The Vice-President of Nigeria, Yemi Osinbajo (photo), has revealed that Nigeria has been losing one million barrels of crude oil per day for the past six months due to the activities of pipeline vandals.Nigeria had lost no less than 180 million barrels of crude oil in less than one year.

“In addition to the massive fall in oil prices, the VP stated that the vandalism of pipelines had led to a worsening of the situation with the country losing about one million barrels of oil per day for up to six months now. The vandalism has equally cut power supply short since gas pipelines were also destroyed,” a statement signed by Osinbajo’s spokesman, Laolu Akande, revealed.

According to the Vice-President, no country in the world can withstand the theft that has taken place in Nigeria without having to deal with the costs, which includes the current state of the economy.He added that even though the times are hard today, “there is great hope that this country will prosper. This country has been badly governed. We are dealing, for instance, with the embezzlement of funds to the tune of $15bn in one sector alone. Our currency depreciated because we don’t have the reserves to back it. At the height of the oil boom, there were no savings,” he told Punch news.

Nigeria’s economy has been badly affected by the fall in the global price of crude oil as well as attacks by militants on oil installations in the Niger Delta region since the beginning of this year. This has weakened production, halted exports and reduced the economy.

Anita Fatunji