The oil licence awarded to Malabu Oil Company to explore and exploit OPL 245 that is now infamously referred to as the ‘ Malabu Deal’, has caused tremendous embarrassment to the country because of the under handed practices involved in the award, including the giving of bribes by awardees. All those involved should be singled out and punished for their roles.
The Malabu deal originated in 1998 during the tenure of former Head of State, late General Sanni Abacha but was consummated under former president Goodluck Jonathan, a total of thirteen years. Located offshore in the Niger Delta, the block has about nine billion barrels of crude oil, that is estimated at half a trillion dollars, the most lucrative on the continent.
It turned out that during the administration of Obasanjo, the deal with Malabu was revoked and awarded to Shell. Malabu petitioned the house of representatives which then conducted a public hearing into the transaction and concluded that the revocation of the block from Malabu and reallocation to Shell was done mala fide (in bad faith) and declared it null and void. It, therefore, passed a resolution that the block should be returned to Malabu. In short, OPL 245 is wrought with controversy and enmeshed in layers and layers of corruption. The sleaze that trailed the transactions is still been uncovered by the courts and campaign groups including, Global Witness.
Interestingly, while other countries affected by the deal are making efforts to identify, prosecute and punish actors, Nigeria where the whole drama took place is doing next to nothing to bring offenders to book. For instance in 2009, a United States court tried and jailed Congressman William Jefferson of New Orleans on charges related to Malabu and other reprehensible activities in Africa. He was sentenced to 13 years in prison. And only last week, in Italy, A Nigerian, Emeka Obi, and Italian, Gianluca Di Nardo, were found guilty of international corruption and each given four-year jail term, for bribes collected from oil giants Shell and Eni to “arrange” the Malabu deal that helped the companies win the licence to the oil field, about $1.1 billion out of a possible $1.3 billion.
What is inexcusable is that the matter has lingered for years as government after government continues to sweep the matter under the carpet. From Obasanjo to Yar’Adua and Jonathan nothing was done to visit the matter. The inaction by government over the years indicates that the people involved both at the multinational companies and in government are ‘untouchables’. Or does it mean that there is a grand conspiracy that the matter should not be dealt with? How can the country make progress when cases involving public money are not treated with the seriousness and urgency that they deserve?
Given that past governments failed woefully in that regard, shouldn’t the present administration that campaigned on the premise of dealing with corruption take up the matter and finally put it to rest? It will be a shame if that is not done. It was generally expected that this administration was going to take the matter seriously especially as the president was a onetime petroleum minister as he is also the minister of petroleum today and should have a clear understanding of the workings of the oil business and the likely sleaze that goes on in the industry. His experience should afford him on how to proceed to curtail the rot in the industry that is the country’s mainstay, helping the economy earn more than 90 percent of the country’s foreign exchange.
What is more, we need to take urgent steps to remove the stigma that comes with the perception that Nigeria is one of the most corrupt countries of the world, ranking 148 out of the 180 countries assessed in 2017 in the Transparency International Ranking. In fact the extractive industry is the breeding ground of corruption in resource rich countries, Nigeria inclusive.
Being the first signatory to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) that led to the set up of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), we should make a bold statement in that regard and open immediate investigation into the Malabu Case and jail persons culpable in the matter.
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