When President Barrack Obama visited Ghana in 2010 he identified corruption as the bane of the underdevelopment of Africa. I was compelled to join issues with the United States leader for his deliberate silence on the plundering of the resources of Africa through slave trade and colonialism by western governments for a cummulative period of 500 years. I also accused banks in western countries of warehousing the stolen wealth from African countries and other Third World nations. Since then the Obama administration has undertaken to assist African countries to recover and repatriate the looted wealth of African countries traced to the United States.
During a recent visit to Nigeria, the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, Christien Lagarde promised that the IMF would help Nigeria to bail out the economy. However, the assistance offered by the IMF is a Grrek gift. Once again the government has been advised to devalue the national currency . The dangerous advice should be rejected as it is designed to further ruin the national economy. The IMF and its local supporters have not explained what an import oriented economy stands to benefit from currency devaluation. However, while President Buhari has rightly rejected the IMF prescription the administration should stop the dollarisation of the economy and ban the importation of all goods that can be produced locally and invest in the Nigerian people to produce quality goods and services. All the major oil and shipping companies are involved in the criminal enterprise.
On the recovery of the looted wealth
Nigerians have been told that in promising to wipe out poverty from the land the All Progressive Congress did not appreciate the extent of the looting of the treasury by the PDP-led government. The dwindling revenue from the sale of crude oil has also been blamed for the inablity of the government to deliver on its promise to address the crisis of poverty in the land. With respect, such diversionary explanations should be rejected by the traumatized people of Nigeria. From the information at my disposal the government is owed well over $100 billion which ought to be recovered without any further delay. The details are set out below:
(a) In response to a request for information which I made under the Freedom of Information Act the National Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative informed me by a letter dated 27th January, 2016 that from five cycles of independent audit reports of NEITI covering 1999-2012 the potential recoverable revenue accruable to the Federal Government is $20,221,018,007.00 (Twenty billion, two hundred and twenty one billion, eighteen thousand and seven dollars).
(b) In 2006 the Central Bank of Nigeria apportioned $7 billion out of the nation’s external reserves to 14 Nigerian banks. In 2008, the CBN also gave a bailout of N600 billion ($4 billion)to the the banks. The banks which took the loan of $11 billion have not been asked to refund same.
(c) In September last year, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) announced that arrangements had been concluded to recover the sum of $9.6 billion in over-deducted tax benefits from joint venture partners on major capital projects and oil swap contracts.
(d) Sometime in 2009, a leading oil company operating in Nigeria applied to the federal government for the renewal of three oil blocks. Upon granting the application the NNPC asked the company to pay the sum of $2.5 billion for the renewal of the licences. Curiously, the $600 million paid by the company was accepted by the federal government. One of our clients has requested the EFCC to investigate the circumstances surrounding the fraudulent transaction. Our request is that the outstanding sum of $1.9 billion be collected from the leading oil company and paid into the federation account.
(e) From 1998-2014 the Federal Government collected over $4 billion from the over $5 billion stolen from the vaults of the CBN by a fromer military ruler, the late General Sani Abacha. I have submitted a petition to the Economic and Financial Commission to investigate the alleged criminal diversion of the recoverd loot by some former public officers. The governments of the United States and Switzerland have promised to repatriate not less than $750 million which has also been recovered from the loot.
(e) In 1999, the Abdulsalami Abubakar military junta enacted the Deep Offshore inland Sharing Contracts Act Decree to give effect to certain fiscal incentives for the oil and gas companies operating in the Deep Offshore and Inland Basin under production sharing contracts. Thus, by virtue of section 5 of the Act, the payment of royalty in respect of the Deep Offshore production sharing contracts shall range from 4 to 12 per cent while no royalty shall be paid whatsoever in areas in excess of 1000 metres depth! Since the 15-year period of for non-payment of royalties expired in June 2014 the National Assembly should amend the law while the NNPC should collect appropriate royalties from the oil and gas companies operating in areas in excess of 1,000 metres depth.
(f) The $470 million contract awarded to ZTE, (a Chinese company) in 2009 by the federal government for the construction of CCTV cameras in Abuja and Lagos has been abandoned. Hence, the cameras which were installed did not capture the criminals who recently launched bomb attacks in Abuja and killed scores of citizens. I have since requested the EFCC to investigate the failed contract and recover the contract sum.
(g)The Goodluck Jonathan administration admitted publicly that the nation was losing crude oil worth $7 billion to criminals on an annual basis. An investigation being carried out by a team of lawyers hired by the NIMASA has so far confirmed that hundreds of millions of barrels of oil were stolen by shipping companies and taken to many countries. According to the lawyers “the total amount recoverable by the Nigeria Government from the Sellers and Buyers as a consequence of the shortfall for the period from January 2011 December 2014, stands at US$12.7 billion.”
This analysis is limited to the oil stolen and taken to the United States alone in 3 years. It has not covered the hundreds of million of barrels of stolen oil taken to other countries in the last 10 years. To avoid prosecution in the circumstance some of the oil companies have opted to settle out of court. According to the legal team the country can reccover not less than $50 billion if the verification is thoroughly conducted. The EFCC should be directed by the federal government to work with the legal team with to speed up the recovery of the oil theft.
(h) In July 2014, President Goodluck Jonathan fired the then Central Bank Governor, Alhaji Sanusi Lamido Sanusi for having the temerity to expose the NNPC for not remitting $20 billion to the Federation Account. Following the reconcilliation of the accounts of the NNPC spearheaded by the then Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala it was said that the missing sum was $12billion. To douse the tension generated by the scandal the Federal Government apoointed a firm of auditors to audit the books of the NNPC. But in a bid to cover up the scandal the Federal Government ensured that the auditors were denied access to vital documents. At the end of the shoddy investigation the auditors indicted the NNPC for withholding $1.8 billion from the Federation Account.
(i) Rising from its monthly meeting held at Abuja on September 17, 2015 the National Economic Council accused the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) of failing to remit N3.8 tillion to the Federation Account under the Jonathan administration. The Council set up a committee of 3 state governors to trace the whereabout of the huge sum of money. Last month, the Auditor-General of the Federation indicted the NNPC for withholding N3.4 trillion from the Federation Account in 2014.. In its reaction to the allegation the NNPC claimed that the amount which it had withheld from the Federation Account was 348 billion!
(j) While it might be said that the unprecedented looting of the public treasury via the NNPC took place under the rogue regime headed by President Goodluck Jonathan it is totally unacceptable that the NNPC has continued to fritter the nation’s resources under the Buhari Administration which is currently waging a war against corruption. Last week, a firm of auditors revealed that out of the sum of $6.4 billion realised from the sale of crude oil by the Federal Government in the first quarter of 2016 the NNPC remitted $2 billion to the Federation Account and withheld the colossal sum of $4.2 billion. Up till now the NNPC has not explained how much of the missing sum of $4.2 billion was spent on its operations. Neither has the Presidency reacted to the allegation that the looting spree has continued unabated under President Buhari who doubles as the Minister of Petroleum Resources. It is high time the NNPC was fully investigated to get to the root of the large scale looting of public funds through the institution.
- Excerpts from a lecture delivered by Femi Falana, SAN, at a seminar at Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye.
