My Visit to Bayelsa, Jonathan's Home State

by Okoi Obono-Obla
I was recently in Bayelsa State to supervise the Registration exercise of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the State. On the 3rd February, 2014, I boarded Med View Airline flight from Abuja to Port Harcourt. On arriving Port Harcourt I hitched a ride from the Port Harcourt International Airport to Yenagoa, the Capital of Bayelsa State, the home State of President

Jonathan.

What immediately struck me was the derelict and deplorable condition of the East-West Highway that straddles Rivers, Bayelsa and Delta State.

This is despite the fact that on the 29th May, 2007, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan after the late President Umaru Musa Yar’ adua won a controversial Presidential Election admitted to be flawed by Yar’adua necessitating the constitution of a Panel to recommend electoral reforms in the country, became Vice President.

Unfortunately President Yar’ adua was dogged by ill health that culminated in his transition to eternity on the 5th May, 2010. And by the succession process prescribed by the Constitution, the baton of power fell into the hands of President Jonathan who was sworn into office on the 6th May, 2010, by the then Chief Justice Aloysius Katsina-Alu after the demise of President Yaradua on the 5th May, 2010.

It therefore goes without saying that President Jonathan has been in the corridors of Federal Power since 2007.

I wondered how President Jonathan who has been in the corridors of power (at the Federal Government level) has woefully and spectacularly failed to muster the political and financial will to see to the completion of the East-West Highway that is so central to the socio-economic development of the South/South Region in particular and Nigeria in general.

I also took a ride along the roads leading to the Ogbia Local Government Area of the State. It is worthy to note that Ogbia is the Local Government Area where President Jonathan comes from. This road is in such a dilapidated and deplorable condition that one of the bridges thereat has completely collapsed to the extent that an improvised bridge constructed with timber and bamboo sticks was used to hold the collapsed bridge to enable light weight vehicles pass through the road. It is an ugly sight to behold that such a bridge will be found in Bayelsa State which has large reserves of crude oil and indeed the State of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

There is such air of discontentment and disillusionment in the State that a visitor can feel it as you walk around the streets of the sleepy capital, Yenagoa. The people of the State groan under the weight of bad governance.

They openly complain that Governor Dickson runs a close government made up of a coterie of sycophants mainly drawn from his part of Sagbama Local Government Area of the State where he comes from.

They openly say that all juicy positions in government and contracts are reserved to close relations of Governor Dickson. They complain of a financial glut and lack of money.

They say the Government of former Governor of Timi Sylvia was better.

The accusation of clannishness is not only made against Governor Dickson, Bayelsan also alleged that President Jonathan only reckons with people from his own group in Ogbia Local Government Area.

The people also allege that Governor Dickson runs his government from Abuja and that he hardly stays in Yenagoa! Bayelsa has very difficult and challenging terrain and topography.

It is a low and swampy land. So it requires plenty of money to construct roads and build houses. To reach many places in the State from Yenagoa such as Brass, Southern Ijaw etc one needs to travel over turbulent and treacherous waters on boat for several hours. But with sincere and concerted efforts these challenges can be overcome or surmounted.

There is no room for excuses. It is do-able because all the city of Amsterdam is built on top of water!

Oil theft row escalates

President Jonathan risks panic among investors after he suspends Central Bank Governor Sanusi in a personal political battle

Plain speaking, combative and ubiquitous, Central Bank of Nigeria Governor Sanusi Lamido Aminu Sanusi was never going to work well with the taciturn and cautious President Goodluck Jonathan. After months of cold war between the two men over reports of billions of missing oil revenue, President Jonathan suspended Sanusi from the CBN on 20 February. That will escalate the political battle and rattle investors a year before general elections. Jonathan acted against Sanusi after the outspoken Governor had warned the Senate on 13 February of the dangers of deepening corruption in the oil and gas industry and submitted a report detailing the failure of the state oil company to transfer some US$20 billion to the federation (national) accounts.
Those revelations and the failure of Oil Minister Diezani Allison-Madueke, a close ally of Jonathan’s, to give a credible response to accusations of gross mismanagement and illegality, sent investors into a spin. For example, it was confirmed in the Senate hearings that in 2009, the previous government had banned state subsidies on kerosene yet Allison-Madueke had maintained a system of state subsidy for kerosene costing over $1 bn. a year.

