A new report on Thursday said despite President Muhammadu Buhari’s attempt at ensuring transparency in the oil sector, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, still withholds billions in oil revenues from the government account.
The report by the Natural Resource Governance Institute, titled “NNPC still holds blank check” said that within the first six months of the Buhari administration, the NNPC withheld over $4.2 billion (about N824.7 billion) out of a total of $6.3 billion (N1.24 trillion) revenues realised from crude oil sales in the second half of 2015.
The withheld revenues represented about 66 per cent of the total revenue – $1.4 billion earnings from Nigeria’s regular crude oil exports for the period; $3.4 billion from domestic crude oil sales, and $1.5 billion from oil sold from the corporation’s upstream subsidiary, the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, NPDC oil fields.
The report said only $2.1 billion (about N413.7 billion) was transferred to the Federation Account.
This is a shocking report questioning the incorruptible image of President Buhari and a big dent on his integrity. But the person to query is Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, the Minister of State, Petroleum Resources and immediate past Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). He must prove that he is not incompetent.
If President Buhari cannot slay the dragon of corruption in the NNPC, he cannot save Nigeria from the captivity of corruption.
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