The claim by Governor Duoye Diri of Bayelsa State that the military is changing the narration on crude oil theft raises the hope of the country overcoming one of the major barriers to high oil production and, by extension, national development. However, many Nigerians are wondering why powerful and influential people who are believed to be behind the serious act of sabotage of the nation’s economy are not being arrested and prosecuted. Are they ghosts or are they above the law? 
  
As the mainstay of the nation’s economy, oil accounts for about 40 per cent of the country’s GDP, 70 per cent of budget revenues and 95 per cent of foreign exchange earnings. The capacity of Nigeria to meet the oil revenue target depends largely on the ability to meet the production quota, which currently is two million barrels. For decades, some powerful citizens have nearly brought the country down by stealing of substantial amount of crude oil, making it difficult to meet the production quota and robbing the government of enormous revenue that could have been used to execute development projects and meet other financial obligations. Sadly today, Nigeria has become heavily indebted to other countries and international financial institutions, borrowing frequently to run its administration. This is not sustainable. 
  
While the military deserves commendation for the great strides toward tackling crude oil theft, the operation should include arresting and prosecuting the saboteurs who have caused the country to lose trillions of naira. For the narrative to be seen as changing, the culprits, no matter their position and influence, should be exposed and dealt with. The measures against the thieves should be total and not shrouded in secrecy. Nigerians need to know those who have made it difficult for the country to progress, and making life miserable for their fellow citizens. Those people cannot be above the law and must be brought to justice.
   
Diri, who commended the military for what he described as its impact on the reduction of the menace in the Niger Delta said the state would work with the team to further curb crude oil theft, including pipeline vandalism. He noted that before now, there had been accusations that the military and other security agencies were involved in the stealing.
 
Noting that the military is now taking the lead among other security agencies, Diri said: “It is very sad for us to hear that our military is accused of involvement in oil theft. It is as if there is no end to it and the sabotage in our region. If security forces that are supposed to work with civilian authorities to bring this to an end are also involved, then there will be no end to it.’
  
Oil theft started in the Niger Delta, a prominent oil-producing region, around the late 1970s to early 1980s when the country was predominantly under military rule. It is carried out by illegally appropriating crude or refined oil products from the pipelines of multinational oil companies. The crime is strongly believed to be facilitated by businesslike relationships between security forces, militia organisations, the local population and oil companies’ employees, who use a variety of methods to steal the products from multinational oil companies operating in the country.
  
Estimates of how much crude oil is stolen daily in Nigeria vary, but the volume is considered to be large enough to frustrate the achievement of government revenue targets and slow down national development. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who was represented at a forum in Abuja by a former governor of Niger State, Babangida Aliyu, stated that over 80 per cent of the nation’s crude oil was being stolen. At the Nigerian International Pipeline Technology and Security Conference in Abuja last year, the Federal Government, through its agency, Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), disclosed that more than N4.3 trillion worth of crude oil was stolen in 7,143 pipeline vandalism cases within five years. Similarly, in a media report in October last year, the Senate revealed that Nigeria lost N2.3 trillion to crude oil theft in 2023, while the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, while inaugurating an ad hoc committee to investigate the criminal activity, said the country lost $46 billion in 11 years.
  
Indeed, what Nigeria is losing is huge. There is no other country where up to 10 per cent of the crude oil is stolen. Nigeria is losing about 40 per cent to criminals. Last year, the Executive Secretary of NEITI, Ogbonnaya Orji, said the stealing had become an emergency, posing a serious threat to oil exploration with huge negative consequences on economic growth, business prospects and profit earnings by oil companies. The Federal Government should declare an emergency over the stealing.
 
Senator Adams Oshiomhole, in a media report last year, asserted that the theft constituted an organised criminal activity involving both bunkers and security personnel. It is indeed lamentable that oil theft is perpetrated in Niger Delta with a large presence of military officers. Even when a vessel is arrested for being used to steal crude oil, military personnel set it ablaze on the excuse that it was in line with their rules of engagement. How does this profit Nigeria considering that the vessel so intercepted is evidence that should be used to successfully prosecute all culprits?  This strategy is suspicious and unacceptable. It should stop.
  
There is strong suspicion that people or agencies that are connected with the operation and protection of the pipelines are complicit in the crude oil theft because illegal connection to pipelines and pipeline clamping cannot be done by just anybody, but those who have the skills to do it. Sometimes, host communities justify their involvement because the oil belongs to them.  The military must not discriminate in their investigation and sanctions.  
  
The government must exhibit the political will to end the sabotage for Nigeria to progress. Considering the grave dependence of the country on oil, theft of the commodity ought to be treated as the greatest economic crime against the country.