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Tag: NNPC

  • NNPC blew the money, stupid!

    Nigerians are very ungrateful people, aren’t they? Unlike the Obasanjo years, Yuletide was wet with fuel and no one sapped wearied Nigerians with yet another fuel price hike as New Year present.

    To ensure the fuel wetness continues well into the far future, an organisation in its infinite operational wisdom, has maintained a strategic reserve for 32 days – even despite a daily petrol consumption of 40 million litres.

    And to further consolidate on product supply lines, this same corporation hurried to fix vandalised oil pipelines, undeterred by government bureaucracy, in the best tradition of a responsible and patriotic public corporation.

    Yet, some whistle blowers claim US $10.8 billion (N1.7 trillion) is missing from the Federation Account!

    That is why you must understand the palpable ire of Omar Farouk Ibrahim, in response to this national insolence and ingratitude!

    Dr. Omar, NNPC spokesperson, could not just understand all the fuss about the so-called “missing” money, when it is so clear his organisation has gone the extra mile to save the Jonathan Presidency avoidable embarrassment; and earned patriotic stripes for preventing the angry Nigerian rabble from storming the streets, reminiscent of January 2012.

    The Federal Government ought to have remitted subsidy to NNPC, if it really wanted steady supply of imported products, as witnessed without interruption throughout 2013. Since it was NNPC’s bounden and patriotic duty to keep fuel flowing, and the government was not forthcoming on subsidy payment, the firm just made adjustments for accommodation in its operational expenses. But instead of earning praise for its adaptable genius, it is accusations – baseless accusations – galore!

    Then, to be fair, the all-important strategic fuel reserve really ought to be commended. If NNPC had waited for the Federal Government bureaucracy, wouldn’t the reserves have dried up by now, the fuel queues all over again and everybody panicking and heating up the polity? For preventing this explosive tension, is it not better to hail NNPC for its strategic thinking, instead of nailing it for some phantom corruption charges, even as the books are still being reconciled?

    And then injustice of all injustices – the vandalised pipes! With increasing tales of oil theft, should NNPC dither, because it must tidy up some cosmetic books, and not hurry post-haste to fix the problem first and reconcile the books later? Verily, verily, I say unto you: patriotism is a thankless enterprise. But NNPC will not be deterred. We will continue to do our duty by our nation. That is the stuff of which true patriots are made.

    The above might well be the stream of consciousness of Dr. Ibrahim and other NNPC Ogas-at-the-top, as they wince under legitimate charges of playing hanky-panky with the nation’s cash.

    Still, it is curious that until CBN Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi blew his whistle, NNPC had not told anyone it spent any money on operations; and it is doubtful if it would ever have, had Sanusi not blown his shrill whistle.

    It is even more curious Dr. Ibrahim did not state what was spent under what operational head until the loud noise had become louder.

    Indeed, patriotism is the last bastion of the scoundrel.

     

  • GEJ vs. SLS!

    GEJ vs. SLS!

    By now, Nigerians must be sufficiently alarmed at latest turn in events over the ‘missing’ $49 billion. By this, I do not mean the frenetic pace of book reconciliation said to have brought the figure to $10.8 billion, or even the more shocking attempt by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to pass off the $10.8 billion as routine “expenses”. Rather, I am talking of the reported altercation between President Goodluck Jonathan and the rambunctious Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi.

    The story is that the President ordered – on phone – the CBN governor to hand in his letter of resignation. The latter, who had all along indicated his intention to proceed on his terminal leave effective March, had, according to the reports yet to be denied by the authorities, pointedly told the President that he would not be stampeded out of office. As if to give flesh to the story, the CBN governor would later be reported as convoking a ‘family meeting’ where he told his staff that he would now be staying put until the very last day of his term – in June!

    Understandably, opinions would remain divided over the question of whether Sanusi’s continuing stay in the office was still tenable in the aftermath of the finding by the reconciliation team that the ‘missing’ money was nowhere the $49 billion claimed in Sanusi’s September letter. Now, I have also heard that the letter was actually leaked to embarrass the President. The argument of course continues to go forth and backwards on the propriety of the government banker ‘squealing’ on the same government.

    Let me state that these are unusual times. It requires extraordinary times for the government’s top banker to write to the President alleging a whopping discrepancy of nearly $50 billion in the nation’s finances without the benefit of a formal acknowledgement of the latter for nearly the whole of three months. And more extraordinarily – we have since found out that the top banker didn’t even get his sums right before putting pen to paper on a subject that should ordinarily be within his remit!

    More intriguingly, now that the letter marked – KIV by the President– has now become the hot potato in street corners, the President appears to have resolved to kick the butt of the inveterate squealer – as against those of the outrageously inept, figure-juggling gate-keepers in the NNPC!

