The Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has once again found
itself at the centre of the storm. For a corporation that to a great extent
dictates the pendulum of Nigeria’s economy, the current issue under focus has
become a litmus test on the integrity and corporate image of the body.
Since September 2013 when the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi raised an alarm over the alleged failure of the corporation to remit $49.8 billion to the bank virtually every Nigerian has become a finance expert.
Sanusi is also being branded as one whose has presented himself as a hero the defender and protector of Nigerians wealth, hence he now cuts the messianic picture of saints.
At the peak of this raging storm, the trio of Sanusi, Finance Minister Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and the Petroleum Minister, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke have been at each others jugglers battling without end to sail through the murky waters of controversy and to assert their integrity through their respective submissions.
But the showdown got messier when figures became puns in a financial game of chess and Sanusi was the first to push the knight in a somersault.
Sanusi told the Senate Committee on finance that against the $49.8 billion that the reconciliatory team has suddenly discovered that it is only $12.86 billion that is yet to be found.
Deepening the gale of confusion was the submissions of Dr. Okonjo Iweala who interjected that it was not $12.8 billion that has not been accounted for but $10.8billion, upon which Sanusi chose to keep a grave yard silence.
The country’s bankers’ bank manager could not defend the volte-face he had made over the $49.8 billion saga which indeed has raised fundamental question among Nigerians whether it was a valid alarm or an intent to cry wolf where there is none.
Painting the more scattered picture of confusion, is the fact that Sanusi was part of the team that took part in the reconciliation process that reported that it was only $10.8 billion that has not been reconciled, yet told Nigerians after the exercise that it was $ 12.8 billion.
Apparently in a bid to save his face from the day light double talk and the indictment by Okonjo Iweala before the Senate committee, Sanusi raised yet another alarm of $67 billion worth of crude shipped by the NNPC between January 2012 and July 2013, alleging that the CBN took delivery of $47 billion as remittance from the corporation.
He, against this back drop accused the NNPC of not remitting the balance of $20 billion and contended that the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), a subsidiary of the NNPC with two other companies shipped $6 billion worth of crude outside the country and failed to remit same to the federation account.
The minister for finance may have chosen not to delve into the fresh allegations from Sanusi but sought to clear the air on the issue of $10.8 billion in her final report making a breakdown of the report.
Iwuala reported that the $10.8 billion being the balance of $49.8 billion, the sum of $8.76 billion was spent on, subsidy on petroleum products while $0.76 billion was spent on crude oil and product losses, and another $0.46 billion and $0.91 billion went for national strategic reserve and pipeline maintenance and management respectively.
At the moment, the senate committee on finance has called for a forensic examination of all monies and deals entered into by the NNPC in a bid to unlock all gray areas that has to do with the alleged missing money.
While Nigerians await the report of the forensic examination it has become instructive that one understudy the import of Sanusi claims, his point of departure and the undercurrents inherent in this sudden war of attrition.
It may not be far from the truth that this satire of the patriot that is being replicated by the Sanusi’s of the Nigerian world is yet another episode in the litany of attacks on President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.
The litany of attacks on the president appears to be the game plan that is directed towards the 2015 general election aimed at presenting Jonathan and his administration as one that is incompetent and highly incapacitated to manage the resources of the country.
Granted that Sanusi is a civil servant and cannot be a card carrying member of any political party, his utterances and body language speaks volumes.
Opposition political parties are there to convince the Nigerian electorates that they can produce a better government, but it becomes astonishing when a man that is heading an organ of a government in power chooses to indict himself by telling Nigerians and himself that the rest of government organs are not prudent in the management of the country’s wealth.
Sanusi’s penchant for lampooning government policies knows no bounds. At inception he took a swipe on his predecessor, Professor Charles Soludo for reducing the bank recapilisation policy to a thing for the trashcan when actually he was one of the executors of that policy as the then Chief Executive of First Bank.
Never in history has a CBN governor became Santa Klaus by making donations to schools and voluntary bodies which of course is not his terms of reference.
He has not deemed it proper to tell the nation how he came about the monies that are being disbursed in leaps and bounds.
Interestingly the monster which Sanusi created by his alarm would certainly hunt not only him most past and present gladiators in the oil sector and other sectors of government.
This stems from the fact that Allison-Madueke while giving nod to the Senate committee’s call for forensic examination, contended that it should be carried out to cover not only 2012 and 2013 but should be extended up to 2004 when the reconciliation exercise began.
Nigerians are really poised towards comprehending the unfolding drama!
