An Open letter to Mr. President by the Orashi National Congress ,ONC, on immediate call for the decentralization of the N2.1 trillion pipeline surveillance to Tantita & Maton Engineering, etc
His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR
President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,
State House,
FCT. Abuja.
Your Excellency, Sir,
THE NEED FOR DIRECT INCLUSION OF ORASHI REGION AND STRATEGIC REVIEW OF PIPELINE / OIL & GAS FACILITIES SURVEILLANCE, CRUDE OIL PRODUCTION, AND REGIONAL STABILITY: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE 2027 ELECTION CYCLE.
The Orashi National Congress, ONC , a respected sociocultural organization of leaders and community representatives drawn from across the Orashi region which comprises of the Abua/Odual, Ahoada East, Ahoada West and ONELGA, writes to Your Excellency with urgency and deep concern regarding matters that bear both strategic national and political significance.
While our engagement began with a review of pipeline / oil & gas facilities surveillance arrangements, deliberations naturally extended to Nigeria’s persistent crude oil production shortfalls, fiscal pressures, institutional accountability, and the evolving dynamics between the Niger Delta, cum Orashi region and the Federal Government.
Although the Orashi National Congress acknowledges that the current pipeline/ oil and gas facilities surveillance framework were inherited from previous administration, it also agrees that governance is continuous, and the responsibility to address structural weaknesses, protect national revenue, and ensure regional inclusion rests squarely with Your Excellency and the current administration.
1. DECLINING OIL PRODUCTION AND STAKEHOLDER FRUSTRATION
Nigeria’s crude oil production continues to fall short of budgeted expectations. In 2025, production averaged 1.67 million barrels per day against a target of 2.06 million barrels per day, and declined further to approximately 1.46 million barrels per day in early 2026, below Nigeria’s OPEC quota.
These shortfalls represent not merely technical or economic issues but tangible operational and political vulnerabilities, with an estimated 93 million barrels of crude oil lost in 2025 alone, amounting to roughly $6.85 billion in unrealized revenue.
The Orashi National Congress ONC must respectfully convey deep frustration on behalf of our people who have repeatedly highlighted structural inefficiencies yet see minimal adjustment. This prolonged inaction risks alienating the very actors whose cooperation and influence are essential for both operational success and political alignment.
2. CURRENT SURVEILLANCE ARRANGEMENT: OPERATIONALLY AND POLITICALLY UNSOUND
The centralized, single-operator surveillance model is not fit for purpose. Sophisticated crude oil theft networks continue to evolve and operate with alarming persistence, while the existing system struggles to contain losses. Increasingly, there is a troubling perception among stakeholders that the current arrangement does not merely fail to prevent theft but, in certain respects, appears to enable it.
The recurring incidents of seized vessels laden with stolen crude within Nigerian waters, despite the presence of an active surveillance framework raise serious concerns. Such occurrences suggest, at minimum, systemic failure, and at worst, suspected connivance by persons of interest whose actions or inactions allow these breaches to persist, thereby depriving the nation of much-needed revenue required for effective governance and economic stability.
Political Cost of Centralization
Beyond operational inefficiency, the current arrangement carries significant political risk. Concentrating control in the hands of a few not only marginalizes high-impact local stakeholders, leaders and operators with influence across entire communities, but also risks undermining broader electoral strategy.
Your Excellency, effective national elections require the active engagement and alignment of influential community actors, not only at polling units but across economic, social, and local governance structures. By excluding such actors from meaningful participation in critical economic and operational systems, the current centralized model creates friction, erodes trust, and risks disengagement, thereby weakening political cohesion and voter mobilization capacity across the region.
Strategic Advantage of Decentralization
Decentralization offers a more resilient and strategically aligned alternative. It would:
Empower locally trusted operators with both operational credibility and political influence.
Strengthen collaboration between the Federal Government and regional stakeholders.
Enhance revenue protection while consolidating goodwill and shared responsibility.
Support Your Excellency’s broader political objectives, ensuring alignment and stability well beyond immediate polling units
Importantly, decentralization would create a multi-layered monitoring network, where multiple stakeholders operate within defined corridors, providing mutual oversight and accountability. In such a system, actors are not only responsible for performance but are also indirectly monitoring one another, making it significantly easier to detect compromise, collusion, or operational lapses in real time.
This distributed structure reduces the risk of systemic failure and makes it far more difficult for any single point of weakness to undermine the entire framework.
Our position therefore is that maintaining a centralized contract for a narrow group of operators not only weakens operational effectiveness but introduces a critical strategic vulnerability. It limits transparency, reduces accountability, and risks enabling the very losses it seeks to prevent.