    No doubt, there is a tribe out there who would swear that Sanusi was disrespectful to the person and the office of the President. To this tribe, I guess it’s no use seeking to persuade them – or anyone for that matter – to be sober in their appraisal of the situation; not now after what is perceived to be Sanusi’s latest insolence against the person of the President. I guess its part of the notion of the Nigerian Presidency as the most powerful one on the face of the earth – something I describe as the Kabiyesi syndrome. It sums up to the notion of an all-knowing, unchallengeable institution, an illusion that continues to be sold and bought by many Nigerians.

    In this, I was drawn to re-read the typically illuminating piece by my brother and colleague, Segun Ayobolu with the title Transformational Power of the Nigerian presidency published December 28 last year. Although the subject was on the potentially transformative power of the office when properly deployed; he drew clear examples from the nation’s recent experience to illustrate how it has often been deployed more like a force for evil – rather than good. Today, when Nigerians talk about the power of the number one office, they hardly ever do so in the sense of the intendments of the constitution but in the context of wilting institutions or what is now the penchant by the incumbent to press state institutions in the service of ignoble causes. Yet, it is to the credit of the framers of the nation’s constitution that they actually inserted enough safeguards to guard against arbitrary use of power and to ensure that actors play by the rules.

    Much as the President’s ego may have been ruffled by the Sanusi indiscretion, he and his advisers ought to know that he cannot remove the CBN governor by executive fiat. I don’t think there is any dispute as to where the ultimate power resides. The CBN Act is explicit enough. Section 11(2)9F): “A person shall not remain a Governor, Deputy Governor or Director of the Bank if he is removed by the President – provided that the removal of the Governor shall be supported by two-thirds majority of the Senate praying that he be so removed”.

    Now, the danger of the misadventure of the past week is that the aura and authority of the office may have been damaged irreparably. More worrisome is that the two outsized egos would not give up until one side is thoroughly vanquished. And just when you begin to wonder what the whole fuss is about, you are reminded that it is not about getting people to account for the $10.8 billion which the creative fellows in the NNPC insist we pass to their imprest account, or the needed overhaul of the shambolic public finance system under which a corporation does as it pleases with the commonwealth.

    No; it’s as simple as GEJ vs. SLS!

    Where do we go from here? If you ask me, I’ll just say that the President blew the chance big time. Sanusi’s suspension – an extra-constitutional step by the way – may please the presidency’s hounds so ready to draw blood. May we also remind them there is something described as the rule of unanticipated behaviour in power relations? How about stoking a fire you can never accurately predict the extent of its conflagration?

    Have I canonised Saint Sanusi? Far from it. If you ask me, I think the whole thing smacks of disorderly conduct on his part. Why would the man not disappear after the extravagant goof if not for the mortal sin of impudence? So, he does not want to be disgraced from office? Since when did hubris become a badge of honour? And where is honour here: staying put when you are clearly unwanted? Since when did Sanusi begin to worry about his legacy of double standards? Is it now that his hypocritical posturing is being laid bare as his exit nears?

  • Jonathan vs Sanusi: Stakeholders urge caution

    Jonathan vs Sanusi: Stakeholders urge caution

    The letter from the Central Bank Governor (CBN), Sanusi Lamido Sanusi alleging that $49.8 billion was not remitted by Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to the Federation Account raised dust last week. President Goodluck Jonathan’s advice that Sanusi should resign for allegedly leaking the document to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, has met with varied reactions, with stakeholders calling for truce, reports COLLINS NWEZE.

    Unprecedented. That was the simple interpretation a senior banker gave to President Goodluck Jonathan’s advice to the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi to resign.

    Jonathan had accused Sanusi of leaking a letter on the supposed non-remittance of $49.8 billion by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to the Federation Account to former President Olusegun Obasanjo. This formed part of the kernel of a scathing letter Obasanjo wrote to Jonathan.

    While denying the allegation, Sanusi was quoted to have rejected the President’s advice, arguing, quite rightly, that it would take the Senate’s two-thirds to sack him. Expectedly, the development has elicited varied reactions from across the divide.

    Many who spoke on the issue have called for caution on the part of the President in the interest of the economy. They said it was left for Sanusi to either take the advice or leave it, adding that the President lacks the power to kick him out.

    They referred to Section 11 Sub-section (2) (f) of the CBN Act of 2007, which stipulates that the CBN Governor cannot be removed by mere pronouncement of a president. The section gave the conditions under which the Governor can be removed, such as the Governor being convicted by a court; where he is declared bankrupt, or by the President after securing the backing of two-thirds majority of the Senate. “A person shall not remain a Governor, Deputy Governor or Director of the Bank if he is removed by the President: Provided that the removal of the Governor shall be supported by two-thirds majority of the Senate praying that he be so removed.”

