- Seek continuity on openness
Oil and gas industry across the world is often perceived to be elitist with its stakeholders mostly seen as members of the upper class either operating as workers, contractors with people in Government overseeing its activities.
The multi-trillion dollar industry for decades has contributed to the prosperity and growth of oil producing nations, thereby helping to raise the standards of living of citizens through improved infrastructure like good roads, hospitals, world class education standards at all levels.
But, despite the capacity of these natural resources to bring about improved living conditions for citizens the same cannot be said of Nigeria whose middle and lower class have continued to question how oil wealth is being distributed in the country.
On several occasions, human right groups, Civil Society Organisations , National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Nigerian Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative(NEITI), state government and the National Assembly have had cause at one time or the other to allege mismanagement of the country’s oil wealth.
In 2014, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) urged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to “urgently begin a thorough, transparent and effective investigation into allegations into how $20 billion oil money allegedly got missing from the account of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).”
The petition was hinged on the allegation by the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Lamido Sanusi, that “NNPC was operating a racket through which the federation has been losing billions of dollars annually.” Sanusi made the allegation at the resumed Senate hearing on the matter, insisting that the NNPC has yet to account for $20 billion (equivalent N3.25 trillion) from the total $67 billion oil sales receipts from January 2012 to July 2013. It was for this reason and many more that the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mallam Mele Kyari, upon assumption of office July 8, 2019, promised to run a transparent and accountable NNPC with a firm pledge to open the books of the Corporation to scrutiny anchored on his Transparency, Accountability, Performance Excellence (TAPE) vision.
However, Kyari on June 11, 2019, kept that promise when for the first time since it creation NNPC published its comprehensive 2018 Audited Financial Statements (AFS), in compliance with President Muhammadu Buhari’s commitment to accountability and transparency.
Indeed, stakeholders have described the 2018 NNPC AFS as a game changer for the industry, saying it will further prove to investors that allegation of opaqueness associated with the Corporation have been disproved while opening up the industry for fresh Foreign Direct Investment(FDI).
