Ater five years in office, Jonathan is perceived to have no significant new signature infrastructure project to boast of and this is simply not good enough. No wonder some past leaders with less than sterling records have been reminding us of their own landmarks such as the Lagos Third Mainland Bridge, refineries, petrochemical plants, airports and highways, built even at a time oil prices were nowhere near what has been experienced in the past five years. Nigerians have been left holding the short end of the stick. We had an oil boom but little reserves or savings: the ECA is down to $1.2 billion; our SWF is a paltry $1.5 billion, while special funds have been serially raided. Meanwhile, we have very little new infrastructure, unlike other Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries members, while old facilities have been run down. The government goes borrowing for rehabilitation projects and even that is mired in massive corruption and delays. To compound all this, domestic and external debts combined have risen to $69.6 billion (September 2014) and N943 billion is proposed as debt servicing charges in 2015, representing 21.6 per cent of the N4.35 trillion budget. How did others build reserves, savings and infrastructure but all we have here are debts and gloom? Instead of instinctive denials, the government should thoroughly investigate the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to ascertain its accounts, open and secret, and allegations by audit agencies, whistle-blowers and government’s own probes that oil revenues are simply not being remitted to the Federation Account. There should henceforth be a strong commitment to prudence and zero tolerance for corruption. Long-suffering Nigerians are convinced that oil wealth, while it lasted, has not been fully accounted for and demand answers.
Posted on: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 10:46:43 +0000
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