    Chukwuemeka Eze, Lead Counsel, Eze & Associates, said President Jonathan is aware that Sanusi cannot be removed by mere advice. “The President cannot remove him and he knows. That is why he advised him to resign, and mind you, resignation is a voluntary act. The Governor can take the advice or decline. If the Governor says he is not leaving, there is no law that can remove him. Legally speaking, Sanusi’s tenure is sealed till June 2.”

    Eze said the best bet is to allow him serve out his tenure because the heat that will be generated by a continued debate on the matter would be more injurious to the economy than forcing him to go.

    However, Eze said based on the sensitive nature of his position in the economy, Sanusi should have, firstly, written the NNPC to reconcile the figures. If the NNPC failed to give him the needed response, then, he could notify the President.

    Ekene Odum, Senior Lecturer, Labour Law at the Lagos State University (LASU), said the CBN Governor was appointed by the President, and this takes effect after the Senate confirmation. “The President cannot just wake up and say Sanusi should go. The President can suspend him. He can be disciplined, but can’t be removed without the concur of the Senate,” he said.

    He admitted that as the Chief Economist of the Federation, the leaked letter was a major embarrassment, adding that the Governor was too hasty to write the President. “Such writing has the capacity to cause confusion in both the local and international markets. Still, it would have made Sanusi a hero were the figures gotten totally right. But he made a statement only the brave could make,” he said.

    He continued: “If it is confirmed that the President asked him to go, it will be an unfortunate scenario that could heat up the polity and economy. Remember that $49.8 billion is different from $10 billion. Still, $10 billion is a huge amount of money.”

    He said despite the stalemate, the President should allow him to do his job and not push him out of office, having performed creditably at the CBN.

    “It is human to err, but that should not take away his glory. Until he leaves, he still has the right to advise the President on economic matters, but whether such advice will be taken or not remains a different matter entirely. The President has technocrats that can advise him on economic matters, but to stampede or disgrace him out of office is not right,” he explained.

    Odum insisted that it was only during the military era that a sitting CBN Governor could be forced out of office, adding that there has never been any such precedence in constitutional democracy. “During the military era, yes, he could be forced out. But in the era of constitutional democracy, it has never happened,” he said.

    However, Dr. Austin Nweze, Senior Lecturer, Lagos Business School, said even though some people are lauding Sanusi for a job well done, he has caused a lot of problems for the economy, saying the President’s order that he quits is in order and should be respected.

    He said Sanusi should have confirmed the right figures on NNPC remittances before writing the President, adding that such attribute is unbecoming of the Central Bank Governor, the fallout of which will be a minus for the economy. “It is definitely going to affect the economy negatively,” he said.

    He said the Governor discouraged banks from taking business risks, which has affected the lenders’ drive for businesses. “He is long-overdue. The President should have sacked him three years ago. There is urgent need to rectify the damages he has done to the economy. If he leaves now, he will be the first CBN Governor to be sacked. What the President has told him is that he does not have confidence in him,” he said.

    Bismarck Rewane, Managing Director, Financial Derivatives Company Limited, said the President may not have told Sanusi to resign. According to him, Sanusi’s position remains strategic to the economy and if the President wanted to advise him to resign, it won’t be on the pages of a newspaper. “I don’t think that the government can say so. Until I am convinced, I won’t comment on the matter. I doubt the authenticity of the letter. I need to observe before commenting,” he said.

    Ademola Areago, a Constitutional lawyer based in Lagos, said if Sanusi must go, such act will lead to all kinds of signals. Firstly, such act will create feelings of political and economic instability in the country. “The CBN is banker to the Federal Government and the CBN Governor is also the Economic Adviser to the President. Now, if he bothers to give advice at all, what type will he be giving?,” he asked.

    Sanusi has the key to the strong room and vault of the country and the way he leaves is important. “The whole world is watching because it has not happened in any country before. The way the information was handled was wrong. It raises the issue of confidence and investors both local and international are watching,” he said.

    He argued that the fact that the President made his intention to remove him public is enough damage to the economy. That, he said, means that he is working against the President’s will.

    “This type of situation is unprecedented. He is not asking him to go because of inefficiency. For now, Sanusi is hanging on to the law. It will not be easy at all because the statement will be sending all sorts of signals,” he said.

     

    Chairman, Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Ikeja Branch, Monday Ubani, said the face-off portends great danger for the economy.

    He said Sanusi is in charge of the CBN’s vault and any altercation between him and the president is not healthy for the economy.

    Ubani said there is a breakdown of communication between President Jonathan and Sanusi, an indication that the apex bank’s helmsman may be frustrated about certain economic issues. “Sanusi does not want to be held accountable when something sinister happens to the economy. But President Jonathan must handle it with superior wisdom,” he said.

