ABUJA—The Federal Government, yesterday, attributed
the delay in moving against the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC,
to efforts being made to establish the magnitude of fraud and inefficiencies in
the corporation and in the oil and gas industry over the last couple of years.
Speaking in an interview on the Nigerian Television
Authority, NTA’s, ‘Good Morning Nigeria,’ programme, President Muhammadu Buhari
disclosed that the government was already working with some individuals that
are helping it to track the destination of stolen crude oil and the accounts
the proceeds were paid into.
He also reassured during the interview that only
patriotic, decent and experienced Nigerians would be appointed as ministers in
his government even as he lamented the state of the Air Force, which according
to him could not support ground troops in the fight against Boko Haram terrorists
due to lack of serviceable equipment.buhari
He said: “Frankly, I read the stories too that I
intend to break up the NNPC. I think the best way to go about it is to
establish the fact of the magnitude of the inefficient way the NNPC conducted
itself. When we do that we will be on a higher moral ground to carry out
whatever recommendations that have been made to us.”
He maintained that the NNPC has lost track of the
number of accounts it had, adding that the government was discreetly working
with some Nigerians to ensure that perpetrators of fraud in the oil and gas
sector were brought to book.
“We have to maintain high confidentiality so that we
do not put at risk some of the Nigerians that are helping us to trace some of
the destinations of this stolen crude and then the accounts where they are
being paid into instead of the Federal Government account.
“I do not think the NNPC knows how many accounts are
outside there, which payments are being made for Nigerian crude which is really
an outright theft. The money we want to intercept which have been going on for
a number of years, a lot of Nigerians will not comprehend,” he explained.
Offshore processing agreements
Buhari lamented the fact that the crude oil swap
programme and offshore processing agreements, OPA, have over the years been
used to defraud the country, stating also that a number of operators in the oil
and gas industry displayed lack of conscience and love for the country.
He said: “These individuals have refineries all over
the world. The swapping is tied into a major killing ground for corrupt
officials with an average evil to loot the country’s crude, work out how much
they can bring back to us, and we pay for the transportation and for the
refining.
‘The swapping programme is such a dishonest way
through which Nigeria is consistently losing on daily basis, millions of
dollars. I think the people who have been operating in the industry, a lot of
them have displayed lack of conscience and patriotism, and only God knows the
amount of damage their actions have inflicted on Nigeria.”
He expressed optimism that the United States and
other European countries are willing to cooperate with Nigeria in repatriating
funds that are proceeds of corruption and stolen crude.
However, he stated that the Federal Government is
working to ensure that it complied with the laws of these countries and provide
them with the needed documents that will help expedite the repatriation.
He said: “These countries are willing. I have also
said that we have to comply with their system; that we have to get the
documents, especially the shipping documents, and how we load from our
terminals, their destinations. It is important to note that some of them change
the crude and the destinations in the high seas and then change the account it
needs to be paid into. Instead of the Federal Government account, they are paid
into individual accounts.
“The cooperation we need is that once we get hold of
the shipping documents and we are lucky to trace them out to the countries
where they sold the crude and which account it goes into and we submit the
evidence in terms of loading, in terms of payments being paid into accounts
other than the Federal Government account.
“Once we do that, we are very willing to make sure
that those accounts are frozen and the money repatriated to Nigeria. It is not
an easy process, but I assure you that we are working very hard. We cannot say
that we wait until everything is intact before we let you know. Whatever we are
able to get in the following months or a couple of months, we will bring it out
for Nigerians to know, with facts in our hands and prosecution started against
those who perpetrated the unpatriotic action against Nigeria for so many
years.”
Appointment of ministers
On the appointment of ministers, President Buhari
reassured that only patriotic, decent and experienced Nigerians would be
appointed as ministers in his government.
He said: “From what I have seen so far, we need
really patriotic Nigerians — Nigerians that can work very hard, knowledgeable,
experienced and committed Nigerians to be in charge of ministries.
“A lot of the institutions of Nigeria — important
institutions were compromised. Everybody was for himself and God for all of us;
it’s most unfortunate.
“We have the people, educated people, experienced
people but everybody seemed to be working for himself — how much he could get
as quickly as possible.
“We have to look for technocrats and we have to look
for politicians and certainly we have to look for decent people in these
classes to give them the responsibility of being in charge of ministries and
important parastatals (agencies).”
Air Force
Lamenting the state of the Air Force, Buhari said,
“Our case is lack of capacity and effective Air Force. We don’t have trained
personnel. The Air Force is virtually non-existent. The fixed-wing aircraft are
not very serviceable. The helicopters are not serviceable and they are too few.
We need the Air Force to conduct reconnaissance and
support the ground troops. The arrangement made by the former government will
soon expire. We have made this clear to the Americans and we have made it clear
to G7 and we need their cooperation.”
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