Editorial Suite

Sun, Nov 25, 2012 | By publisher


Editorial Suite

MUCH is being expected of the federal government’s proposed reforms of the oil sector. This is because Nigerians are getting increasingly tired of the inefficiency in the sector which has fuelled corruption and ineptitude. Much of the rot in the sector has been exposed in the report of the Petroleum Revenue Special Task Force, which discovered that the NNPC was being used a conduit pipe by different administrations in the country. For instance, the federal government asked the NNPC to give loans of N798.6 million to the Bureau of Public Enterprises, BPE, and N700.5 million to Sao Tome and Principe. At the instance of the federal government, the NNPC bought a presidential chopper at a cost of N2.2230 billion and paid N2.42 billion to Royal Swaziland Sugar Company; N11.466 billion to the federal ministry of science;  N128.9 million to the federal ministry of technology and wind energy etc. It also paid for sponsorship of the World Cup to the tune of N866.2 million, and more than N250 million in legal expenses for the ministry of petroleum resources. All these runs are not exactly the function NNPC should be playing if it has to catch up with its peers globally. As a matter of fact, when compared with other national oil companies in Malaysia, Brazil and Norway, NNPC comes last in all the indices used for measurement by the Special Taskforce on Corporate Governance and Control in NNPC and Other Parastatals. What the report of the taskforce reveals is precisely what makes NNPC weak and ineffective compared to its peers globally. The taskforce has made wide ranging recommendations to reform and transform not only the NNPC but also other parastatals in the oil and gas sector. But the question is will the government of President Goodluck Jonathan have the political will to implement the recommendations of the committee? Or will the report gather dust in one of the government shelves. We decided to keep the government on its toes by letting the public know precisely the exclusive details of the report which is the crux of our cover story entitled: “Oil Sector Reform: Can President Jonathan Implement It”. It was written by Maureen Chigbo, editor.

Maureen Chigbo
Editor

 

— Dec. 2, 2012 @ 12:11 GMT

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