    The NBA boss agreed with Eze that Sanusi has the right not to resign because his position is tenured and must be allowed to run out. “Even if it is $1 billion that was found to be missing, there should be a ceasefire. President Jonathan should swallow his pride and allow the man to exhaust his tenure,” he said.

     

    The genesis of the problem

    The crisis started when Sanusi wrote the president alleging that $49.8 billion oil remittance that was supposed to have been paid by the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to the Federation Account was missing.

    This letter, it was alleged, drew the ire of the President Jonathan who directed Sanusi to resign for allegedly leaking his letter on the “missing $49.8billion” to ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo based on which the former president wrote a damning letter to him.

    The CBN governor allegedly denied any wrong doing, insisting that he would not be stampeded out of office. He insisted that it is only the Senate that could remove him and not a presidential fiat.

    It is believed that a statement by the CBN spokesman that the governor had told the workers that he would no longer proceed on a pre-retirement leave is a direct confirmation of Sanusi’s preparedness to stand on the point he made when he allegedly spoke with the president on phone. Presidency officials could not be reached for comments at the time of going to press.

     

    CBN reacts

    CBN spokesman Mr. Ugo Okoroafor has confirmed that Sanusi said he would no longer proceed on terminal leave at a “family meeting” with the bank’s staff. He spoke to reporters in Abuja on Sanusi’s tenure after a news conference on the execution of the bank’s Payment System Vision 2020 (PSV 2020) strategy.

     

     

    Implications for economy

    The implication of Sanusi’s forced resignation, analysts say, would be quite negative. First, a lot of foreign management partners will lose confidence in the management of the economy while the independence of the institutions that are part of the Central Bank and participating in economic management will equally be negatively affected.

    According to the Managing Director, SP&S Consulting, Debo Adebayo, reducing the power and independence of the CBN would send a signal of retrogression at a time others central banks are moving towards greater autonomy to enable them handle intricate financial crises.

    He said a strong economy anywhere is tied to the effectiveness of the conduct of its monetary policy. “You see, the monetary policy is a serious business; it could be very, very terrible to have a country where the monetary policy direction is doubtful. When a government subjects the conduct of monetary policy to political influence, you are not going to have a strong economy,” he explained.

    According to him, such development could hamper the effectiveness of monetary policy and the management of the macro-economic framework of the country. “The survival of the CBN is at the heart of the survival of the economy,”he warned.

     

    Swimming in controversial waters

    Appointed in the midst of 2009 debt crisis, Sanusi, 51, fired the chief executives of eight lenders within four months of taking office after an audit found evidence of mismanagement and reckless lending.

    His push for stability in the currency has helped bring inflation down to below eight per cent.

    But Sanusi’s actions have never strayed from controversy. He never stopped antagonising lawmakers by criticising their spending and courting controversy for his outspoken views, most recently on China’s role in Africa.

    In December 2010, lawmakers demanded his apology for saying a quarter of the government’s spending on overheads went to parliament and that was damaging for the economy. He refused, saying his estimates were correct.

    Again, two years ago, lawmakers attempted to whittle down the bank’s powers by proposing an amendment to CBN Act, hoping to strip him of his position as chairman of the bank’s board. They also pushed to include more external members on the board and have the National Assembly approve the bank’s budget.

    More recently, he criticised China’s role in Africa, saying it contributed to the “deindustrialisation and underdevelopment” in the world’s poorest continent. Africa must shake off its “romantic view of China” and see it as a competitor that’s “capable of the same forms of exploitation as the west,” Sanusi warned.

     

    CBN’s constitutional roles

    The CBN is empowered to maintain price stability and ensure a non-inflationary growth. It also has the responsibility to ensure a sound and stable financial system in addition to other developmental functions. These mandates and functions are peculiar to central banks across the world and no other institution plays such roles.

    These special responsibilities are enormous and have continued to pose increasing challenges to central banks largely because developments in the domestic and international economies create challenges in the financial systems and the art of central banking.

    Globalisation exemplified by economic and monetary unions has equally increased the challenges to central banking.

    Analysts insist that the effective discharge of these responsibilities requires that central banks be totally independent and shielded from political interferences.

     

    Sanusi’s successor

    According to Sanusi, whoever will be picked by President Jonathan to take over at the apex bank must be able to develop the market. “Central banking has changed. I think the market has developed. To be honest, if any Central Bank Governor misbehaves, the market punishes the economy immediately. So, the market is a major factor. Even as a governor, by the time your capital market crashes, and your currency goes down, you will know that it is either you restore stability, or you are out of the job. That’s important,” he said at a media conference held last month in Lagos.

    Analysts have tipped some of the CBN deputy governors among Sanusi’s likely successor. Deputy Governor, Operations, Tunde Lemo; Deputy Governor, Economic Policy, Sarah Alade; and Deputy Governor, Financial System Stability, Kingsley Moghalu have been mentioned. Also linked with the job are: Managing Director, Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), Mustafa Chike-Obi; Managing Director, FirstBank of Nigeria, Bisi Onasanya and Managing Director, Access Bank, Aigboje Aig-Imoukuede and recently, Minister of Trade and Investment, Olusegun Aganga.