The reason Allison-Madueke gave for this was that it would benefit ordinary Nigerians (kerosene is widely used for cooking as well as jet fuel) and that the law was unclear. Yet Allison-Madueke had no response when Sanusi showed the senators a series of unequivocal directives ordering the end of kerosene subsidies. Then Sanusi went further to show that Nigerian consumers received no benefit from the claimed subsidy as they paid international market prices for their kerosene. Instead, the beneficiaries were a select small group of fuel traders who shared between them profits of around $100 million a month from the subsidy racket. Sanusi’s straight explanation of this was a point-blank critique of Allison-Madueke and, by extension, a challenge to the President who was backing her. Sanusi criticised several other schemes, all of which come under the responsibility of Allison-Madueke:
• Strategic Alliance Agreements between an affiliate of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and Jide Omokore’s Atlantic Energy, which Sanusi said illicitly transferred NNPC revenue to private holdings;
• Unaudited crude oil swaps for imports of refined products handled by four local trading groups: Igho Sanomi’s Talveras, Tonye Cole’s Sahara Oil, Ben Peters’ Aiteo and Walter Wagbatsoma’s Ontario Oil and Gas together with Claude Dauphin’s Netherlands-based Trafigura;
• Illegal oil bunkering – running at over 250,000 barrels a day;
• Unaudited third-party financing claims of about $2 bn. a year.
Faced with this litany of infractions, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Economy Minister and former Managing Director of the World Bank, proposed a forensic audit of the NNPC, but one ringed with caveats. Okonjo-Iweala is now in an iniquitous position: she is the sole high-profile reformer with policy-making powers on the wider economy but still politically identified with Jonathan and Allison-Madueke. Seeing Okonjo-Iweala’s continuing foreign credibility (London’s daily Financial Times backed her for World Bank President), Jonathan’s team encourages the idea that she could run for vice-president in 2015, and president in 2019.
Yet that cuts little ice with market forces. Within hours of the 13 February Senate hearings, the naira had slumped to N165 to the US dollar, the sharpest depreciation in five years. The value of shares on the stock exchange fell faster than in any other capital market. Although CBN Deputy Governor Sarah Omotunde Alade, who will take over the governorship until June, is a well-regarded technocrat, bankers and investors worry about the signals sent by Sanusi’s suspension and the lack of concern about the state accounting issues that he raised.
The President and Oil Minister have shown an almost surreal insouciance towards data showing billions of dollars missing from state accounts, even when the data is produced by government officials and on one occasion, by a committee working under instruction from the Oil and Finance ministries.
Again on 20 February, within hours of his suspension, Jonathan’s aides were more intent on trying to denigrate and sideline Sanusi than steadying investors’ nerves. Jonathan launched unsubstantiated accusations of ‘financial recklessness’ against Sanusi, then named Alade as Acting Governor and within hours had sent his choice for the new governor, Zenith Bank’s Chief Executive Godwin Emefiele, to the Senate for confirmation. The market made its own judgement: that same day, the exchange rate fell by another four naira, to $1 = N169.
This will matter hugely, even if Nigeria’s ballooning growth is on automatic pilot. Government statisticians are just about to announce that the country is now Africa’s biggest economy, with a gross domestic product of around $400 bn. That puts it about $40 bn. ahead of South Africa and slightly less ahead of Iran, Columbia and Thailand. This was intended to make great propaganda for Jonathan’s campaign in the 2015 elections but it will be fairly meaningless for most Nigerians. Average income per capita will be about $2,400 a year: that’s much less than in an Egypt in turmoil and less than a third of average incomes in South Africa.
Central to Nigeria’s economic problems is the failure of the state to provide basic services such as electricity and water, let alone decent standards of education and healthcare. Much of this is due to chronic under-investment: that reality has given Sanusi’s critique of the mismanagement of state oil revenue great resonance among many Nigerians. In the hours after his suspension, it was Sanusi, not the government, who tried to steady nerves. He strongly praised Sarah Alade’s professionalism and managerial competence.

