IT was high drama inside the Aso Chambers of the Presidential Villa
on Friday when members of the Petroleum Revenue Special Task Force, led
by former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, openly disagreed on the report submitted to
President Goodluck Jonathan.
The Task Force had been scheduled to present its report along with two other Task Forces, namely on Governance and Control in Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and other Parastatals, the National Refineries and Petroleum Revenue earlier set up by the president in his drive to reform the petroleum sector and improve collection of revenue.
However, moments after Mallam Ribadu made his remarks preparatory to the submission of the report, a member of the Task Force and former Head of Service of the Federation (HOS), Mr. Stephen Oronsaye, objected to the submission on the ground that the process that produced it was flawed.
But it did not stop the president from accepting the reports and those of Governance and Control in (NNPC) and other Parastatals, the National Refineries, even as he counseled members who disagreed with the report to put their views in writing and forward to the Minister of Petroleum Resources or the Chief of Staff to the president.
He assured that government would make use of the reports saying that on the issue of finance, if it bordered on corrupt practices or outright stealing, it would go to EFCC for investigation, and so nobody would lose anything.
President Jonathan added: “If there are errors in calculation or misinformation from the relevant agencies of government, we can filter that out and it would not be used against anybody.
“The interest of government in setting up the committees is to help us to do what is right.
Let me assure Nigerians that government has no interest in hiding anything. This report is not to investigate anybody in government, it is to look at the oil industry and tell government the best approach to maximise our revenue base.”
Signaling his intention to make some remarks and obtaining the President’s go ahead, Oronsaye apparently tried to discredit the report, arguing that it was not implementable or sustainable in its current form.
The former HOS, who explained that he joined the Task Force late because of other assignments, posited: “No matter how elegant a house may be, if the foundation is faulty, it will collapse. In the same vein, if the process is flawed, the outcome of that process will not be sustainable.
“I want to say to you Mr. President, with all sense of responsibility, that the process that has been followed is flawed and the report that has just been submitted to the honorable minister is a knee-jerk reaction to Mr. President’s directive that the report be submitted today.”
He alleged that whereas it had been agreed by the Task Force members that a committee should be set up to consider the draft report before being considered by whole house, it was not done, noting that the report circulated was therefore not accepted by members.
Mr. Oronsaye noted: “I want to say that did not happen. No matter how good the effort that has been put into this may be, for as long as the process is flawed, that report is one that cannot be implemented.
“Let me say this, your excellency, this other report that was circulated for discussion was actually not accepted by members and that was the reason the committee was to go out to review, modify and return. Then, on Wednesday by five p.m., the notice comes, there will be a meeting at 12noon on Thursday with an attached report.
“With all due respect, I refused to open my mail because we had agreed if any report were to be considered, it should be circulated, it must be at least five clear days for members to review, make meaningful contributions and consider.
“When Mr. President gave the directive that the report be submitted today, we should have been man enough to say it is not feasible because of a process reason.
“The truth is, in my view, I do not know...when I came in, I asked the acting secretary, where is the signature page? He said the chairman is to sign on behalf of all of us and I said certainly, I have not authorised any person to sign on my behalf.”
Speaking in a similar vein, another member of the committee, Mr. Bernard Oti, said he had harped on the need for proper procedures to be followed but the Task Force did not heed the advice.
“From the onset, I was very clear that we were not following necessary procedures and processes that will enable us arrive with evidence, data and information of minimum standard of integrity and credibility,” he said
Mr. Oti added: “Mr. President sir, despite the circumstances that compelled our being here today, I am not persuaded to be part of what is being submitted. I believe that it is work in progress and I did say that yesterday in the meeting, Mr. President.”
However, contradicting Oronsaye and Oti, the acting secretary of the Task Force, Sumaila Zubairu, revealed that the members were opposed to the report because they believed that it was too harsh, saying that contrary to the claims by the Oronsaye and Oti, members were given the opportunity to make necessary inputs.
He said: “We gave notices of the timelines of the receipts of those comments and we got all necessary comments. I will also like to add that Mr. Ben Oti and Mr. Oronsaye had made some observations at our meetings.
“They indicated that the report was too harsh, the report was based on estimates and stuffs like that. We made it clear to them that this is the result of experts and professionals willing to make specific reference in areas where you don’t have knowledge and we will consider. We did not receive any such comments.”
Another member, Mr. Ignatious Odekunle, expressed sadness that members brought their disagreement to the venue of the submission of the report.