    Analysts insist the next governor will probably have a different outlook or perspective, but one thing that is sure, remains that the fallout of the altercations between the President Jonathan and Sanusi may have just begun.

  • The Stella Oduah conundrum

    The Stella Oduah conundrum

    ON his return from Jerusalem a few weeks ago, President Goodluck Jonathan was asked whether he had received the report of the panel he set up to look into the Stella Oduah scandal in the Aviation ministry, and what he intended to do with it. He struggled to hide his disdain for the question. He had received the report, he said curtly. He said nothing about what he intended to do with it. Like many reports on his table, so to speak, he has either not read them, or he intends to ignore them, or better still, let them mummify on his table.

    Recall that last September the president also received a letter from the Central Bank governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, complaining about haphazard remittances from that most labyrinthine of Nigerian organisations, the NNPC. As he is wont, the president ignored the letter until it blew up in everybody’s face last December. Though Mallam Sanusi is the worse for wear over the letter, thus seeming to confirm President Jonathan’s tactic of ignoring a problem until it resolved itself or, better still, hurt his enemies, the Oduah report seems headed in that infamous direction.

    There is no other interpretation to give the president’s reluctance to tackle the Oduah scandal than to say he looks at ethics from a different prism from the one many world leaders are used to. He is probably angry that the scandal broke out in the first instance, and even more peeved that anyone is putting pressure on him to act. Why then did he bother to attend Mandela’s burial? To honour a man whose methods and principles his government stands in direct opposition to? Well, sooner or later, he will have to act, whether directly or through cabinet reshuffle, as some speculate. The controversy, no matter how angry he gets, will not go away until he buries that stubborn ghost.

  • How we spent $10.8bn oil money—NNPC boss

    How we spent $10.8bn oil money—NNPC boss

    The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) yesterday explained how it incurred the $10.8 billion expenditure that is undergoing reconciliation by various agencies of the Federal Government at the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC).

    According to the corporation, “the sum in question has been expenditure incurred as art of statutory responsibilities which the NNPC as the National Oil Company executes on behalf of the Federal Government and by extension the entire people of Nigeria.”

    While insisting that the fund is not missing, the Group Managing Director (GMD), Engr. Andrew Yakubu, who was represented by the Group Executive Director, Finance and Accounts Directorate, Mr. Bernard Otti, at a press conference in Abuja, added that $8.49 billion subsidy claim for 2012 was part of the $10.8 billion.

    The GMD recalled that for many years, the NNPC has been the main supplier of the subsidised Premium Motor Spirit (PMS).

    Yakubu claimed that the Federal Government had not made payment to the corporation in the name of subsidy during the period under review.

    He noted that “pipeline management and repair cost is $1.22 billion while product/crude oil losses is $0.72 billion and cost of holding the strategic reserve stock is $.7 billion.”

    These, he said, are being subject to the normal continuing inter-agencies reconciliation exercise.

    Yakubu submitted that “as long as it is a transaction, it is always work in progress.”

    Speaking, the NNPC Director of Transformation and Coordination of Data and Corporate Planning, Dr. Tim Okon, noted that the pipelines are constantly being hacked into and there is no budget from which the corporation can recover the cost.

    According to him, the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) offers a mechanism for which under the subsidy regime there is a certain claim to make from importation or distribution of petroleum products.

    “However, that template does not have any recovery mechanism for pipelines. Everyone needs to be aware that pipelines are constantly being vandalised in Nigeria, and there is a constant cost of keeping those pipelines running are the cost we are reflecting here,” said Okon.

    He however stated that the NNPC Act allows the corporation to defray the cost, adding that Nigeria buy 445 million barrel of oil per day in order to import products to the citizenry.

    The GMD stated that petroleum products are subject to theft as there has always been a loss of 30% of crude before arrival at Port Harcourt Refineries.

    His words: The other point to be made is that the products themselves are subject to theft. Again, if you look at the PortHarcourt Refineries, in many cases, by the time you send crude through that pipeline system, when it arrives at the refineries, about 30 per cent of it is already lost.

    “NNPC has to accounted for that 30 per cent that is lost. It is criminal and that cost is reflected here in the 0.72 billion.”

  • Youths urged to embrace entrepreneurship

    Youths urged to embrace entrepreneurship

    The Akwa Ibom State Programme Consultant/Director of the Graduate Assistance Programme (GAP), George Inyangette II, has urged unemployed youths to embrace entrepreneurship.

    GAP is an employability scheme, especially for young graduates.

