to other oil producing nations that Nigeria has succeeded in investing in the largest FPSO in the world.

Do you know that this SHI has collected over 20 percent variation on that project? And this was done with no local content element in it. And Samsung still claims they needed to be paid US$500 million before the project can sail.

So I will tell that they not smart enough and the people of NNPC, Total and their partners were smarter, but the truth to note is that Samsung has done more harm than good to our people in getting this project. If you realize the level of monies that has exchanged hands just to keep some matters quiet, it is alarming. Some have equally approached us to give us money so we can keep quiet. They have tried to induce us and we told them not to waste their time and they have also seen that they cannot.

BT: Now how do we move forward in all of this? Did you engage or petition the Minister of state for petroleum Dr. Ibe Kachikwu or the NCDMB or even the NNPC on this issue?

We have made submissions to several agencies of government operating im the industry and some will now as a way of reaction start using other people to reach us when they see our publications. We have leaders who are not sensitive. NCDMB has a professional as the head.

Simbi Wabote is a tested and trusted professional and I know him personally but what we are doing is beyond him, and the NCDMB should also realize that we are also helping them because local content cannot be every where due to shortage of manpower.

So when we have cries like this then the NCDMB will now look further into the issue and ask relevant questions, but sadly they’re not doing that. So it is beyond Simbi Wabote. This not a personal or institutional fight rather what we are doing is to protect the collective interest of the young Nigerians and our indigenous companies.

Look at Ladol, are you aware of the amount of money Samsung is owing them? Has that been confirmed? Even the Local content is also crying that Samsung is owing them so who are the big masquerade behind Samsung?

So there are lots of controversies surrounding this project, so we are saying that Samsung should fulfill all obligations including the staff members that were sent away, I understood that some of them have been paid off while others are still waiting.

Even now that the project has sailed to the field offshore Rivers, they continue to smuggle people into the vessel from Cameroun, while the immigration seem helpless as I really do not know what they’re doing. They’re sneaking Asians through the sea to the Egina station on the sea for work purpose. These are undocumented fellows, so again where is our immigration?

We have pictures and empirical evidence. Our people have compromised severely.

They don’t even understand these are some of the fastest ways we can turn the windows of challenges in our country into one of opportunities.

We cannot be having this kind of enormous opportunities and be wasting it. There is frustration in the land and people are committing suicide. I am not looking for a job but I’m doing this to protect the interest of my brothers and sisters who do not have a job or k now that they have an enormous opportunity to take part in the local content process.

In the President anti-corruption crusade, this is actually one of the projects he would have used as a lesson to many people that there is a clampdown on corruption in Nigeria.

We have also issued a statement to put the government on notice that we are mobilizing a minimum of 10,000 young people both those who are unemployed to the presidential villa very soon to seek redress from the President over this Egina FPSO matter and also over the matter of youth unemployment especially how the country is awarding contracts worth billions of dollars and jobs are not being created out of those for young Nigerians.

BT: So on a final and positive note. What are your expectations going forward? Especially now that the vessel has sailed away, what are you expecting from the president?

The president can play a re-conciliatory role (cuts in)

BT: agreements have been signed mind you

He is the President and commander in chief of this nation, the sovereignty of the country is on his shoulders and that’s why we are not abusive in all our remarks and statements but I believe in the President’s integrity in his fight for corruption.

He should reconcile all parties, check the books and create an independent committee to carry this investigation and allow blames be accorded with chances to correct these anomalies. This is sought of a forensic audit on the entire contracting process for the Egina FPSO.