¨It is so unfortunate that there has been so much ignorant carping
and malicious tittle-tattling about the report of the Petroleum Revenue
Task Force chaired by Malam Nuhu Ribadu, both failings arising from a
deliberate attempt to individualise what was actually group work, a
mischievous attempt to politicise one report out of three, and to
smuggle into an emergent grand web of conspiracy, elements of blackmail,
mischief and outright opportunism.I should like to dispel the
putrefactive stench of the fart that seems to have overtaken the subject
by returning all of us to certain basics that have not changed since
President Goodluck Jonathan approved the setting up of committees to
inquire into different aspects of the petroleum sector and particularly
since the reports were presented and accepted. The facts are as
follows.
The committees in question and the probe into the petroleum sector were
initiated by President Jonathan to ensure transparency and
accountability in the extractive industry; the goal was to transform the
sector and raise levels of integrity accordingly. Every step that has
been taken by this administration in this regard has been in fulfilment
of this well-stated principle. This includes the decision to completely
deregulate the downstream sector, which has now resulted in the exposure
of oily deals in that sector, with consequences for the indicted
persons.¨It also includes the launch of a concerted fight against
crude oil theft and illegal payments of fuel subsidy. Zakari Mohammed of
the House of Representatives talks absent-mindedly about “lack of
political will” to fight corruption. He certainly doesn’t know what he
is talking about.
A legislative position should not confer a right to mendacity. He
should know, if he had been reading the newspapers, that on the basis of
both the report of the House of Representatives and the Aig
Aig-Imoukhuede committee report on fuel subsidy payments, persons are
currently being prosecuted in the law courts by the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).¨The Federal Government has not
done anything to stop or discourage the prosecution of indicted persons.
We have made the point, again and again, that in this on-going fight
against corruption, there will be no “cover ups”; and no “sacred cows,”
and that President Jonathan’s only interest is the people’s interest.
This same president has demonstrated the political will to deal with
corruption in the country’s electoral process, to both local and global
acclaim. He has no reason to make compromises in other areas of national
life.
Interestingly, many of those who are now talking ignorantly about
“political will” are beneficiaries of this administration’s commitment
to the rule of law and fair play.¨On the specific issue of the
Petroleum Revenue Task Force report, the mischief-makers should go back
to the statements made by President Jonathan, and subsequently by the
Petroleum Minister, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke, on the occasion of the
presentation of the report. The president’s position that the work of
the Ribadu committee and of the two other committees that presented
their reports on that occasion, the Kalu Idika Kalu committee on
refineries and the Dotun Sulaiman Committee on Governance is useful and
enlightening has not changed. Alison-Madueke has further echoed that
position more than twice. The three committees were set up as
fact-finding and advisory bodies. That fact was further underscored by
the president’s mature response to the altercation that the Ribadu
Committee Report generated when he said that those who have issues to
raise should be free to make their own independent submissions.
This shows a determination to get every possible piece of information
and to accommodate all concerns. This shows a will to act. President
Jonathan has not dumped any input, rather he welcomes every possible
input and he has no private interest in this matter. So for anyone to
say that the Ribadu committee was “calculated to fail from the
beginning”, is absolutely uncharitable. ¨Indeed, for the benefit of
those playing politics and doing quick business with this matter, the
truth is that President Jonathan is already taking steps to address some
of the issues raised in the various reports. When President Jonathan
sets up committees to investigate particular issues, he does so, because
he wants to address those issues.
I had, before now, drawn attention to the fact that the president gave
clear directives on the state of the refineries and that at least one
meeting had been held since the presentation of the Report on
Refineries, to act specifically on the recommendations made. President
Jonathan has directed that he wants the refineries fixed and steps are
already being taken; deadlines have been set. That didn’t make the
headlines, rather, falsehood hugged the headlines, because these days it
pays to fart all over the place, and attract attention.To set the
records straight, here is what happened. After the presentation of the
reports by the three committees, the president directed the Minister of
Petroleum Resources to take up the recommendations of the Kalu committee
on refineries. The committee recommended, in part, that the country’s
refineries should be rehabilitated without any further delay.
