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Nigeria
Senate President, Dr Olusola Saraki
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* Old problems persist -investigation
The two chambers of the
National Assembly have conducted no fewer than 52 probes between them in the
last 16 years, according to a report compiled by the National Institute for
Legislative Studies (NILS). The probes covered government
agencies/parastatals, alleged corruption and diverse issues.
But
investigation by The Nation shows that many of the issues so probed remain
largely unresolved, and in some cases have worsened over the years.
Listed
as some of the problems probed by the two chambers are: alleged corruption in
the oil sector, the closure of the Port Harcourt International Airport, and the
expenditure of US$16 billion on the power sector.
Crude
oil theft continues, electricity supply is yet to stabilize while the Port
Harcourt Airport was recently described as the worst in the world.
The Nation report continues:
On
March 12, 2008, the Senate Committee on FCT and that of Housing and Environment
were mandated to conduct public hearing on the activities of the Ministry
of the Federal Capital Territory from 1999 to 2007.
They
turned in a report deemed to be technically deficient but the Senate
later adopted some of its recommendations before realizing that it had no legal
authority to bar Mallam Nasir el-Rufai from politics while those who lost
houses to demolition or lost their land to revocations received no form of
compensation.
The
Senate Committee on Aviation’s 2008 probe of the ₦19.5 billion Safe Tower
Project indicted several top government officials for manipulating contract
awards but no funds were recovered.
Another
2008 Senate Probe on Food Crisis in Nigeria discovered that several contractors
who were paid huge sums did not even know the project sites.
“One
of the contractors told the panel that the heavy equipment on his site were
stolen by thieves; the committee uncovered cases of stark fraud and breach of
contract. The committee also heard how stored grains meant for the markets in
time of shortages were distributed to prominent people including emirs and
chiefs in the country,” the 52-page report stated.
Another
2008 probe in the House of Representatives concluded that a former GMD of NNPC
wasted over ₦2 billion on hotel accommodations in less than four years.
In
the same year, another probe and public hearing on “Operations of the Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and its subsidiaries from 1999 to 2007”
found a litany of corruption practices.
“Incidences
of corruption uncovered include misappropriation of fund budgeted for
refineries’ Turn-Around Maintenance; incessant hike in the price of petroleum
products; deliberate and unaccounted increase in the daily quota of petroleum
production against OPEC allocation; fraudulent allocation of oil blocks; lack
of transparency and imprudence in NNPC bills; crude oil theft and smuggling’
across Nigeria’s porous borders; deliberate delay in discharging of petroleum
products by ships at the seaports, and; dubious operations of International Oil
Companies (IOCs).
“It
was discovered that one of three unregistered companies (Carlson Oil Company
Inc) netted about US$3.87 billion as profit from lifting 40% of Nigerian crude
in ten years, the House of Representatives and the Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation (NNPC) confirmed, that none of the three companies has paid a kobo
in tax to the Nigerian Government since 1999,” it stated.
The
2009 Ndudi Elumelu-led House of Representatives probe of the US$16 billion
spent on the power sector had concluded that “several contracts were found to
have been awarded to people who did not know what to do in the first place
while millions of dollars were paid up front. In many cases, the contractors
didn’t even know the construction sites.”
The
panel report soon sparked controversy across the land and another
panel was set up to probe the report.
Similarly,
the House of Reps panel that probed the Global Economic Meltdown and
Depreciation of the Naira in 2009 concluded that “the
nation’s economic managers had been economical with the truth,” and that
the global turmoil was affecting Nigeria’s economy in the areas of capital
flight, exchange rate of the naira, upward pressure on inflation and dwindling
foreign reserves.
There
was also the House probe of ‘Untold hardship of Nigerians in various
deportation camps in Libya.’ It asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to
“urgently facilitate the deportation of affected Nigerians in Libya while
demanding more humane treatment of Nigerians by the Libyan authorities.”
Many
Nigerians remained in Libya only for their conditions to worsen following the
chaos that gripped that country after the murder of President Muammar Ghadaffi
in 2011.
