Activists say Mr. Oronsaye’s conduct is “shameful and irresponsible” and might undermine the war against corruption
Nov. 4 (PREMIUM TIMES) —
Furious reactions have continued to trail the acrimonious altercation
between members of the Petroleum Revenue Special Task Force during the
formal submission of their final report to President Goodluck Jonathan
Friday.
Some Nigerians, who spoke to PREMIUM
TIMES on Saturday, described the open disagreement and rejection of the
report by the deputy Chairman of the committee, Steve Oronsaye, as not
only “shameful and irresponsible”, but also an “attempt to undermine
President Goodluck Jonathan’s determination to fight corruption and
entrench transparency and accountability in the country’s petroleum
industry.”
Mr. Oronsaye, deputy Chairman of the
Committee and former Head of Service of the Federation, and Bon Otti, a
member, openly discredited the report submitted by the Chairman, Nuhu
Ribadu, former Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC,
on grounds that the process adopted in its compilation was flawed, as
all members were not alloweds to see the final draft before submission.
In his reaction, Mr. Ribadu revealed
that Mr. Oronsaye and Mr. Otti’s decision to reject the report stemmed
from their angst after their desire to tone down the recommendations,
which they described as “too harsh”, was turned down by other members.
According to Mr. Ribadu, Mr. Oronsaye
had abandoned the assignment in pursuit of his personal ambition to be
appointed into the Board of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation,
NNPC, while Mr. Otti was distracted following his appointment as
director of finance of the NNPC in the course of the assignment.
But the National Coordinator, Publish
What You Pay, PWYP, Nigeria and member, Nigeria Extractive Industries
Transparency Initiative (NEITI) Board, Faith Nwadishi, said the Federal
Government should not, under any guise, use the misguided disagreement
and confusion to rubbish and throw out the report.
“The Federal Government should not be
misled into thinking that because Mr. Oronsaye allowed himself to be
used to rubbish the report that the recommendations should not be
considered,” Ms. Nwadishi said.
“Every letter of the recommendations
must be considered and implemented. Government should forget about going
in circles with all these probes and begin to take more serious
interest in the various NEITI audit reports since 1999 if it is serious
about checking corruption and promoting transparency in the petroleum
industry.
“If the President said that another
committee will be constituted to consider the Ribadu report, that should
not be done in isolation of NEITI audit reports, and others, like the
KPMG and other probe reports on the industry.
“The Ribadu report is not saying
anything different from what either the Farouk Lawan Committee Subsidy
Report said, or what the NEITI audit reports have been saying over the
years about corruption in the petroleum industry. It might be saying the
same thing in a different language.”
Ms Nwadishi, who noted that Mr. Oronsaye
showed the lack of seriousness most senior citizens exhibit when
entrusted with serious national assignments, said he should have been
asked to resign from the committee and sanctioned seriously, including
being made to refund whatever allowances he might have received as
member of the committee if indeed he did not participate in the meetings
and deliberations as expected.
“How can a deputy Chairman of a serious
committee like that not attend meetings and participate in deliberations
where decisions were taken only for him to show up a day before the
presentation of the report to complain about process.
“For such lack of seriousness, he should
be sanctioned and asked to refund all allowances he may have been paid.
It is the very height of irresponsibility for a supposed former Head of
Service of the Federation to behave so shamefully.
“If he did not participate in the
deliberations of the committee, it is a shame that he still showed up on
the day of the report presentation to publicly ask questions and
condemn the report. Clearly, Oransaye lent himself to be used to rubbish
that report. But, what they should understand is that Nigerians would
not allow that report to be rubbished under any guise.”
Executive Director, Civil Society
Legislative Advocacy Centre, CISLAC, Awwal Rafsanjani, who said there
was nothing the Ribadu committee said that is new to Nigerians, noted
that Mr. Oronsaye not only “ridiculed himself by his conduct”, but he
was also “clearly undermining President Goodluck Jonathan’s authority
and resolve to fight corruption in the country’s petroleum sector.”
“Describing the recommendations of the
committee as harsh and demanding that it should be toned down after
accepting appointments into the Board of the NNPC and as the Director of
Finance, NNPC shows that Mr. Oronsaye and Mr. Otti were serving their
selfish interests and not the interest of Nigeria, as they were
desperate to justify those appointments,” he said.
For the Chief Economist, Nigeria Labour
Congress, NLC, Ozo Esan, it was unfortunate that the members of the
committee could not work together to deliver on their mandate, pointing
out with the conduct, the “unnecessary controversy appears to have
detracted from whatever recommendations they had made in the report,
such that instead of facing the real issues of serious corruption and
lack of transparency in the petroleum industry, the committee is now
debating the disagreements.”
Though he said it was not compulsory
that members of committees must always agree, the Labour leader said it
was important that they buried their differences and work together,
adding that if the differences cannot be resolved, some members may
chose to present a minority report that would be presented along with
the majority.
“To have come out in public to argue
against each other at the point of presentation the way the Ribadu
Committee members did was shameful and irresponsible,” Mr Esan said.
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