    Inyangette II addressed reporters yesterday in Uyo on the scheme’s plan to reduce graduate unemployment.

    The consultant said the primary objective of the programme is to enhance the employability profile of graduates as well as increase their entrepreneurial drive.

    He said: “We are still working at it, because it requires a paradigm shift to entrepreneurial mindset, given the fact that our youths still prefer paid jobs in the white collar setting.

    “We are really looking at how to move away from preparing graduates for paid employment to training them to become entrepreneur-inclined.

    “We are working to gradually increase the entrepreneurial interest among young graduates. That is, we’re looking at the possibilities of getting support from the government to set up a source for training the youths as entrepreneurs. A lot of them build websites; it is a part of their project. So, they can do this for organisations. This can be a good business for them to earn income from.”

    Inyangette II explained that the GAP training was a partnership between the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC)/Mobil Producing Nigeria (MPN) Joint Venture, which had been handling the scheme’s funding since its first phase.

     

    According to him, some monthly stipends will be given to the trainees for six months.

    He said: “The enrolment process is purely on merit. Yes, usually, you would have pressure from here and there, but we have a policy.

    “Mobil is interested in maintaining the standard in this programme. So, we have also insisted that it goes by merit.”

     

  • The limits of criticism

    The limits of criticism

    There is more to the scandalous exposure of the CBN Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi as a false whistle blower on the supposedly untidy accounting books of the nation’s petroleum sector than a section of the Nigerian Press wants us to believe.

    Ordinarily, the sensational letter from the CBN Governor to the President raising worrying issues indicating the diversion of earnings from the lucrative crude oil sales by the NNPC is a classical scoop that no newspaper will fail to publish under banner headlines. In this case both the message and the messenger combine to lend credence to the typical Nigerian hear-say and the added spice of a leaked letter could only have proved irresistible to even the most conservative of editors.

    So on the face of it, the media splash of screaming headlines and crusading editorials literally canonizing the CBN Governor for such a patriotic spilling of the beans and simultaneously bashing not just the NNPC but the entire Goodluck Jonathan Presidency, was to be expected.

    With the House Speaker’s blame game on corruption and former President Obasanjo’s hell-raising letter all hitting the headlines within a few days interval, it was indeed the opposition’s delight.

    However, the post-leakage euphoria was dramatically deflated when the Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, CBN Governor made a straight-faced admission of willful exaggeration and inexcusable negligence of official responsibility following the humiliating outcome of a rather belated reconciliation of accounts that provided damning evidence of the CBN Governor’s dishonest flippancy.

    By professional reckoning, the news value of the initial leaked letter from the CBN Governor was just as sensational as his self-indicting factual somersault before the Senate which confirmed not only that the CBN Governor misled the nation but that he did so in spite of having the facts of the matter right under his nose.

    The Press that was also clearly culpable, as the chosen weapon of mass deception by flagrant disregard of the ethics of news reporting, should have been more outraged by this fiasco than the initial “scoop” that never was. Instead, it was as if the news instincts of the editors had been suddenly turned off. Those that reported the CBN Governor’s gaffe at all tucked into inconspicuous portions of their reports, others callously stuck to the CBN Governor’s discredited whistle-blowing posturing.

    Such a bizarre twist in professional standards of news reporting and brazen adoption of bias and prejudice as hallmarks of journalism was most distasteful coming from leading newspapers that flaunt pious slogans of objectivity and fearlessness on their mastheads.

    For the avoidance of doubt, the Press deliberately played down the unpatriotic excesses of the CBN Governor who sought to out-do the political opposition in their tendency to smear and sleaze the incumbent President and government and all agencies of government more often than not, without justification.

    The incontestable fact is that the reconciliation process including the CBN Governor was satisfied that there was nothing like a 49.8 billion dollars of unremitted proceeds from crude oil sales diverted by the NNPC from the federation account. It was also confirmed that the CBN is in possession of the accounts into which the remittances were duly paid but ignored them for reasons yet to be explained by the CBN Governor.

    As if this attitude is not bad enough, weeks after the CBN Governor has himself expressed remorse over his indiscretions and the sensational press hullaballoo forced into acquiescence by the share weight of corrective information, some newspapers would still rehash discredited statements disowned by the author – the CBN Governor.

    Discerning Nigerians were aware that the 12 billion dollar figure was not only corrected to about 10.8 billion dollars by the Coordinating Minister of the Economy Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, but further clarified to represent the amount yet to be reconciled at the time of the briefing to the Senate Committee but certainly not “missing.” The needless controversy was CBN Governor’s tactless face-saving effort following his admission that his phantom figure of 49.8 Billion dollars was in fact a huge misinformation that the minister promptly debunked with convincing finality.