Some
of the House of Representatives 2009 probes which inexplicably ended without a
single page of report include those on the ‘Sudden and
mysterious disappearance of Mr. Jude Onunze from the custody of Nigeria Police
Force at Kuje Station, Abuja’; ‘Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU)
Nationwide strike vis-à-vis its Implication on the Society’; ‘Indiscriminate
Displacement of Skilled Nigerians by Foreign Companies Based in Nigeria’, and;
a probe of ‘Security Situation in Anambra State’.
Its
2009 probe of ‘Nigeria’s Return to Foreign Debts Burden’ following a US$195
million World Bank loan that took the country’s external debt stock to US$3.7billion
condemned the process as “dubious, shady and corrupt.”
A
probe of ‘Female National Youth Service Corps member (NYSC) raped to death’
prompted the House to demand the conferment of post-humous national honours on
Miss Grace Adie Ushang, who lost her life while serving in Borno State but this
never happened and the police later revealed that her killers were apprehended
but released because the state has no law for conviction on such cases.
At
the Senate, the 2009 Transport Sector Probe headed by Senator Heineken
Lokpobiri found that the Minister of Works had a budget of ₦300billion
in four years but could not fix Nigerian roads properly.
Senators
threw the report of the Sylvester Anyanwu-led ‘Probe of Incessant Drop Calls by
GSM Providers’ back at the panel which continued to invite GSM providers until
it was eventually dissolved.
A
2011 Senate probe on ‘Investigation of the Privatization and Commercialization
Activities of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) from 1999 to Date’ made 45
recommendations that highlighted shady deals but no one was sanctioned.
The
Senate’s 2011 ‘Probe of Oil Subsidy Expenditure’ named several beneficiaries of
an opaque system whereby the NNPC paid itself ₦847.94 billion even after
it had been paid ₦844.94 billion by the Petroleum Products Pricing and
Regulatory Agency.
The
Senate’s ‘Malabu Oil Field Transaction Probe’ of 2012 concluded its activities
without issuing a single page report.
In
2012, the House of Representatives’ Committee on Environment which
investigated the Bonga Oil Spill’ found several cases of flagrant abuse
of the extant environmental laws, but was unable to get any relief materials
for those affected and ended up without making any report of its activities
available.
In
2012, the ‘Probe of Petroleum Product Fuel Subsidy Administration’
led by the House of Representatives’ member
Farouk Lawan recommended that 72 firms should refund ₦1.7bn
within three months and that the EFCC should investigate and prosecute
culprits.
Before
Lawan himself was cited in an alleged bribe scandal, his Committee recommended
a mere reprimand for the former PDP National Chairman, Dr. Ahmadu Ali, who was
the chairman of the PPPRA from 2009 to 2011, and other members of the board
during the period, for allegedly opening “the floodgate of the (subsidy)
bazaar”.
The
House Finance Committee’s ‘Probe of remittances by Ministries, Departments and
Agencies (MDA)’ uncovered a ₦2 trillion fraud in the executive after an
investigation into the revenue generation and remittance of 60 ministries,
departments and agencies of government which showed that top heads of
ministries, departments and agencies of government generate revenue from their
agency’s activities running into trillions of naira but under-declared such
revenue while diverting the remaining for other use.
The
House of Representatives’ 2012 ‘Capital Market/Security and Exchange Commission
(SEC)’ probe was dismissed after its chairman, Herman Hembe, was accused of
demanding ₦44m bribe and a new panel recommended the removal of Ms.
Arunma Oteh who remained at her post long afterwards.
In
2013, the House’s ‘Public Investigative Hearing to Unravel the Status of All
Assets Seized and Recovered by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC) Since Inception’ looked into allegations that some ₦2
trillion assets confiscated by the EFCC were being wasted and unlawfully
repossessed.
Its
‘Probe into the Aviation Ministry over a ₦9 billion contract
(including SURE-P and the Ministry of Works)’ found out much about the award of
contracts running into billions of naira that were paid for without execution.
Also,
its ‘Probe of the Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Malam Bala
Mohammed over alleged land swap deals’ found that the Federal Government had
not fulfilled its promise of compensating 854 indigenous communities of the FCT
37 years after their land was taken.
No
sanction was visited on anyone and the indigenous communities’ situation
remains the same.
