A new ‘cut-off point’ for corruption

The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, in a letter to President Goodluck Jonathan dated September 25, 2013 accused the NNPC of failing to repatriate to the Federation Account an amount in excess of $49.804 billion which is estimated to be over N8 trillion; an amount higher than Nigeria’s […]

The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, in a letter to President Goodluck Jonathan dated September 25, 2013 accused the NNPC of failing to repatriate to the Federation Account an amount in excess of $49.804 billion which is estimated to be over N8 trillion; an amount higher than Nigeria’s annual budget for two years. This amount, which represents 76% of the total value of oil lifted between January 2012 and July 2013, is for the proceeds of crude oil shipment; meaning that only 24% of the expected remittances were accounted for. The implication of NNPC’s failure to repatriate these amounts, the CBN Governor wrote, “constitutes not only a violation of constitutional provisions but also of both the Foreign Exchange (Monitoring and Miscellanies Provisions) Act No. 17 of 1995 and the Pre-shipment Inspection of Experts Act No. 10 of 1996.   
We are aware that the fund unaccounted for from oil revenues by the NNPC has lately been trimmed down from $49.804 billion to $10 billion. Speaking after the Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala at a press conference in Abuja at the end of a two-day reconciliation meeting attended by the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke; and Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Andrew Yakubu, among others; CBN Governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi clarified that it was $10 billion and not $49.804 billion that was not remitted to the Federation Account. Although the reconciliation of books is still an ongoing matter, the outstanding $10 billion (about N1.7 trillion) is huge enough to remain an issue; and never to be ignored.
Although financial crimes more than any other form of indiscipline and corrupt practices appear to have dominated the space of governance in the past fourteen years of wicked leadership called “democracy” in Nigeria; the N1.7 trillion scam unaccounted for by the NNPC is one fact, or at least, an allegation that beats human imagination. In the history, recent and ancient, of corrupt practices in Nigeria, the non-remittance of N1.7 trillion by the NNPC into the Federation Account is the highest amount of public funds ever declared missing, diverted, embezzled, misappropriated, or laundered. It is one scam stranger than fiction.
Fiction is the form of any work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not real, but rather, imaginary and theoretical. Fiction contrasts with non-fiction, which deals exclusively with factual (or at least, assumed factual) events, descriptions, observations, etc. Based on this perception, fiction is generally believed to be untrue, unreal, or imaginary, and therefore stranger in the world of facts and realities. When people are confronted with situations that are extra-ordinarily unusual, they refer to such situations, events or phenomena even when they are actually factual as “stranger than fiction.”
If anything, the NNPC like the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) which from time to time raises the cut-off point for admitting candidates into undergraduate programmes of universities has succeeded in raising the “cut-off” point for corruption in Nigeria from the value of millions and billions of naira (that it used to be) to trillions. This means that, today, nobody will remember to raise any eyebrows at the N500 million allegedly “missing” from SURE-P accounts. Similarly, the aberrancy in the N255 million bullet proof cars bought by the Aviation Minister Stella Oduah may have become a scandal to be overlooked when compared to the N1.7 trillion unaccounted for by the NNPC.
The scandalous judgment and acquittal by an Asaba High Court of the former Governor James Ibori of Delta State could be described as a “stranger fiction” especially when it is recalled that the same James Ibori pleaded guilty two years later in a London Court to all the money laundering charges upon which he was earlier discharged. Yet, the bizarre in the judgment of the Asaba High Court is not as unheard of as the non-remittance by the NNPC of N1.7 trillion.
There could be element of strangeness in the “fiction” narrated at a public hearing held by the House of Representatives Committee on Capital Market during which sitting members were told that the Director General of the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) Ms. Arunma Oteh spent N850, 000 on feeding in a day alone. Yet, the weird in this spree expenditure is not as unheard of as the non-remittance by the NNPC of N1.7 trillion. It also sounds comical when chairman of the committee under reference, Representative Herman Hembe suffered a “reprisal attack” as Ms Oteh accused him of demanding a bribe of N44 million from her to fund the public hearing. Yet, the muddle in the counter accusation is equally not as unheard of as the non-remittance by the NNPC of N1.7 trillion
Although the subsidy probe carried out by the House of Representatives which exposed the fictitious payment of N999 million at a rate of 128 times in 24 hours by the Petroleum Products Regularly Agency (PPPRA) to ‘unknown’ oil companies qualifies to be a “stranger than fiction” case. Yet, it is not as unfamiliar as the N1.7 trillion unaccounted for by the NNPC.
Nigeria considered it another surprise when the chairman and members of the Pension Probe Panel Senator Aloysin Etok were told that N1 billion was spent in screening 29 pensioners. Yet, the wonder in this scam is today not as irregular as the indescribability in the non-remittance of a colossal sum of N1.7 trillion by the NNPC to Federation Account.
With all these happenings under Jonathan, it is absurd that he yet finds himself suitable to seek re-election. May Allah (SWT) save Nigeria and Nigerians, amin.

This piece, earlier published on December 21, 2013, was errorneuosly placed under Prof. Brainy. It was actually written by M.U. Ndagi. The mixup is regretted. – Editor