CBN: NGF set to tackle Jonathan

From TAIWO AMODU, Abuja
Following Federal Government’s suspension of Sanusi Lamido Sanusi as Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, the Nigeria Governors’ Forum under the leadership of Rivers State governor, Rotimi Amaechi has fixed an emergency meeting for Monday to take position on that contentious matter.
Group Managing Director of Zenith Bank Plc, Mr. Godwin Emefiele has since been announced as replacement.
A statement from the Director- General of the Forum of 36 states governors, Asishana Okauru,  made available to newsmen  yesterday, disclosed a two-pronged agenda for the emergency meeting: “Removal of the CBN Governor; Dwindling revenue to states; AOB.” The meeting will hold at Rivers State Governor’s Lodge, Asokoro, Abuja with Rotimi Amaechi presiding.
Recall that the federal government had premised its action to axe the governor of the apex bank  on alleged cases of impunity, incompetence, fraud, wastefulness, and non-compliance with provisions of the Public Procurement Act 2007.
Saturday Sun checks revealed that before the startling disclosures from the  axed governor of the CBN, accusing NNPC of alleged diversion of crude oil sales earnings and  spending funds  not appropriated by the National Assembly,  the governors have consistently expressed reservations over what they noted was lack of  transparency  by the NNPC  in  the  management of crude oil earnings and further alleged that the  office of the Accountant  General of the Federation  of connivance.
At their meeting held on September 18, 2013, the governors in their communiqué  demanded the resignation of the Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala over non compliance with the revenue projections of the Federal Government of Nigeria 2013 Budget, which they noted was a direct breach of the provisions of the Appropriation Act, 2013.
They further reiterated their  “earlier call to the National Assembly for the separation of the office of the Accountant General of the Federation from that of the Accountant General of the Federal
Government for accountability and better management of the economy.”
Also recall that eleven APC governors (before their rank was swelled by 5 PDP governors that defected) which met on October 22, 2013  at the Ekiti State Governor’s Lodge under the aegis of the Progressives Governors Forum, restated their aversion to what they called  the unconstitutional  deduction from Federation Account by the federal government, which they claimed had led to about 40 percent loss in their revenue earned from Federation Account in the last few months.
The host governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi who spoke with newsmen on behalf of his colleagues further submitted that there was no basis for incomplete allocation to states from the Federation Account by the federal government.

