Nigeria’s President-Elect, General Muhammadu Buhari has sent shivers
down the spines of corrupt politicians, especially those in the oil
industry, following his insistence on probing into the sleaze in the
country’s main source of economy.
The
country’s oil industry, which is under the control of the Nigeria
National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, is believed to have been enmeshed
in deep corruption for the past 16 years.
Apart from the oil subsidy, which many allege to be a drain pipe, the
Corporation has questions to answer on issues bordering on unremitted
funds.
Before his election, Buhari had given respite to corrupt politicians
when he announced during one of his campaign rallies, that every “sin”
committed before May 29 hand-over date, will be forgiven.
Apart from Buhari, the national Chairman of his party, the APC, Chief
John Odigie Oyegun had also at one of his pre-election speeches,
mainatained that a Buhari presidency will not dig into the past.
Oyegun had then said that the insinuation that a Buhari presidency
will send many Nigerians to jail, was a blackmail being masterminded by
the PDP leadership, stressing that only those who may not want to change
from their corrupt practices will have the retired General to contend
with.
“The only people I think should fear the Buhari Presidency are those
who do not want change. Those who want to continue with business as
usual, are those who want to continue to profit from the level of
corruption in the society. We will have no apologies for people like
that. But it is clear that from the Buhari perspective and that of the
APC, the future of the people of this country is too important for us to
spend valuable time trying to dig into the past.
“The first moments of a Buhari Presidency the outlook is on the future.
The message will be clear, whatever you engage in before that is
detrimental to the people of this country, please stop it, change has
come. It is time for change and anybody who decides that he does not
want to be part of change and want business as usual that is his choice.
However, all that have changed as the retired General made a u-turn
over the weekend, vowing that his administration would probe the $20
billion allegedly missing from the coffers of the NNPC.
DAILY POST recalls that former Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN,
Governor, now Kano Emir, Sanusi Lamido, had raised the alarm over the
alleged missing fund. The alarm cost Sanusi his job as he was removed
un-ceremoniously.
President Goodluck Jonathan had also at one of his media chats insisted that no such fund was missing from the NNCP coffers.
However, a former CBN governor, Prof. Charles Soludo equally joined
in pointing the present government at the face- accusing it of
squandering the nation’s oil resources.
With pressures and many fingers on its face, the Jonathan-led
government had called for an independent probe into the alleged corrupt
activities at the NNPC.
The NNPC and the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company were later
indicted by the investigative forensic audit done by PriceWaterHouse
Coopers into the allegations of unremitted funds to the Federation
Accounts.
In the reports released by the Auditor General for the Federation,
Mr. Samuel Ukura, in Abuja, the accounting firm asked both organisations
to refund to the federation account “a minimum of $1.48bn.”
Speaking on Sunday when he played host to a delegation from Adamawa
State led by the state’s governor-elect, Bindow Jibrilla, in his
campaign secretariat, Mr. Buhari said although he received information
that some persons already started returning money to government coffers,
he would only believe it when he “sees it”.
“I heard that some people have started refunding money, but I will not believe until I see it.
“His royal highness, the Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi was
removed from the Central bank because he said that about $20 billion was
missing, instead of the government to investigate the matter, they
refused, instead they sacked him. As God will have it, he is now the
Emir of Kano and that is exactly what he wants to be.
“He has already written all the detail report on it, the incoming
government will not ignore it, even though we have promised to draw a
line, but $20 billion is too big to ignore. This is Nigerian money and
it must be investigated,” Mr. Buhari said.
Apart from the probe, Reuters Agency had also recently reported that
Buhari’s administration will replace the top management of the NNPC.
It will also review the accounts of the oil company to restore
credibility, Reuters said, quoting sources within Buhari’s party, the
All Progressives Congress (APC). It said the new government will submit a
bill to break the NNPC into four entities, as already prescribed in the
latest PIB draft. One APC source told Reuters that the Bill “will also,
crucially, remove the oil minister from the NNPC’s board of directors
to curb political interference.”
Others said more generally that the minister’s current powers would
be heavily trimmed. Oil and gas will have separate companies for
upstream, with a third covering pipelines and refining, while a fourth
will be an inspectorate.
