Diezani: I am OPEC president because of Jonathan’s courage

Diezani Alison-Madueke says she would not have been elected president of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), were it not for President Goodluck Jonathan’s courage in appointing her minister of petroleum resources. 

Speaking on Wednesday at the end of the weekly federal executive council (FEC) meeting presided over by Jonathan, Alison-Madueke stated that her proposals as OPEC president would ensure that Nigeria doesn’t bear the brunt of the fall of oil prices. She said it was time for Nigeria to be more competitive.

“Nigeria has to be much more competitive at this time and going into the future. We cannot continue to do business as usual,” she said.

“We must ensure that we have the right enabling parameters ‎and indices in this country to attract the right end-user markets, to attract the right end-user demand for our products because they are so many other countries that would be competing for those end-user markers and to get that end-user demand.

“So we will have to seat down and reformulate our entire approach over the next month or so, in fact immediately, to ensure that we are in fact at the cutting edge of competitiveness; we have to make ourselves competitive in the market and we have to ensure we are able to garner and take those end-user markets.”

She described her emergence as OPEC president as the result of President Goodluck Jonathan’s courage in appointing a woman as minister of petroleum resources.

“First of all, it wouldn’t have happened if the president had not had the courage ‎to appoint a woman into the portfolio of Ministry of Petroleum Resources, which meant that I now headed the country’s delegation to OPEC.

“I must say that this was the daunting thing. It happened about three and half years ago; I went into a body which is completely male-dominated and mostly Arab-dominated as well. But I have found that they have come to respect me and respect Nigeria’s voice over the last three years in OPEC very highly.

“The position of the presidency some years ago was administratively made rotational but OPEC ensures that it must still elect, therefore it states very clearly that ‘we have elected’ Dieziani Allison-Madueke or whoever happens to be the president for that year into the position of the presidency of OPEC. And the reason in the constitution is very clearly stated that it is elected because it reserves the rights to reject any minister, head of delegation or person put forward by their country that OPEC feels is not of the right capabilities and experience and level to seat as OPEC president, because OPEC presidency is highly influential and it is in fact a high ranked position to that of the secretary-general of OPEC.”

“It is the OPEC president who seats as chairman of all OPEC conferences at all times during that year. It is the OPEC president who calls for extraordinary meetings of OPEC‎, which will possibly happen in the next quarter of next year if the downward trend in crude prices continues amongst other things and responsibilities that the presidency has today.”

Diezani Alison-Madueke, the first female ‎to head the body, acknowledged that her tenure for the next one year would be a challenging one in the face of dwindling oil prices.

“This is a very challenging time, as you know, for OPEC and for the global crude oil wells as a whole. Quite clearly, there has been a ‎battle of wills between certain OPEC countries, the big players and certain non-OPEC countries who are big players in the world crude oil production markets at this time.

“So it is a challenging time to take over as OPEC president and our prayer, of course, is that we will be able to stabilise the crude oil prices per barrel over this period because it is critical.

She pointed out that many countries, both OPEC and non-OPEC countries, are suffering immensely, citing countries that have adopted austerity measures as a means to cushion the effect of falling oil prices.

“Even as we speak, Venezuela has gone into austerity measures and is now measuring food because they were completely dependent on oil. Angola, Algeria, Iran are all under duress as is Nigeria because it has affected our budgetary benchmark. And even non-OPEC countries like Russia who will not cut production are already seeing a drop in the value of their rubuck.

“As OPEC president, you will be the one who is expected to call together the entire body at points where they are critical impact in the market‎ from the price of the barrel and in this case the downward trend of the barrel of oil.”