*calls for accountability, transparency in Nigeria’s Oil & Gas Sector
*Urges governors, LG chairmen to demand their share of oil blocs
Ayo Ola
Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA Resource Centre) has presented before the public a book on Spotlighting the Oil & Gas: A Review of the 2020/2021 Marginal Fileds Bid Licensing Round in Nigeria. The book was prepared for HEDA by experts in the oil and gas sector, Dr Dauda Garuba and Mr Ademola H. Adigun.
HEDA is a Nigerian nonprofit non-governmental organisation promoting transparency, accountability, human rights, and a sustainable environment through research, training, advocacy, and policy engagement.
Speaking during the public presentation of the book, in Lagos on Monday, HEDA Chairman, Mr Olanrewaju Suraju, called for transparency, accountability and less corruption in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector.
He also said the resources that are generated must be deployed for the general benefit of the people and not just for the few that are more well-positioned in society.
Suraju advocated for transparency of all the information in terms of who gets what, who pays what and what is paid.
He added that there must be public participation in the oil and gas sector, adding that the communities must be given priority in every form of allocation and operations of the license.
For him, the media and civil society should monitor and evaluate how the compliancy of the awardees of the license to meet the expectations in terms of the laws and policies guiding the operations.
The HEDA Chairman decried that the governors and local government chairmen had not been demanding their fair share.
He, therefore, urged them to demand for their fair share of proceeds of oil blocs in the country, which he said, were meant for federal, state and local governments.
Suraju said, “We are dissatisfied with what is happening with many of the state governors. I mean they seem to be comfortable with whatever is allocated and that is how and why people are suffering. This is supposed to be money going to the federation account and at that point, it belongs to the three tiers of government, the local, state and federal governments.
“But unfortunately, it has been managed by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) as if it is just federal govenrment money, So NNPCL decides within itself what is paid to the federation account and you can imagine where you have trillions of naira that are not remitted into the federation account that then will be divided between the three tiers of government. NNPCL is operating like an entity on its own and it takes decisions without also having the concurrent endorsement of the state and local governments and we want to LG and states to also rise up and also monitor how this thing is done.
“The news that this bid round was bringing N200bn and $700m is what should have also been of interest to the LG and states to demand if they were actually paid and how that was shared with the revenue formula within the country. But that has not been the practice. The states are the ones that are directly affected and impacted with the adverse effects of exploitation but they are not actually taking advantage of the resources that are coming from it.”
Suraju alleged that there is monumental corruption in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector.
According to him, 70 per cent of corruption in Nigeria is found in the oil and gas sector.
He alleged that both the private and public sectors as well as Nigerian and international financial institutions allegedly are culpable in the alleged monumental fraud in the sector.
Suraju said, “We have been extremely worried about corruption in the oil and gas industry. It has been the worst, I can say, anywhere in the world. It is not only about Nigerians. It is also about many of our foreign operators that are here. This is also not about the public sector, it is also about the private sector including the banks that you have in Nigeria and the banks you have abroad.
“The whole corruption that revolved around the OPL245 was not only about Nigerian banks but also involved foreign banks which was why Nigeria sued one of the foreign banks in the UK for failing to take due diligence about the know your customers.
“So about 70% of the corruption in Nigeria is traced to the oil sector and that is the areas where you have the international players being part of the process. It means that these international players are also meant to be held for part of the things that are happening here and for us to see these happenings.
“We want to see how some of the things can be done differently and if we have a new govenrment, we want to see the agenda of this government going into the oil sector where you have the mainstay of the country and where you have the highest concentration of corruption. We are worried and we want to see some paradigm shift from what has been the experiences.”
The HEDA Chairman said Nigeria has lost a lot to alleged corruption in the oil and gas sector.
He said that an oil field (OPL245), which was valued at $6.8bn and allocated by the late Head of State, Gen Sanni Abacha, Nigeria only got $250m, the whole $1.1bn was allegedly diverted to people who are public office holders.
Suraju said, “It is good to recognise some of the achievements that are coming from the PIA which is taking us away from the perilous path where we have rarely benefitted from some of our resources.
“I alluded to the experience we have with the OPL245, the Malabu case, where the oil block that was actually allocated to few people, because they were ministers and children of the late former President, Sanni Abacha, allocated oil bloc that was valued $6.8bn to a company that was incorporated few days before it was allocated the license and did not have any experience of oil exploitation and exploration. And from there, Nigeria got about $250m, I mean $1.1bn was actually diverted to people who are public office holders.
“So coming to this level of marginal field, that was part of the idea of bringing indigenous oil companies to be part of the extractive sector and try to move away from the dominance of major oil corporation from outside the company but it was actually like what we have with major public office holders.
“It was mismanaged to benefit some few rather than benefiting the country. This is going a little away from that. It is not just like the portfolio companies just getting the license and looking for where to resale it but it is going to companies with capacities including the fact that there are some gaps and challenges but these are still far away from what used to be the previous experiences.”