    The NNPC has declared that by the time the reconciliation process is completed, it will be established that the amount represents some of the responsibilities that it carries out on behalf of the federal government such as the unpaid subsidies on kerosene and premium motor spirit (PMS). Dr. Okonjo-Iweala was earlier reported to have stated that no subsidy on kerosene has been paid since she assumed office.

    It is also on record that since January 2012, NNPC has been importing a bulk of the PMS used in the country as most of the private oil marketing firms stopped importing the product. NNPC has successfully kept the nation well stocked with products, especially PMS, these past two years and the national budgets in the period did not capture subsidy to the corporation.

    Similarly, the NNPC is required to maintain huge petroleum products reserves in the national territorial waters as strategic reserves in the national interest and at the rate of 40 million litres of PMS national consumption per day, NNPC currently maintains 32 days’ sufficiency of products. The cost of pipeline vandalism and oil theft are security issues affecting over 5000 kilometers of pipelines across the country on which NNPC expends huge resources on pipeline protection and repairs, operational downtime and outright revenue loss from crude oil and product theft and willful spillage. All these make up the yet-to-be-reconciled balance of $10.8bn known to all the parties in the reconciliation process.

    With all this verified information in public circulation for weeks, it is incomprehensible that some newspapers will adamantly continue dishing out the falsehood. Sadly, there is little or no hope that the errant fringes of the Nigerian Press can be called to order in what is clearly a disservice to the citizenry. The wise citizens should therefore protect themselves from press freedom without responsibility henceforth.

    • Gwazuwang, a petroleum industry watcher wrote from Abuja.

  • ‘How I was brutalised by the police in Ibadan’

    ‘How I was brutalised by the police in Ibadan’

    •Command: it was a minor disagreement

    A man, Mr. Hakeem Abidemi Akanni, yesterday narrated how he was allegedly brutalised by mobile policemen stationed at the entrance of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Depot in Apata, Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, on New Year’s Day.

    Akanni urged the Commissioner of Police to investigate the incident.

    Speaking with reporters in Ibadan, he said he and a young man, simply identified as Toyosi, were “beaten up” because they appealed to the policemen to stop beating a 68-year-old man simply identified as Baba Ikotun.

    It was gathered that Baba Ikotun, a retired banker, drew the anger of the policemen when he urinated close to an Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) stationed at the entrance of the NNPC depot.

    Akanni said: “When I saw the policemen beating the old man, I appealed to them to stop. I asked the man what his offence was and he told me he urinated close to the APC. I rebuked the man and told him he allowed himself to be beaten by the policemen despite his old age. One of the policemen heard this statement and ordered that I should be forced to mop the urine with my cloth.

    “I was mercilessly beaten and made to mop up the urine with my cloth. Toyosi and I were later saved by the arrival of the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in charge of Apata Police Station.”

    Police spokesperson Olabisi Ilobanafor said there was “just a minor disagreement” between the policemen and the people involved.

    She said Baba Ikotun disrespected the police force by urinating close to the APC and urged Nigerians to always respect government organisations, especially law enforcement agencies.

  • Lost and found!

    Lost and found!

    If Nigerians ever needed iron-clad evidence of outlawry of their national oil corporation, weekend’s response by the General Manager, Media Relations, Group Public Affairs Department, NNPC, Omar Farouk to the firestorm over the alleged missing $10.8billion may have finally supplied one.

    Not that anyone ever doubted the farce that rules the nation’s finance system as a whole; or the plague of officials helping themselves to the national till that has long become norm. However, the latest revelation of the laissez faire conduct, the outrageously out-of-control practices by a corporation that is supposed to be a creation of statute –with active connivance of top officials of the finance ministry – may have set new limits in outlawry.

    Let’s start from the very beginning.

    Late last year, Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, Lamido Sanusi, had alleged that the corporation failed to remit $49.8bn to the Federation Account for the period spanning 18 months – that is, between January 2012 and July 2013. The problem, as it later turned out was that the figures declared missing had failed to take into account the $39 billion paid by the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, and the Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, into the federation account.

    I had said on this page that, coming from the nation’s top banker, the ‘omission’ was inexcusable, if not entirely irresponsible. Since then, the officials of the finance and petroleum ministries – including the NNPC, have made valiant attempts to pass off the charge as fiction even when there was still $10.8 billion unaccounted for.

    Apparently, the corporation’s weekend tale of the missing money was meant to be the final demolition job on the charge by the CBN governor. While I do understand that some so-called defence do not so qualify; the suggestion that the missing money has been spent on behalf of the federal government, is not only worse than no defence at all, it borders on the treasonable!

    Let’s look at the three-part component of how the money went as told by the NNPC’s spokesman.

    The first part, he claims represents “the expenses on some of the responsibilities, which the corporation carries out on behalf of the Federal Government with respect to domestic crude oil utilisation. One of such issues is the unpaid subsidies on kerosene and Premium Motor Spirit”.