On November 8, the minister and her team were at the Villa to brief the
president about the state of the refineries, their current capacities,
and steps that need to be taken to get them to function at optimum
capacity.¨The president made it clear that the government is committed
to getting the refineries to work, so that we would no longer have to
import refined petroleum products, which he considers shameful, and by
so doing, government would have succeeded in creating jobs and put an
end to the hardship that attends importation. The meeting discussed the
possibility of ensuring the turnaround maintenance (TAM) of the
refineries by March 2013, and subsequently, the rehabilitation of the
facilities. The meeting ended with a directive that the minister and her
team should return with further presentations on the technical details
of the agreed plan of action.
This is one clear example of prompt action and demonstration of
commitment. ¨President Jonathan has no reason to embarrass anyone who
served on any of the three committees. While receiving the reports,
these were his words: “…we have seen that the people that have been
selected in these committees are people that are known by Nigerians;
people that are credible; most especially people that are patriotic and I
believe that they put all that into consideration for the interest of
the country not for the interest of any individual.
You have submitted your reports today. We have to thank you very
sincerely and government will surely make use of these reports… because
we feel that the oil industry as it is, need to be reformed.” I urge you
to note the emphasis on all the reports without
exception!¨Thereafter, President Jonathan commented on the work of the
individual committees. On Sulaiman committee, he said: “…we feel that
our governance and control, (in the oil and gas sector) we need to look
at it. And of course quite a number of issues raised by the presenters
link up with even the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) issues and I believe
it will even help the National Assembly robustly in terms of looking at
some aspects of the PIB. So we thank you very sincerely for that.”On
the Kalu committee he said: “In the case of the refineries, I really
have to thank you because I was listening, trying to see the kind of
recommendations you will bring up…Maybe some of you don’t know but those
of us who are in politics, they used to ‘yab’ us some years back that
in Nigeria we import what we have and export what we don’t have. They
say we import what we have because we have crude oil for God’s sake.
Ordinarily if it is a country where we placed our focus right, we
should be having filling stations all over Africa and all over the world
…It is disgraceful that we are importing petroleum products. If in the
next 10 years this country still imports petroleum products then all of
us who have the opportunity to be here, in fact when we die they should
write something and put behind us that we did not rule this country
well, because we must stop the importation of petroleum products.”
Hence, the president held the aforementioned follow-up meeting on
refineries. Now, on the Ribadu report, President Jonathan said,
inter alia: “…
Probably not everybody agreed on some of the conclusions but I don’t
think we need to bother…what we would say is that any member who has one
or two observations should please write it either directly to me
through the Chief of Staff or through the Minister of Petroleum
Resources…But the issues of finance, if it borders on corrupt practice
or outright stealing, definitely it will go to the EFCC for
investigation…If there are errors of calculation or misinformation from
the relevant agencies of government that are supposed to give the
correct figures, that will be filtered out. It will not be used against
anybody, because the interest of government to set up these committees
is to help us do what is right. It is not to help us do what is wrong.
And that is why we have to be careful and do what is right. So I plead
with you. But let me assure you that government has no interest in
hiding anything…”Let me cut this short, at this point, by saying that
President Jonathan has no reason whatsoever, personal or political
(since at least one character has said that the furore over the Ribadu
report has something to do with 2015!) to protect wrong-doers in the
land.
He took on this assignment to make Nigeria better and that is what he
is doing everyday: working hard at the Nigerian project and taking every
step to transform it for good. The Nigerian people are enjoined to
stand on the side of truth and to reject the mischief of all hunters of
fortune whose interest is their own ambitions, for in this Ribadu
Committee Report matter, personal ambitions are beginning to becloud the
facts. President Jonathan will continue to provide leadership. Nobody
should drag him into the cheap arena of opportunistic demagogueryReuben Abati
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