ONE of the major challenges facing us as a nation is the lack of authentic history. Just like in a war situation, it is the one that emerges victorious that tells the story, everyone tells his story from his own perspective. Our allocation of resources have been so skewed in favour of the centre, that historical records are being distorted, to give ethnic groups advantage. No ethnic group or region is left out, everyone wants to take control of the centre to confer economic advantage to self and ethnic interest. That is why the national conference must tackle the issue of regional and states autonomy very seriously. So there will be no need to falsify history and records to secure undue advantage at the federal level. If we do not know our history, we will never have direction. We have to update our various curricula in schools for the younger generation to study, that they do not repeat the mistakes of the present generation who have been fed on faulty ideologies and history that has resulted- for example – in the distorted list drawn up for the recent centenary anniversary awards. It is our flawed history, beclouded by ethnic sentiments that has also made it very difficult for the matter of corruption to be tackled. It is like when two communities are fighting over the ownership of a portion of land; both of them will come up with historical documents and records to buttress their claim, but one of them must definitely be wrong as the true ownership can only relate to one source. That is also the reason Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi’s suspension cannot be handled with impartiality as his actions as governor of the Central Bank has favoured a group of people at the expense of others. The favoured group will continue to shout ‘persecution’ in the matter. The critical question here is: If I am to re-echo Atedo Peterside , did Sanusi really use his position as Central Bank governor to mis-manage funds? If true, he must face the law. The second question is: Did he raise the alarm of the missing NNPC fund to divert attention, knowing that he is under investigation and can of worms are about to be opened? If the allegation made by Sanusi is true, investigations should commence and guilty parties brought to book. But the NNPC account has become an enigma, nobody outside the inner circle seem to know how it operates. It was so throughout the military regimes when oil wells and liftings were allocated at random to friends, cronies and foreign partners. It reached its height during Obasanjo’s eight years of civilian administration; he refused to hand over the Petroleum Ministry to a substantive minister despite severe pressures from concerned Nigerians and civil rights groups. At a time the world was deprecating NNPC’s recklessness – Halliburton, Siemens, NPDF and so on. Since Gaius Obaseki, who was MD under Obasanjo, we have had at least five managing directors in the NNPC, each one building on the rot of his predecessor. Now, the account has become so befuddled that they do not know where to start from. The rot is so deep, and – I suspect – so many big shots are involved, that the consequences will be earth shaking if we take what happened in the fuel subsidy rip-off as a yardstick. Mr. Andrew Yakubu GMD NNPCC Now, when accountants are at a dead end, in the course of an investigation, they place a question mark on the figure that cannot be accounted for and put such account under suspense. This does not stop the on-going investigation, but allows for a clean slate beginning, which is to allow for the accounting to be done without any carry over strain. It mainly happens where and when there is a change of baton amongst personnel and handing over is to be made. I have noted in a previous write- up that the NNPC has been blessed with so many qualified professional accountants. What kind of handing over had been done at the Financial Controller/ Directorate levels, during the multiple changes of regimes, we have had? If we are to go by the Finance Minister’s statement that the NNPC business is complex and involved some exchanges in the form of barter and so on, do we not have recorded transactions of barter tradings? I am of the opinion that if we pursue this reconciliation issue from now to 2015, we will not be able to make any headway, just as we have not had significant breakthrough with the fuel subsidy probe and others. So, what am I proposing? For it not to be a rigmarole and another drain in our scarce resources, I propose that – like accountants do – the difference, whatever it is, should be placed under suspense, while a crack team of accountants and investigators continue to work on it without the distractions of the press and politicians. With immediate effect, open fresh account books for the NNPC that will be all inclusive, with nothing hidden. It must be open and transparent to any form of investigations and must cover every facet of the NNPC operations, with clear and simple operational modules. Those to design the framework must include personnel from all the key sectors: Finance, Central Bank, Petroleum Ministry, Presidency, NOCs, security forces, etc. An open book for all to see, that is the new beginning that I crave. Lastly, the NEITI ( Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency International ) audit report must be implemented to the fullest and all monies outstanding be deposited into the federation’s account. It is a good thing that the Presidency has promised to implement the audit report recommendation. What Sanusi has cried for is not different from NEITI’s persistent cries these past few years. The benefit, therefore, is that Sanusi’s outburst has brought greater awareness to the happenings in the NNPC and in the process provoked an initiation of a better accounting and transparency standard for the NNPC. I hope this is so.
Posted on: Mon, 10 Mar 2014 05:29:16 +0000
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