    Here, if Nigerians are any familiar with the billions allegedly paid to the scores of ghost importers of petrol and kerosene, the tale about the value being deducted at the source from NNPC’s piggy bank on behalf of the federal government has been told so severally to the point of being wearisome. Considering that the same subsidy is also said to be charged on the excess crude account, Nigerians must wonder at what is going on.

    The same applies to the 32 days’ stock of premium motor spirit at 40 million litres of national consumption per day. Isn’t that supposed to be one-off budget? Of course, while the reserve accounting looks easy and simple and straightforward to determine upfront, NNPC and its allies in government obviously think that they require something outside the cycle of the budget to defray.

    And the third – you guessed right: the cost “of pipeline vandalism, oil theft and other security issues”.

    Again, that is supposed to be indeterminate – the kind that requires the rule of thumb to determine.

    And the three, we are told is what makes up the yet-to-be-reconciled balance of $10.8bn”!

    Should anyone be surprised at the creative account that seeks to work backwards to the answer? To be candid, the shock would have been if the reconciliation team came up with anything new?

    To begin with, for a corporation that has long acquired the image of a lawless entity, the self-indicting revelation that the quantum of national obligations – reckoned in billions of dollars – could be financed outside of the framework of appropriations can only pass on the altar of the ingrained culture of criminal impunity. Before now, the arguments about the deductibles from the federation account had always centred on the shady operational costs borne by the NNPC in the course of its activities. Quite familiar also is the creative accounting in which all manners of expenses gets passed off to the federation account.

    Now, the revelation that the corporation has a licence to do as it pleased with the federation account has finally been declared as legit!

    So, no money is missing? Only when one accepts that the beneficiaries of the accruals into the federation account actually get the amount due to them can one suggest otherwise.

    Now to the specifics: Did Finance Minister Okonjo-Iweala actually claim last year that she had not paid any subsidy on kerosene since she assumed office? At what point was it therefore charged to the NNPC account? Is a case of looking for expenses to charge to the missing money?

    The latter obviously raises the question of who authorised the payment from the NNPC accounts. Petroleum Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke? Or the NNPC board which she chairs? Does the board – if it exists – have such powers? Is it the Federal Executive Council? Could they have done so without the authority of the National Assembly?

    While Nigerians may not have bothered about the laws of the republic being broken by officials sworn to uphold the law, I guess it’s time to worry about the parallel government described as the NNPC; a quasi-government without the strictures of parliament; an entity only answerable to a conclave.

    Still want to know where the money went? Certainly, it’s not in the books. Try as the reconciliation team might, the job goes beyond reconciliation. That itself assumes that the reconcilers have the nerves to do the job. Soon enough, Nigerians would see evidence in the cities and the country-sides when our Abuja overlords unleash their war-chest for 2015. That time, it would be headache for Sanusi as it would be for everyone of us all.

    Again, it is happy New Year!

     

  • $10.8b not missing, says NNPC

    The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has  insisted that $10.8billion out of $49.8billion is not missing but being reconciled.
    General Manager,  Media Relations Department, Group Public Affairs Division, Dr. Omar Ibrahim Farouk, in a a rejoinder noted that the  issues surrounding the allegation of unremitted $49.8bn against the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) have since been explained but it appears the initial dust raised in the process is yet to settle.
    He stated that “We are therefore constrained to respond and clarify the issues once again to help those who do not yet understand the clarification made earlier by the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala; Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs.  Diezani Alison-Madueke; Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi; and Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Engr. Andrew Yakubu at a joint press conference which was widely reported in the media.”
    ” For the avoidance of doubt, there was no where it was stated or admitted by any of the parties in the course of the press conference or anywhere else that the sum of $12bn or $10.8bn out of the alleged unremitted $49.8bn is“ missing’’.

    ” The truth of the matter is that as at the time of the press conference, $30bn of the alleged unremitted oil revenue had been reconciled by all the parties involved. Dr. Okonjo-Iweala did explain that the reconciliation was an ongoing process and that the balance of $10.8bn is still being reconciled.
    “At no time did anybody, neither the Coordinating Minister of the Economy nor the CBN Governor, say that the outstanding $10.8bn was “missing’’.

    ” It is simply curious how some section of the media are not prepared to see the difference between the two positions – reconciliation in progress versus money missing. These two positions are simply not the same thing no matter the angle from which anyone chooses to see them.
    ” Having made that point, it is also pertinent to further clarify that NNPC as a national oil company is saddled with certain onerous responsibilities that other oil companies are freed from. For instance, as the supplier of last resort, NNPC has the responsibility of ensuring that there is adequate supply of petroleum products whether the market is favourable or not.

    “The yet to be reconciled $10.8bn can be located in the expenses on some of the responsibilities which the Corporation carries out on behalf of the Federal Government with respect to the domestic crude oil utilization.”