Senator Anosike wrote this piece before the suspension of the CNB governor.
Vanguard
Since September 2013 when the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi raised an alarm over the alleged failure of the corporation to remit $49.8 billion to the bank virtually every Nigerian has become a finance expert.
Sanusi is also being branded as one whose has presented himself as a hero the defender and protector of Nigerians wealth, hence he now cuts the messianic picture of saints.
At the peak of this raging storm, the trio of Sanusi, Finance Minister Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and the Petroleum Minister, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke have been at each others jugglers battling without end to sail through the murky waters of controversy and to assert their integrity through their respective submissions.
But the showdown got messier when figures became puns in a financial game of chess and Sanusi was the first to push the knight in a somersault.
Sanusi told the Senate Committee on finance that against the $49.8 billion that the reconciliatory team has suddenly discovered that it is only $12.86 billion that is yet to be found.
Deepening the gale of confusion was the submissions of Dr. Okonjo Iweala who interjected that it was not $12.8 billion that has not been accounted for but $10.8billion, upon which Sanusi chose to keep a grave yard silence.
The country’s bankers’ bank manager could not defend the volte-face he had made over the $49.8 billion saga which indeed has raised fundamental question among Nigerians whether it was a valid alarm or an intent to cry wolf where there is none.
Painting the more scattered picture of confusion, is the fact that Sanusi was part of the team that took part in the reconciliation process that reported that it was only $10.8 billion that has not been reconciled, yet told Nigerians after the exercise that it was $ 12.8 billion.
Apparently in a bid to save his face from the day light double talk and the indictment by Okonjo Iweala before the Senate committee, Sanusi raised yet another alarm of $67 billion worth of crude shipped by the NNPC between January 2012 and July 2013, alleging that the CBN took delivery of $47 billion as remittance from the corporation.
He, against this back drop accused the NNPC of not remitting the balance of $20 billion and contended that the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), a subsidiary of the NNPC with two other companies shipped $6 billion worth of crude outside the country and failed to remit same to the federation account.
The minister for finance may have chosen not to delve into the fresh allegations from Sanusi but sought to clear the air on the issue of $10.8 billion in her final report making a breakdown of the report.
Iwuala reported that the $10.8 billion being the balance of $49.8 billion, the sum of $8.76 billion was spent on, subsidy on petroleum products while $0.76 billion was spent on crude oil and product losses, and another $0.46 billion and $0.91 billion went for national strategic reserve and pipeline maintenance and management respectively.
At the moment, the senate committee on finance has called for a forensic examination of all monies and deals entered into by the NNPC in a bid to unlock all gray areas that has to do with the alleged missing money.
While Nigerians await the report of the forensic examination it has become instructive that one understudy the import of Sanusi claims, his point of departure and the undercurrents inherent in this sudden war of attrition.
It may not be far from the truth that this satire of the patriot that is being replicated by the Sanusi’s of the Nigerian world is yet another episode in the litany of attacks on President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.
The litany of attacks on the president appears to be the game plan that is directed towards the 2015 general election aimed at presenting Jonathan and his administration as one that is incompetent and highly incapacitated to manage the resources of the country.
Granted that Sanusi is a civil servant and cannot be a card carrying member of any political party, his utterances and body language speaks volumes.
Opposition political parties are there to convince the Nigerian electorates that they can produce a better government, but it becomes astonishing when a man that is heading an organ of a government in power chooses to indict himself by telling Nigerians and himself that the rest of government organs are not prudent in the management of the country’s wealth.
Sanusi’s penchant for lampooning government policies knows no bounds. At inception he took a swipe on his predecessor, Professor Charles Soludo for reducing the bank recapilisation policy to a thing for the trashcan when actually he was one of the executors of that policy as the then Chief Executive of First Bank.
Never in history has a CBN governor became Santa Klaus by making donations to schools and voluntary bodies which of course is not his terms of reference.
He has not deemed it proper to tell the nation how he came about the monies that are being disbursed in leaps and bounds.
Interestingly the monster which Sanusi created by his alarm would certainly hunt not only him most past and present gladiators in the oil sector and other sectors of government.
This stems from the fact that Allison-Madueke while giving nod to the Senate committee’s call for forensic examination, contended that it should be carried out to cover not only 2012 and 2013 but should be extended up to 2004 when the reconciliation exercise began.
Nigerians are really poised towards comprehending the unfolding drama!
Senator Anosike wrote this piece before the suspension of the CNB governor.
Vanguard
No comments:
Post a Comment