Nigeria’s Finance Minister, Ms Kemi Adeosun, was on TV last week. While speaking, she said, “For the purpose of this briefing, we operate the NNPC as a business. We have invested public capital in that business and we have expectations of return. And when that return falls lower than our expectations, then the owners of this business, which in this case are the Federal Government and states, need to act. So that was what caused the deadlock…and we really felt that the figures the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation was proposing were unacceptable. We felt that the some of the costs couldn’t be justified and so, we have decided that rather than approve the accounts, we will go back and do further work. Further negotiations are going on with the NNPC as we speak.”
Adeosun said this against the backdrop of a disagreement between the members of the nation’s revenue allocation committee and the NNPC. The disagreement was about the revenue, which the corporation should place in the Federation
Account for the three tiers of government to share in June. She had added, “We need to get to the bottom of those figures.”
Obviously, the NNPC displayed figures in its account book and business contracts that nobody, except the corporation, could comprehend. Of course, the corporation likes it that way. Its officials always claim in the public space that everyone else is ignorant of its peculiar business model. Maybe it is voodoo business, secretive and never meant to be understood by the rest of us. What other conclusions should one reach when the finance minister, who should know best, also says the NNPC flashes figures during the June meeting that even she doesn’t understand?
I should point out that what the NNPC is doing three years into the tenure of the current government is baffling. It should baffle any Nigerian who witnessed what happened immediately President Muhammadu Buhari came to office in 2015. I had called attention, on this page, to the NNPC’s silence in those first few months. Now the corporation is shooting from both hips again, talking back to ministers and making one to wonder what has emboldened this government-owned business to confront higher authorities.
Stating that I don’t have an expectation of what the NNPC should look like under Buhari’s watch amounts to not saying it all. Every Nigerian, who is aware of the reputation of this corporation, has an expectation. If Adeosun didn’t have any before she assumed office as minister, I’m sure she does now. I know she does because on June 28, 2018 she talked about the kind of corporation that government set up the NNPC to be. That the corporation isn’t exactly the transparent and well-run business she expected it to be is obvious in the tone of her voice. One didn’t even need to hear her voice to know. Every Nigerian already recognises the bell that the acronym, ‘NNPC’, rings whenever it is mentioned. It’s been like that for years. For instance, all citizens know how many times in a year the NNPC is accused of failing to make accurate remittances into the Federation Account. If politicians aren’t publicly throwing accusations, technocrats are. Who has forgotten the accusations leveled by the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Lamido Sanusi, against the NNPC?
Even Madam Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the former finance minister, was severally compelled to talk about working with the NNPC to reconcile accounts when she was in office. It was in the days when Sanusi refused to be silenced, regarding what he knew about unremitted sums. In the first few months after Buhari’s government kicked off, even everyone’s favourite enemy, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, the governor of Kaduna State, made references to the NNPC’s obscure business practises. I noted at the time that El-Rufai’s unsheathed sword surprisingly got no reaction from NNPC.
A new sheriff was in Aso Villa and those in the NNPC Tower were watching their steps and wondering what the disposition of the new administration would be. I had equally stated at the time that before Buhari would appoint a minister for the Ministry of Petroleum, he should clean the NNPC’s stable first. Well, the President became the Minister of Petroleum, appointed a Minister of State and made him sit as the boss of NNPC.
All was quiet at the NNPC at that time and many of us expected a ground – breaking turnaround in the operation and reputation of the corporation. We began to hear the Minister of State, Mr Ibe Kachukwu, promise a better NNPC. Then he was removed from the corporation’s seat and drama started, as usual. The state governors were back at accusing the NNPC of holding on to revenue that should be theirs through the Federation Account. The extractive industry watchdog, NEITI, wouldn’t keep quiet, too. It kept saying that wastage of resources under NNPC was monumental. The figures it mentioned were staggering. NEITI has always been a favourite of mine. The body wouldn’t mind who is in power. It gathers its figures and goes to town with them. The NNPC is engaged in business practices that make Nigeria lose billions of dollars, it always says in its regular reports.
I recall that when Buhari assumed office, NEITI brought in its boss from London. They said they wanted to let the new President know that so much was wrong with the management of the nation’s mineral resources that he needed to take firm action, while giving assurances that they were willing allies in any effort aimed at getting things right.
It is noteworthy that state governors have never been quiet, as regards what the NNPC should hand over to them through the Federation Account. They still did in June. I’m not focusing on the governors. They want revenue that they can take to their states. I’m concerned more about oil revenue that is neither mismanaged nor looted by anyone, including the NNPC. The only way this can happen is to have transparency and accountability, regarding how the corporation manages our crude oil business. Adeosun doesn’t seem to believe that the corporation runs business the way a business should be run, let alone being transparent and accountable. This was obvious in the statements she made on June 28, 2018.
She said the figures that the NNPC presented couldn’t be justified and for this reason, certain funds that should be placed in the Federation Account in June hadn’t been accepted by the Federal and state governments. Meetings would continue until an agreement was reached, she added.
However, at 9:12pm, less than five minutes after NTA showed Adeosun giving this explanation, the NNPC’s news release was also read. The corporation said it had paid some billions of naira, as expected, into the Federation Account, based on the agreement it had with the state governors. It claimed it owed nothing. The governors had said they were expecting a certain sum of money. The NNPC was silent about the figures that the minister had claimed weren’t comprehensible to anyone except the corporation. The minister had said that talks were still ongoing to resolve the issue, but the NNPC’s insisted that there was nothing to resolve. The corporation was right and everyone else was wrong. No one should look further than whatever it says.
The NNPC is waging a war in the media against the states and the Federal Government, its owner. It is calling the bluff of authorities higher than itself. How did we arrive here? Note that this isn’t happening for the first time. When Kachukwu’s letter to the President about practices at the NNPC was leaked some months ago, the corporation openly attacked and refuted the content in the media, sounding rude to a superior in the process.
Occurrences like these make me wonder what has made those at the NNPC become so bold. Who do they rely on to the extent that they invite the minister of state for petroleum, the minister of finance and the governors of the 36 states to a wrestling match at the village square? What has happened to make the NNPC continue on the same path that every Nigerian knew it to tread in past years? Isn’t it time to put an end to such a thing? The answers are important. They are not only for the purpose of ensuring transparent and accountable governance, but also to every Nigerian who’s at the receiving end of the mismanagement of this nation’s resources.
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