March 2012
March 2012
Oil Marketers vs House Of Reps: Another Charade?
W
hen the presidential pronounced that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), acting on a directive by Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Alison-Madueke was going after the NNPC and the PPPRA as well as the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), and had taken away many volumes official documents relating to the controversial N1.34trillion fuel subsidy payments as well as other transactions undertaken by the agencies, most Nigerians took it with a pinch of salt. Mrs. Alison-Madueke who is said to be instrumental to the abrupt removal of the fuel subsidy on local consumption on January 1, 2012 and was still under fire from the public as several people were still calling for her resignation at the time. On top of that the outrage caused by the release of a gallery of photographs exposing the ‘extravagant’ lifestyle her son was still at its peak and the young man’s seemingly scripted press statement in response to the ‘exposé’ did not do much good. Mrs. Alison-Madueke constituted two committees in her office headed by an independent auditor to review the KPMG and other audit reports on the NNPC and other parastatals in the ministry. The committee was also charged with reviewing the management and controls within those parastatals. The timing of it all gave it a suspicious air and more than a few Nigerians considered it a mere show. Executive Director of Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice (ANEEJ), David Ugolor, spoke to the press at the time and he said: “I find this absurd and cannot understand what is happening in this country anymore,” “It is an irony that the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, whose ministry is accused of corruption is the same person 49
BY NAOMI MOREMI LUCAS
setting up the probe into her ministry. What will come out of such a probe?” He said: “The Minister is trying to be a judge in her own case. Nigerians cannot be fooled by this charade. It is in her interest for her to step aside for an independent body to look into the books she supervised. Our view is against the backdrop of allegations by the National Assembly that the Petroleum Ministry paid out more billions of Naira on PMS subsidy than was approved for it in the 2011 budget.” So instead of curbing the bad press she was getting Mrs. Allison-Madueke’s ‘efforts’ appeared orchestrated and worsen the situation for her. Also bear in mind that the ‘reason’ the fuel subsidy was removed in the first place was that the country was getting too ‘’broke’ to afford it. Shortly after the fuel subsidy strike was ‘suspended’ Nigerians were slapped in the face with reports that their country’s ambassadors got N4.8 billion for the school fees
Diezani Alison-Madueke, Petroleum Resources Minister
of their wards in 2011: A sum that was far above what was approved for that year. For 2012 slightly less than N5.2 million has been marked for the school fees of these wards, but there is no guarantee that the ministry of foreign affairs would overspend again. The latest escapades of the oil marketers and importers are yet another stab in the heart. The reports say they offered jaw dropping partnership deal to influence the members of the House of Representatives panel probing the oil subsidy matter; dangling “multi-billion naira deals” before the eyes of these members of the House of Representatives. There are 140 oil business firms in the country and a number of them are being probed by the Ad Hoc Committee of the House of Representatives on the Subsidy Regime. The grapevine says that the marketers and importers under the committee’s radar were afraid of entering the ‘x-ray room’ and offered members of the committee eye-popping deals in exchange for protection –they simply did not want to appear before the panel. The panel was inaugurated by the House of Representatives when the grapevine exploded with unpleasant stories of corruption with regards to the management of the fuel subsidy on local consumption right after it was removed by President Goodluck Jonathan on January 1 this year. The removal led a nationwide protest. The committee is headed Mr. Farouk Lawan and according to the media, it is the flavour of the moment as far as these marketers and importers are concerned. Media publications are confidently stating that these marketers and importers are using members of the National Assembly who are mutual friends between themselves and the committee members as middlemen to broker www.myfinancialintelligence.com