TheSun

2015 elections: Emirs lobby lawmakers against Jonathan

by OBIORA IFOH AND TORDUE SALEM 

6

0

*** Don’t politicise Sanusi’s sack, PDP tells APC
The visit by President Goodluck Jonathan to some traditional rulers in the North notwithstanding, some emirs are silently working against his second term ambition, National Mirror learnt at the weekend.
A top politician in Abuja told National Mirror that the humiliating suspension of the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi on Tuesday last week and the failure to curtail the Boko Haram insurgency in the North East are some of the grouses the Emirate Councils of the North have against the President.
The source also said that the Emir of Kano, Ado Bayero, was specifically miffed that security agencies in the country were yet to fish out the culprits responsible for the recent attack on his convoy in Kano, despite promises to that effect by the President.
“The emirs are not happy with the situation in the country, especially the unwarranted suspension of the CBN Governor, Sanusi Lamido. So you can be sure that they would contact the senators and members of the House of Representatives to work against the PDP in the 2015 elections. And they are actually doing just that as we speak.
“The visit of his Excellency, President Goodluck Jonathan to emirs is good, but I don’t think they are impressed with his handling of the security situation in the North, specifically the North East, where despite more than six years of emergency rule, the bombs continue to go off. The President, I must tell you has not done enough to impress the Emirs,” he said.
The House of Representatives had on Thursday lampooned the President for arbitrarily suspending the CBN Governor.
The House passed a resolution declaring the action illegal and unconstitutional after a motion sponsored by Minority Whip, Hon. Samson Osagie was passed.
The House, with Speaker Aminu Tambuwal presiding, had ruled that the decision breached section 11(7) of the CBN Act, which provides for sack of the apex bank boss with the approval of the Senate and not suspension.
But the Chairman of the House Committee on Judiciary, Hon. Ali Ahmad (Kwara-APC) when contacted said he was yet to be approached by any emir, but would consider it when approached.
Repeated efforts to reach principal officers of the House from the North, Hon. Garbi Datti (APC-Kaduna), Hon. Ishaku Bawa (PDPTaraba) and Hon. Suleiman Kawu (APC-Kano) to respond to the said move by the emirs, failed at the time of filing this report.
Meanwhile, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and the All Progressives Party, APC, are again at each other’s jugular over the suspension of CBN Governor.
While the PDP condemned attempts by certain individuals and groups to politicise the suspension of Sanusi, the opposition party accused the Presidency of seeking to use the suspension to divert attention from the allegation of missing $20bn oil funds.
PDP National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, in a statement yesterday said the issues leading to Sanusi’s suspension strictly bordered on the management of the nation’s economy and urged Nigerians to disregard those attempting to politicise or introduce sentiments into the matter.
Supporting the suspension, the party said it has “implicit confidence in President Goodluck Jonathan and his efforts to ensure the stability and growth of the economy”, adding that the decision was in the best interest of the nation.
The party also dismissed insinuations that the suspension was aimed at silencing a whistle blower and promoting corruption.
It said after thorough analysis of the issues surrounding the suspension, “it was clear that the decision was in tandem with the commitment of the Federal Government to safeguard the CBN and the entire financial sector from abuses.”
The PDP said the findings of the Financial Reporting Council revealed series of administrative recklessness in the CBN which are “very weighty and cannot be swept under the carpet of politics and sentiments.”
Debunking suggestions that the suspension will negatively affect the economy, the PDP observed that instead, it has restored confidence in the financial sector and in government’s ability to check abuses harmful to the system.
It urged Nigerians not to be swayed by those seek ing to play politics with the matter adding that Sanusi should have nothing to fear if he has no skeleton in his cupboard.
But APC, in a statement issued in Lagos by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said the way the Presidency has been campaigning to malign the CBN Governor, using the report of the obscure Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria, shows that it is working hard to sweep the issue of the missing funds under the carpet and punish Sanusi for daring to expose the fraud.
It said if the Federal Government had used half the energy it has been deploying to discredit Sanusi toward the investigation of the missing oil funds, the monumental corruption case would have been solved by now.
“Irrespective of the tepid and unconvincing denial by the Presidency, it is clear that the main reason the Presidency moved against Sanusi is because he blew the lid on the $20bn funds, which the NNPC allegedly failed to remit to the Federation Account.
“Fortunately, discerning Nigerians are not hoodwinked by the Presidency’s choreographed mudslinging against a whistle blower, and the sponsored campaign that amounts to shooting the messenger just because his message is not palatable.
“While the Presidency has chosen to pull the wool over the eyes of Nigerians over the missing oil funds, we call on the National Assembly to get to the bottom of Sanusi’s allegation and save Nigerians from a rapacious and a rampaging cabal that is hell bent on bringing Nigeria to its knees through runaway corruption,” APC said.
The party said the questions that are begging for answers include: What happened to the missing $20bn? If indeed a part of the funds has been used for kerosene subsidy, who authorised the spending of money that was not appropriated, in violation of the nation’s constitution? Who reinstated the subsidy that had been removed by a presidential directive? If $8.76bn of the missing money was used for kerosene subsidy, who and who are the beneficiaries, since it is clear that Nigerians are not enjoying any subsidy on kerosene for which they are shelling out at least N150 per litre?
It re-stated its earlier stand that Sanusi’s suspension is unlawful and that it is another dangerous turn in the Jonathan administration’s journey of impunity, lawlessness and double standards.
APC said the drop in the value of the naira and the fact that the banking sector and other stocks spiralled into negative territory, in the aftermath of the suspension, have shown the dangers inherent in politicising an office that should be insulated from political pressure.
“There are just shortterm repercussions. The long-term fallout may be the scaring off of foreign investors by the perception of instability in the financial sector and the erosion of the CBN’s autonomy.
“If and when that happens, a President who has so far failed to uplift his nation’s economy would have succeeded in sabotaging it,” the party said.
On the allegations against Sanusi, it said the Federal Government should charge him to court, if indeed it is convinced of the veracity of the allegations, instead of convicting him on the pages of newspapers and mob-lynching him through paid hatchet men. In a related development, a former Minister of State for Education, Senator Iyabo Anisulowo, has urged the Federal Government to exercise caution and reconsider its action, even as she described the suspension of Sanusi as untimely.
Speaking in Ilaro, Ogun State at the weekend, the former senator noted that, if Sanusi had committed certain offences contrary to the law establishing the CBN he should have been sanctioned before now.

 

