The President
Dr. Goodluck Jonathan has constituted a committee to review and reconcile
subsidy payments. The subsidy regime under the watch of the present administration
has been one of the most controversial issues that has affected Nigerians. The appropriated
sum for subsidy stood at N245billion for year 2011, somehow, the figure managed
to scale the fence and settled at N2.6trillion.
With the
government insisting on the need to withdraw subsidy following the
unsustainable pattern of paying more than the budgeted sums in the name of
subsidy, Nigerians began protesting the move not because they were in support
of paying sums higher than budgeted but because the burden of paying more for
fuel in a depressing economy like Nigeria was too cumbersome. Rather than empathise
with hapless Nigerians, the regime chose otherwise.
Farouk Lawan’s
ad hoc committee revealed among other things that the subsidy regime was
fraught with sleaze and intent by the government to mislead the populace. It revealed
also that some companies were guilty of receiving payments running into
millions of dollars. The aftermath of his revelation however, turned sour when
it came to public knowledge that Farouk Lawan had received sums in foreign
currency from Chief Otedola to delist his company from the indictment list.
Despite the
drama of the subsidy withdrawal, strike and protests, committee investigation
and reports, the drama of indictments, it appears there will be no end in sight
to the nagging issue with this latest committee set up by the president. The supervising
minister for the economy had recently revealed that about N451billion was paid
for subsidy arrears for the first quarter of this year as against the
appropriated sum of N232billion. What is wrong with governmental control on
financial disbursements? It is rather amusing that the ministry of finance,
Central Bank, Office of the Budget and all other federal agencies that are
concerned with finance in Nigeria are not enough to review and reconcile the
subsidy payments. It is worse that they cannot project properly or prevent an
escalation of appropriated spending.
The president
is showing remarkable faithlessness in his administration by setting up this
committee. Why else does he need this committee? There is apparently a distrust
by the president of key members of his cabinet or is one of his initial
cluelessness making a return? There are several idle persons in the presidency
that can critically assess the subsidy fraud even before the government went
ahead to withdraw subsidy. All of these drama could have been avoided, the
parties culpable prosecuted and Nigerians happy in the end. Instead we got the
worst possible deal, the government without thorough consideration, withdrew
subsidy, and suffered the ignominy of civil disobedience.
There is
obviously a lack of direction being shown by this move to engage a new committee whose membership will include the
Director General, Debt Management Office (DMO), Abraham Nwankwo; Group
Executive Director (GED) - Finance & Accounts of the Nigerian National
petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Bernard, and Mrs. Oyinye Ahuchogu of
the Central bank of Nigeria (CBN), and Managing Director, Stanbic/IBTC, Mrs.
Sola David-Borha, representing the Banking Community.
Also named in the committee include the National Secretary, Independent
Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Mike Osatuyi, the Executive
Secretary, Major Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN), Obafemi Olawore;
Accountant-General of the Federation, Jonah Otunla; Director General, Budget
Office of the Federation, Bright Okogwu; Executive Secretary, Petroleum
Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), Reginald Stanley, and Mrs. Aisha
Waziri-Umar as well as Jalal Arabi.
The Attorney-General of the Federation, Mohammed Adoke, the
Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, and the Director-General of the
State Security Service, Ita Ekpeyong, would also be represented on the
Committee. The committee will be led by Access Bank
Plc, Aigboje Imuokhuede.
On a lighter
note, the US President, Barak Obama had called the Nigerian president to
complain. “Your government has set up more committees than necessary, Obama began,
“here in the US and I’m sure in other countries, there are not so many committees
for so many purposes. “I think you should do something about it” the president
advised. The Nigerian president pondered over it for an instant and proclaimed
vehemently to Mr. Obama, “we will look at the matter and then we will set up a
committee to investigate the matter after which we will set up another
committee to review the recommendation of the first committee.”
For every
issue that arises in Nigeria today, a committee is set up, there is no need to
number them and then they begin to work. What is striking however, is that
their works are almost hardly ever implemented. Just what does our president
and his cabinet do? Just what are the ministries and departments of government
doing?
With all the
drama that has taken place in the subsidy regime, Nigerians see this latest committee
setup as an attempt to distract them from the issues: Nigerians are disappointed
in a regime that could not on its own detect that fraud was ongoing under its
watch, that when they did point out the fraud to the government it (government)
took no time to listen to it (the people) in this age of popularism. Instead,
the government popularly elected went ahead to inflict hardship on them and
when another arm of government would investigate and find out the fraud, the
government drags its feet and then begin to set up another committee to review
and reconcile subsidy payments.
This is all amateurish
leadership. When Nigerians on the 16th of April lined up to chose Dr. Goodluck
Ebele Jonathan, they hoped for a man who could stand and provide leadership
that they lacked. They have since realised that the man they elected would
rather set up committees. Sadly, that is the reality; we have a regime on our
hands that has no ability to do anything other than set up committees. Can somebody
please ask the president: your Excellency, how many more committees will we
have?
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