Mallam Ribadu, however, dismissed opposition to the report by saying that there were just two members of the task force who were not in its favour because they were appointees of the same establishments that were being investigated and told the President that they ought to have resigned their appointments to avoid conflict of interest.
Mr. Oronsaye is a member of the board of the NNPC, while Mr. Oti is its Director of Finance.
Mallam Ribadu, who said he was taken by surprise by the development, revealed that Mr. Oronsaye did not attend any of the deliberations of the task force but only appeared at the end.
He stated: “Mr. President, it is your government, it is your work and whatever it is. Nobody else. This recommendation is for you to use. You thought it wise to call people from outside, to come into the industry and look at it critically and give you an honest opinion.
“During the pendency of that committee, Stephen Oronsaye got himself appointed on the board of the NNPC. He became a member of the board. The other gentleman who spoke, Oti, became the Director of Finance, NNPC and they decided to, more or less, bully everybody and take over and they wanted us to fight for them. Committee members refused.
“By the time they were appointed, the honourable thing they would have done was to resign as members of the committee. They refused to resign.”
Before the crisis, he had told the president that the recommendations of the task force would strengthen institutions responsible for the management of the petroleum institution and increase revenue accruing to the federal Government of Nigeria.
He said government needed to put in place a coherent financing solution that allowed it to fund its obligation under the Joint Venture Contracts.
Mallam Ribadu said “most of the recommendations are about management, about people and about how we run our own affairs. It probably may not have to do with the law. PIB or no PIB, some of these things, right now, can be implemented, and even if PIB comes, it will still be very important in getting the result.”
He advised the Federal Government to take action on gas flaring and ensure that outstanding royalties were collected from companies operating in Nigeria as the task force discovered that companies have not been meeting up with their obligation.
The task force chairman emphasised the need to end crude oil theft and ensure security in the Niger Delta to attract investment.
In her remarks, the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Deziani Allison-Maduekwe, said she was placed in an awkward position by the disagreement, but assured that she did not interfere with the work of the task force.
Noting that the task force members were people of integrity, she said that the reports were submitted in accordance with the directive of the president and could not be rubbished because of the level of hard work that was put in them.
According to her, “Mr. President called for the report and it was presented. I will not allow this to reduce the extent of hard work that people of integrity have put into all the work. They have done good work. It is more critical to concern ourselves about how well we will move forward when we finalise.”
NigerianTribune
The Task Force had been scheduled to present its report along with two other Task Forces, namely on Governance and Control in Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and other Parastatals, the National Refineries and Petroleum Revenue earlier set up by the president in his drive to reform the petroleum sector and improve collection of revenue.
However, moments after Mallam Ribadu made his remarks preparatory to the submission of the report, a member of the Task Force and former Head of Service of the Federation (HOS), Mr. Stephen Oronsaye, objected to the submission on the ground that the process that produced it was flawed.
But it did not stop the president from accepting the reports and those of Governance and Control in (NNPC) and other Parastatals, the National Refineries, even as he counseled members who disagreed with the report to put their views in writing and forward to the Minister of Petroleum Resources or the Chief of Staff to the president.
He assured that government would make use of the reports saying that on the issue of finance, if it bordered on corrupt practices or outright stealing, it would go to EFCC for investigation, and so nobody would lose anything.
President Jonathan added: “If there are errors in calculation or misinformation from the relevant agencies of government, we can filter that out and it would not be used against anybody.
“The interest of government in setting up the committees is to help us to do what is right.
Let me assure Nigerians that government has no interest in hiding anything. This report is not to investigate anybody in government, it is to look at the oil industry and tell government the best approach to maximise our revenue base.”
Signaling his intention to make some remarks and obtaining the President’s go ahead, Oronsaye apparently tried to discredit the report, arguing that it was not implementable or sustainable in its current form.
The former HOS, who explained that he joined the Task Force late because of other assignments, posited: “No matter how elegant a house may be, if the foundation is faulty, it will collapse. In the same vein, if the process is flawed, the outcome of that process will not be sustainable.
“I want to say to you Mr. President, with all sense of responsibility, that the process that has been followed is flawed and the report that has just been submitted to the honorable minister is a knee-jerk reaction to Mr. President’s directive that the report be submitted today.”
He alleged that whereas it had been agreed by the Task Force members that a committee should be set up to consider the draft report before being considered by whole house, it was not done, noting that the report circulated was therefore not accepted by members.
Mr. Oronsaye noted: “I want to say that did not happen. No matter how good the effort that has been put into this may be, for as long as the process is flawed, that report is one that cannot be implemented.