NationalMirror

We’ll uproot PDP in 2015, say APC leaders

Lai Mohammed

All Progressives Congress (APC) leaders have said the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will be shocked by its “mass rejection by Nigerians” in the 2015 elections.
Speaking in Lagos at the weekend, the party leaders said the PDP’s “imminent defeat” in the Ekiti and Osun governorship polls in June and August would be a foretaste of what awaits the PDP in the 2015 elections.
The APC leaders spoke at a reception rally organised by The Mandate Movement (TMM) in honour of Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola, who got the Daily Independent’s Man of the Year, 2013 Award, at the weekend.
TMM was founded by the APC’s National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, and is led by the APC’s National Legal Adviser, Dr. Muiz Banire.
Aregbesola said: “With the abysmal performance of PDP governments and the result of our party’s membership registration, it is certain that we will shock and uproot the PDP from all tiers of government in 2015.”
The governor, who is a founding leader of TMM, thanked members from the 57 local councils of Lagos State, who were gathered at the Skypower Playground in Ikeja GRA, for supporting the APC through its transformational stages since 1999.
He said: “I thank you for standing by us all the way. You have seen that more Nigerians, including serving and past governors, as well as members of the National Assembly have been trooping to the APC because the PDP had failed the nation. What this tells us is to put in more effort to flush out the party that has brought so much pain to our people. Coming elections in Ekiti and Osun will surely give the PDP a bitter taste of the people’s resentment for it.”
Aregbesola thanked the organisers of the reception for remaining faithful to the ideals of TMM’s founder.
Banire and another TMM leader Cardinal James Odunmbaku, who is Lagos APC’s deputy chairman, said the turnout at the rally was a warning to the PDP.
Banire said: “This was supposed to be a small reception in honour of Ogbeni Aregbesola, but the crowd gathered here is not only intimidating and overwhelming, but encouraging. We assure you that our party is forming the next government at the federal level and we will never fail you as the PDP has done.”
Also at the reception were APC National Publicity Secretary Alhaji Lai Mohammed; former Lagos State Commissioner for Health Dr. Leke Pitan; Osun State Deputy Governor Mrs. Grace Laoye-Tomori; Aregbesola’s wife, Serifat; National Assembly members from Lagos and Lagos House of Assembly members, among others.

TheNation

Thieves At Work, Don’t Disturb

Sam Nda-Isaiah

With President Goodluck Jonathan, many things we once thought were impossible have become very possible. It’s only under Jonathan that we started spending N2 trillion on fuel subsidy without any significant increase in our population. In his first year in office, the president spent about N2 trillion fuel subsidy even though only N245 billion was appropriated for this. Only in the Nigerian style democracy would this man continue as president two years after this revelation. In decent climes, a president like this would have long been impeached and removed from office by the National Assembly in the national interest.
I once wrote on this page that we have a president who gets very angry if you catch a thief. He gets very, very angry. And many people have started wondering if there is a linear relationship between him and these thieves. He wants thieves to be left alone to ply their trade quietly and efficiently.
Sometime ago, the media exposed the squalid conditions police cadets lived in at the Police College, Ikeja. Those who exposed the sorry condition thought they were helping Jonathan to do his work as president. The first thing the president said when he was shown the place was, “Who brought pressmen to this place?” It was like saying, “Why are you exposing the thievery in this place?” In other words, “thieves at work, don’t disturb.” Till date, nothing has happened. Vintage Jonathan.
Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the Central Bank of Nigeria governor, has been shouting himself hoarse that $20 billion or N3.3 trillion of the revenues that the NNPC was supposed to have made for the country has not been remitted to the nation’s coffers. The first thing any normal president would do on getting this kind of information is get very angry. And if you were the kind of president who stole along with your minister, the best first thing to do would be to pretend to be angry. Our president did not get angry at this very serious revelation, and he did not even think it was worth his while to pretend to be angry. Our wonderful president did not even get angry when his beloved minister of petroleum, Diezani Alison-Madueke, confessed that she had spent N3.5 billion on kerosene subsidy without appropriation, a power the president himself does not have. He also did not waste his time pretending.
Sanusi was obviously the only one angry on behalf of Jonathan and his government, and he kept raising the alarm. As Sanusi continued to raise the alarm, our president got more desperate. The president knew he did not have the power to remove the CBN governor, as he needed the Senate’s approval to achieve that. Sanusi had earlier rebuffed his order to resign. A smart president would have just respected himself and waited for Sanusi’s tenure to run out. An even smarter president would have simply announced Sanusi’s successor and, by so doing, he would have made Sanusi a lame-duck governor at once and made his comments largely ineffective. People would now be waiting for the incoming governor to either confirm or repudiate Sanusi’s allegations.
But, instead, Jonathan has, by the needless or even groundless suspension of the CBN governor, further confirmed the reasoning of many who have said that he (Jonathan) should not be president in the first place because he lacks the reflexes of the president of a nation. Jonathan’s detractors should go to sleep because the president himself is doing their job excellently for them. They can’t do it better. The president is his own greatest enemy.
The reactions from around the world about the Nigerian president in the wake of such a very unpresidential action should embarrass every Nigerian. Some in the international community are already comparing Jonathan’s Nigeria to Idi Amin’s Uganda, except that the latter was not nearly as corrupt.
I still find it incomprehensible that a CBN governor would complain that a minister has misappropriated N3 trillion and, instead of the president to suspend the minister first, pending the outcome of an investigation, it is the CBN governor who reported the theft that has to be suspended. Indeed, our president is a wonderful man.