The proposal, according to the report, could be submitted to
parliament in the first quarter of next year, one parliamentary APC
source said. The NNPC Management is made up of Group Managing Director
Dr. Joseph T. Dawha; Group Executive Director, Finance & Accounts
Mr. Bernard O.N. Otti; Group Executive Director, Corporate Services Dr.
Dan Efebo, and Member, Alhaji Abdullahi Bukar, who make up the Board.
Similarly, the APC in a statement issued in Lagos on Sunday by its
National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, decried the reported
allegations of last-minute looting of the nation’s resources, hurried
recruitment into the public service and rushed privatization of key
financial institutions by the Jonathan Administration, warning that such
egregious actions will have serious repercussions
The party said apart from the instances of such cases that have been
reported by the local media, it has been inundated with calls and
messages by concerned Nigerians, alerting it to the unscrupulous actions
of some Jonathan Administration officials.
It said while the Jonathan Administration remains in office till
midnight of May 28th and governance in the country will not stop because
a new President has been elected, it is incumbent upon the outgoing
Administration not to create any more problems for the incoming
government than it had already done, or to tie the new government’s
hands through some suspicious actions.
APC said while it is true that the incoming Buhari Administration
will not get itself bogged down by an endless probe of the activities of
the Jonathan Administration, all actions taken since the result of the
May 28th presidential election was announced may come under the
searchlight.
”For example, the National Council on Privatization, which is headed
by the Vice President, has just approved the financial bid opening for
transaction advisers for the privatization of the three Development
Finance Institutions in the country – the Bank of Agriculture, Bank of
Industry and Nigeria Commodity Exchange. The question is: What is the
rationale for rushing this exercise with just weeks left for this
administration?
”Also, there have been reports, yet unrefuted, of a planned hurried
recruitment into the Nigeria Immigration Service, after a previous
attempt ended in a national tragedy and the fleecing of innocent job
seekers by mindless federal government officials. Apart from the fact
that this last-minute recruitment is suspect, it is irregular.
”The Civil Defense, Fire, Immigration and Prisons Services Board
(CDFIPSB) is only empowered to recruit, promote and discipline only
senior officers (levels 8 and above). The power to recruit, promote and
discipline junior officers is vested in the different services, in this
case the Nigeria Immigration Service.
”Therefore, the recruitment exercise now being conducted by the
Federal Civil Service under the auspices of the Presidential Committee
to Assist on Immigration Recruitment usurps the functions of the Board
as it relates to recruitment of Senior Officers (level 08) and that of
the Immigration Service as it relates to Junior Officers (levels 07
and below),” the party said.
It also called attention to a published report that the Minister of
the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Senator Bala Mohammed, plans to use
the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) to carry out a secret
employment of no fewer than 500 workers before the end of April 2015.
”We do not know if this report, as well as others, is true. But if
indeed these rushed privatizations and hurried recruitment exercises –
in the twilight of the Jonathan Administration – are true, they raise
serious questions concerning the reasons behind such actions. We are
therefore compelled to call on President Jonathan to call his
Administration officials to order, lest they engage in actions that can later embarrass his Administration
”This is against the backdrop of the precarious situation into which
the Jonathan Administration has plunged the nation’s economy, no thanks
to years of ceaseless and unprecedented profligacy by the outgoing
Administration, as well as mind-boggling acts of corruption and looting
of the public treasury by some Administration officials
and their collaborators,” APC said
With these developments, a source within the NNPC told DAILY POST
that there is serious anxiety among the top leadership of the
corporation.
“Everybody in the oil industry is afraid over Buhari’s u-turn; there
was relief in the industry when he said he would probe corrupt
activities that took place before May 29, but his decision to now probe
the missing N20b has changed all that.
Victimizing Ndigbo will prevent Buhari from running a functional government – Ifeanyi Uba
“It is clear that he may even go beyond that missing N20b because the
NNPC is a terrain he knows very well. So, he has put all politicians,
especially those in the oil industry, on their nerves”, he stated.