“Let me say this, your excellency, this other report that was circulated for discussion was actually not accepted by members and that was the reason the committee was to go out to review, modify and return. Then, on Wednesday by five p.m., the notice comes, there will be a meeting at 12noon on Thursday with an attached report.
“With all due respect, I refused to open my mail because we had agreed if any report were to be considered, it should be circulated, it must be at least five clear days for members to review, make meaningful contributions and consider.
“When Mr. President gave the directive that the report be submitted today, we should have been man enough to say it is not feasible because of a process reason.
“The truth is, in my view, I do not know...when I came in, I asked the acting secretary, where is the signature page? He said the chairman is to sign on behalf of all of us and I said certainly, I have not authorised any person to sign on my behalf.”
Speaking in a similar vein, another member of the committee, Mr. Bernard Oti, said he had harped on the need for proper procedures to be followed but the Task Force did not heed the advice.
“From the onset, I was very clear that we were not following necessary procedures and processes that will enable us arrive with evidence, data and information of minimum standard of integrity and credibility,” he said
Mr. Oti added: “Mr. President sir, despite the circumstances that compelled our being here today, I am not persuaded to be part of what is being submitted. I believe that it is work in progress and I did say that yesterday in the meeting, Mr. President.”
However, contradicting Oronsaye and Oti, the acting secretary of the Task Force, Sumaila Zubairu, revealed that the members were opposed to the report because they believed that it was too harsh, saying that contrary to the claims by the Oronsaye and Oti, members were given the opportunity to make necessary inputs.
He said: “We gave notices of the timelines of the receipts of those comments and we got all necessary comments. I will also like to add that Mr. Ben Oti and Mr. Oronsaye had made some observations at our meetings.
“They indicated that the report was too harsh, the report was based on estimates and stuffs like that. We made it clear to them that this is the result of experts and professionals willing to make specific reference in areas where you don’t have knowledge and we will consider. We did not receive any such comments.”
Another member, Mr. Ignatious Odekunle, expressed sadness that members brought their disagreement to the venue of the submission of the report.
Mallam Ribadu, however, dismissed opposition to the report by saying that there were just two members of the task force who were not in its favour because they were appointees of the same establishments that were being investigated and told the President that they ought to have resigned their appointments to avoid conflict of interest.
Mr. Oronsaye is a member of the board of the NNPC, while Mr. Oti is its Director of Finance.
Mallam Ribadu, who said he was taken by surprise by the development, revealed that Mr. Oronsaye did not attend any of the deliberations of the task force but only appeared at the end.
He stated: “Mr. President, it is your government, it is your work and whatever it is. Nobody else. This recommendation is for you to use. You thought it wise to call people from outside, to come into the industry and look at it critically and give you an honest opinion.
“During the pendency of that committee, Stephen Oronsaye got himself appointed on the board of the NNPC. He became a member of the board. The other gentleman who spoke, Oti, became the Director of Finance, NNPC and they decided to, more or less, bully everybody and take over and they wanted us to fight for them. Committee members refused.
“By the time they were appointed, the honourable thing they would have done was to resign as members of the committee. They refused to resign.”
Before the crisis, he had told the president that the recommendations of the task force would strengthen institutions responsible for the management of the petroleum institution and increase revenue accruing to the federal Government of Nigeria.
He said government needed to put in place a coherent financing solution that allowed it to fund its obligation under the Joint Venture Contracts.
Mallam Ribadu said “most of the recommendations are about management, about people and about how we run our own affairs. It probably may not have to do with the law. PIB or no PIB, some of these things, right now, can be implemented, and even if PIB comes, it will still be very important in getting the result.”
He advised the Federal Government to take action on gas flaring and ensure that outstanding royalties were collected from companies operating in Nigeria as the task force discovered that companies have not been meeting up with their obligation.
The task force chairman emphasised the need to end crude oil theft and ensure security in the Niger Delta to attract investment.
In her remarks, the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Deziani Allison-Maduekwe, said she was placed in an awkward position by the disagreement, but assured that she did not interfere with the work of the task force.
Noting that the task force members were people of integrity, she said that the reports were submitted in accordance with the directive of the president and could not be rubbished because of the level of hard work that was put in them.
According to her, “Mr. President called for the report and it was presented. I will not allow this to reduce the extent of hard work that people of integrity have put into all the work. They have done good work. It is more critical to concern ourselves about how well we will move forward when we finalise.”
NigerianTribune
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