Other
2014 probe activities include the House’s ‘Probe of ₦29
billion Police Pension Funds’; Senate’s Investigation into allegation of
missing US$49.8 billion in the account of Nigeria National Petroleum
Corporation (NNPC) by former Governor of Central Bank (CBN), Mallam Sanusi
Lamido Sanusi; the House’ inconclusive ‘Investigation of financial recklessness
levelled against the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani
Alison-Madueke’; probe of ‘NIS Recruitment Tragedy’, and; the
‘Investigative Public Hearing on Supply, Distribution, Expenditure and Subsidy
on Kerosene’.
The
lack of sanctions or deterrence has made the numerous probes to look like mere
formalities as the problems they sought to end have remained.
NILS
which copied the bulky report came into being in March 2011 when President
Goodluck Jonathan signed the NILS ACT 2011 into law following the passage of
the same by the Senate and the House of Representatives.
It
made no recommendations on its study of the probes at the NASS
PROBES CONDUCTED BY THE
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY SINCE 1999
2008
*
On March 12, Senate probe of the Ministry of the Federal Capital Territory from
1999 to
2007
*
The Senate Committee on Aviation probe of the ₦19.5 billion Safe Tower
Project
*
Senate Probe on Food Crisis in Nigeria
*
House of Representatives probe of a former GMD of NNPC over alleged wastage of
over
N2
billion on hotel accommodations in less than four years.
*
Anther probe and public hearing on Operations of the NNPC and its subsidiaries
from
1999 to 2007
2009
*
Ndudi Elumelu-led House of Representatives probe of the US$16 billion spent on
the power
sector
*
The House of Reps panel probed the Global Economic Meltdown and Depreciation of
the
Naira
*
The House again probed of ‘Untold hardship of Nigerians in various deportation
camps
in
Libya.’
*
Probe of the ‘Sudden and mysterious disappearance of Mr. Jude Onunze from the
custody
of
Nigeria Police Force at Kuje Station, Abuja’
*
Probe of the ‘Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) Nationwide strike
vis-à-vis its
Implication
on the Society’;
*
‘Indiscriminate Displacement of Skilled Nigerians by Foreign Companies Based in
Nigeria’
*
Probe of ‘Security Situation in Anambra State’
*
Probe of ‘Nigeria’s Return to Foreign Debts Burden’
*
A probe of ‘Female National Youth Service Corps member (NYSC) raped to death’
(in
Borno State)
*
Transport Sector Probe headed by Senator Heineken Lokpobiri
*
‘Probe of Incessant Drop Calls by GSM Providers’
2011
*
Probe on ‘Investigation of the Privatization and Commercialization Activities
of the
Bureau
of Public Enterprises (BPE) from 1999 to Date’
*
The Senate’s ‘Probe of Oil Subsidy Expenditure’
2012
*
Senate’s ‘Malabu Oil Field Transaction Probe’
*
House of Representatives’ Committee on Environment investigated the Bonga Oil
Spill’
*
House of Reps ‘Probe of Petroleum Product Fuel Subsidy Administration’ led
by
Farouk Lawan
*
The House Finance Committee’s ‘Probe of remittances by Ministries, Departments
and
Agencies (MDA)’
*
The House of Representatives ‘Capital Market/Security and Exchange Commission
(SEC)’
probe
2013
*
The House’s ‘Public Investigative Hearing to Unravel the Status of All Assets
Seized and
Recovered
by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Since Inception’
*
‘Probe into the Aviation Ministry over a ₦9 billion contract
(including SURE-P and
the
Ministry of Works)’
*
‘Probe of the Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Malam Bala Mohammed
over
alleged land swap deals’
2014
*
The House ‘Probe of ₦29 billion Police Pension Funds’ *Senate’s Investigation into
allegation
of missing US$49.8 billion in the account of Nigeria National Petroleum
Corporation
(NNPC)
*
The House ‘Investigation of financial recklessness levelled against the
Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke’
*
Probe of ‘NIS Recruitment Tragedy’
* The ‘Investigative Public
Hearing on Supply, Distribution, Expenditure and Subsidy on Kerosene’.
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