Corruption: Our collective amnesia (II)

Most of those involved were former governors and legislators and while the cases have not been concluded, several have since contested and won elections. They are calling the shots in the Senate and remain political kingmakers in their states. This is Nigeria! The discourse also mentioned the support our international partners are providing to help […]

Most of those involved were former governors and legislators and while the cases have not been concluded, several have since contested and won elections. They are calling the shots in the Senate and remain political kingmakers in their states. This is Nigeria! The discourse also mentioned the support our international partners are providing to help our government’s effort in combating corruption and facilitating government and civil society organization collaboration. It is easy to push the blame to the government for not doing enough or the actors in the cases that have been exposed and are being prosecuted.
Have we paused to think of what we can do individually and collectively to fight corruption? How have we been used to accelerate the speed at which the corruption train travels? How many of us are in the driver’s seat and how many of us are happy or passive passengers on the train even when it does not take us to our destination? How many of us are hapless onlookers?
Civil Society Organisations are in the forefront in the war against corruption. They have been speaking under various platforms. One of the active ones is the SAY NO CAMPAIGN–NIGERIA. It is a platform of non-governmental organizations, media, labour, organized private sector, faith-based organizations and community groups committed to fighting corruption, impunity, poverty, violence and other governance challenges in Nigeria. The central focus of the Campaign is built around the twin issues of corruption and impunity, especially as manifest in the Presidential pardon granted to corrupt public officers in the country. The Campaign uses different national and sub-national strategies such as advocacy, press conferences, street protests to mobilize Nigerians from all sections of the country and sectors of the economy to push for necessary administrative, legal, policy and legislative changes required to reverse the erosion of democratic values as well as promote good governance and people-centred development.
The Say No Campaign–Nigeria and its collaborating civil society partners said in a press release February 2014 said that they ‘have followed with keen interest the ongoing probe of non-remittance of oil revenue to the Federation Account by the Ahmed Makarfi-led Senate Committee on Finance. This is on the heels of revelations made through a letter communicated by the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to the President on the same issue. At the heart of the probe is the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) that is allegedly responsible for the non-remittance initially put at $49.8 billion, but had been narrowed down to different figures ranging from $10.8billion to $20 billion.
The Ministry of Finance that is overseeing the inter-agency reconciliation process is of the view that $10.8 billion is the sum yet to be reconciled. The initial CBN’s claim of un-reconciled $12billion based on a difference of $1.22 allegedly expended by the NNPC on fuel subsidy in the First Quarter of 2012, in violation of a directive to it to stop subsidy deductions effective end of December 2011 has since been raised to $20 billion. The Bank claimed the additional $8billion comes from $6bn worth of crude oil NNPC shipped for the Nigeria Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), an upstream subsidiary of the NNPC, and another $2bn from “third-party” financing.
The NNPC on its part claimed there was nothing in its coffer to remit to the Federation Accounts, arguing that the $10.8 billion that the Ministry of Finance said was yet to be reconciled was spent on kerosene subsidy and pipeline repairs, even though it is yet to show evidence of such use. While the Nigerian public has berated the NNPC for its unilateral action of spending $10.8 billion without due appropriation by the National Assembly (i.e. assuming its claim is true), the Corporation has argued that its action is within its mandate.
Considering the enormity of the issues at stake, the quantum of revenue involved and its implications for transparent and accountable use of the country’s resources, The Say No Campaign–Nigeria is concerned about recurring leakages that have been identified in the series of reports of government commissioned committees, panels and task forces on oil and gas revenue management in Nigeria. Prominent among these reports totalling almost a dozen and spanning one and half decades are:
– Four NEITI oil and gas audit reports (1999-2004, 2005, 2006-2008 and 2009-2011)
– KMPG report on process and forensic review of the NNPC
– House of Representative Ad-Hoc Committee Report on Fuel Subsidy regime
-Aig-Imoukhuede-led committee reports on fuel subsidy claims and payments (
-Kalu Idika Kalu-led committee report on the refineries
-Dotun Sulaiman-led commit-tee report on Governance and Global Best Practices in the NNPC
-Nuhu Ribadu-led Petroleum Revenue Task Force report, and
-(Nigeria) Natural Resource Charter benchmarking report.
The findings of all these reports have not only been validated by the New York-headquartered Revenue Watch Institute’s 2013 Resource Governance Index that measured the quality of governance in oil, gas and mining sectors of 58 countries around the globe and scored Nigeria low, it has also pointed to a consistent failure of the country to dispense with opacity and institutionalise transparency and accountability in the management of its oil and gas resources.
To Say No Campaign–Nigeria urged the Senate Committee on Finance currently sitting on this matter to:
 -Thoroughly investigate the issues before it and establish the true state of affairs about the allegation of non-remittance of oil revenue by the NNPC
-Make practical recommenda-tions – including the institution of interfaced and automated system among revenue collection agencies of government – on how best to deal with general challenges of non-remittance by agencies of government, the NNPC inclusive, to the Federation Account.
-Ensure a follow-up of the Senate and the entire National Assembly of the implementation of recommendations of the Committee, and
-Galvanise appropriate support for the speedy passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) towards achieving sustainable reforms in the oil and gas sector.
The Say No Campaign–Nigeria and its thirty civil society  partners call for the  extension of this conversation beyond the on-going probe by the Senate Committee on Finance by placing demand on President Goodluck Jonathan to act in a manner that demonstrates genuine anger for the open stealing of oil and gas money in Nigeria as shown by the myriad of reports on this critical sector of the economy.