EARSHOT
A Military Governor For Borno?
I first heard the improbable rumour at the weekend but I quickly dismissed it because it would not make sense to believe it. But the story was the lead of yesterday’s Sunday Trust: President Goodluck Jonathan is indeed contemplating appointing a military administrator for Borno State. Even with that story, I still will not want to believe that Jonathan will carry his suicidal instincts that far. If he tries that kind of stunt, someone could someday borrow from the same play book to say that a military administrator should be appointed for Nigeria, especially as President Jonathan himself has messed up the country so badly.
So, let President Jonathan save all of us that setback. Even though the president thinks he can get away with illegalities, this one may ultimately be his waterloo. The military has quit power; he must never bring them back with his own hands through the back door. The security problem in Borno and Yobe states is Jonathan himself. Whenever he gets serious about tackling security in the north-east, he will do it. Let him ask the countries that are doing it successfully how they are doing it. Even an average president can solve this problem easily. When he starts to equip the soldiers properly and starts giving them their appropriated budgets to carry out their functions, they will defeat Boko Haram. Let the president tell Nigerians how much of their appropriated budgets the military and police have been receiving since he became president.
In the very recent past, the Nigerian military and police have been adjudged as some of the best in the world when they are sent on international operations. If under President Jonathan they have so declined that they are now unable to defeat Boko Haram, it should not be difficult to know why.

Leadership

: "Nigeria’s missing petrol billions" - FT

Case for shaking up the oil industry has never been clearer

Corruption in Nigeria has fed for generations on state monopolies that encourage failure on a grand scale. Yet each time over the past two decades that government has found the political will to break up these power centres, the country’s potential as the leading driver of continental growth has become evident. The case for commercialising the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, the state oil company, has never been so clear. Because of its position as a source typically of 70 per cent of state revenues and more than 90 per cent of export earnings, oil and the way it is managed is central to Nigeria’s economic wellbeing. As things stand, the NNPC is at the centre of a rotten industry which is a barrier to growth.

According to Lamido Sanusi, the outspoken governor of the central bank, mismanagement at the NNPC and other state agencies in upstream and downstream energy is costing the treasury about $1bn every month. His detailed revelations to a senate committee and the unprecedented scrutiny that oil sector transactions now face as a result, should provide ammunition for reformers in and outside government to demand an urgent clean-up. The scale of losses is now so huge it is jeopardising macroeconomic fundamentals despite the soaring price of oil. It is stripping the treasury of rainy-day savings, placing the currency and foreign reserves under stress and forcing the central bank to raise interest rates.

The potential benefits of shaking up the oil industry are correspondingly great. Reforms to Nigeria’s banking system have led to the emergence of a new generation of banks with the scale to challenge South Africa’s financial powerhouses in a race for regional expansion. The case for liberalisation was made more strikingly still in telecommunications. During the 1980s and 1990s, Nigeria squandered untold billions digitalising its landline network in a quasi monopolistic relationship between the state company Nitel and Germany’s Siemens. Only one in 300 Nigerians ended up with access to a phone. The explosive growth of mobile phone use since the government auctioned off GSM licences in 2001 showed what is possible in Africa’s most populous nation when the dead hand of the state is lifted. There are now some 110m connected phones.

President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration has begun to tackle the next main impediment to growth: chronic power shortages. The privatisation programme he has launched, in the face of stiff resistance from interests vested in procurement fraud and the lucrative import of diesel to run generators, is the most ambitious in Africa. Eventually, this should eliminate another costly racket while delivering cheap electricity.

The government’s record on managing energy resources is another matter. The gradual elimination of rent-seeking opportunities in other sectors appears to be concentrating hands in the oil till. Mr Sanusi’s exposé suggests that, like power and telecoms before it, Nigeria’s oil industry is on a path of diminishing returns as a result.

The forensic audit that Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, finance minister, has initiated in response could go some way towards identifying where money is going missing. But the value of such an audit will be limited if the government subsequently fails – as it has before – to plug the holes, prosecute the culprits and use the evidence to change the way Nigeria buys and sells its oil.

The case for untethering the NNPC from the political system and restructuring the body is clear. With commercially priced domestic gas and fuel supplies, functioning refineries and an oil export industry that pays its own way, there is every reason to believe Nigeria might finally take off. The status quo, on the other hand, will bleed the country dry.