As the controversy over the report of
the Nuhu Ribadu led Special Task Force on Petroleum Revenue heightens,
former Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minster, Malam Nasir el-Rufai,
has told Nigerians not to expect any pro-people action from the
Presidency saying those behind the corruption in the oil sector are
friends of the Jonathan’s administration.
El-Rufai, who spoke at the Teachers
Award of Excellence ceremony organized by the Inoyo Toro Foundation in
Uyo, Akwa Ibom state capital, weekend said those stealing the nation’s
oil money which has resulted in the removal of subsidy and attendant
high fuel price and acute shortage of products were friends of the
administration who bankrolled the election of President Goodluck
Jonathan in 2011.
The Ribadu report which reflected a
study of the management of oil revenue since 1999 indicted top
government functionaries including those of the current administration
of massive abuses and diversion of funds amounting to trillions of
naira. But the Presidency had disparaged the report saying it was
untenable
Commenting on the development, el-Rufai
said Nigerians should not expect the administration to take any action
against the oil thieves adding that it was clear to him that nothing
would come out of the investigations conducted by several panels
including that of Ribadu and those conducted by the National Assembly.
“So it is naïve for anyone to expect
people that financed election would be sent to jail. No it does not
happen. They are all birds who flock together, the former minister said.
Stating that he warned, Nuhu Ribadu not
to take up the assignment, el-Rufai said he knew that the government did
not have the intension of adopting the report that the committee would
come out with no matter how well the Ribadu did the job.
“I know my brother Nuhu, he is a very
competent public servant and when he is given an assignment, he tries to
do it to the best of his ability. I did not agree with him doing the
assignment because I know this government is insincere. This government
has shown no commitment in fighting corruption in the oil industry, I
know Nuhu, I have worked with him and I do not doubt that he did his
best in this assignment”, the former minister asserted.
He said he was not surprised that
attempts were being made to rubbish the report as according to him, the
current administration was benefiting from the rot in the sector.
Indicting government officials of abuses
and fraud, the Ribadu report revealed that successive ministers of
Petroleum Resources as well as officials of the Nigeria National
Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) engaged in secret cut-price deals with
multinational oil companies to facilitate the syphoning of billions of
dollars oil and gas revenue over the last decade.
It revealed that the officials handed
out discretionary licenses selling the nation’s crude without a formal
contract to faceless international oil traders who were not “on the
approved master list of customers which paved way for the syphoning of
the nation’s earning.
It recommended that the NNPC should be
scrapped while an independent review of the use of traders be set up and
a transparency law be passed requiring oil companies to disclose all
payments made to Nigeria.
But reacting, the Presidency, through
the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr.
Doyin Okupe, said the Task Force report was inconclusive and therefore
untenable on technical grounds.
Okupe said the committee could not
verify and reconcile facts thereby making it “impossible under our laws
to indict or punish anybody except and until the Federal Government
fully verifies and reconciles the facts as recommended by the committee
in its submission to the government”.
Currently, there is sustained demand by
professional groups, opposition parties and other stakeholders that the
report be published and its recommendations implemented by the Federal
Government.
Meanwhile, earlier at the Uyo event,
el-Rufai challenged the President to issue an order that all public
office holders in the country should send their children to public
schools instead of private schools. He lamented that the standard School
has fallen because of the neglect of government. He said if the
children of top government functionaries were in public schools, the
quality and standard of the schools will improve.
PeoplesDaily
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