Government agencies involved in management of petroleum subsidy yesterday denied before the House Adhoc Committee on Fuel Subsidy Regime Monitoring, knowing the body responsible for the authorization of subsidy payment.
The Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Allison-Madueke had told the Adhoc Committee Tuesday that she could not say anything about who authorized the payment of subsidy since she was under oath.
Also the Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, had spoken in the same vein, claiming that as at the time she resumed in August, she could not certainly point at the body that authorized payment of subsidy.
Appearing before the committee yesterday, Constitutional lawyer, Olisa Agbakoba, attributed the deteriorating state of the economy to the failure of successive governments to implement various laws made to govern the system.
The Minister of Finance appearing again yesterday,, when asked by the Chairman of the Investigative Committee, Farouk Lawan, to explain the manner the NNPC made the subsidy deductions and who made the authorization, she gave same response given on Tuesday that she did not know .
The Chairman had also asked her why KPMG audit report was not being implemented, the Minister had told the committee that henceforth all leakages observed would be plugged by the Ministry of Finance.
Asked who registers importers that bring petrol into the country, Dr Okonjo-Iweala answered in the negative, saying her ministry was not in an way involved in the registration of importers or issued license to any company.
On Wednesday, the Executive Secretary of Petroleum Pricing Regulatory Agency, PPPRA, Mr Reginald Stanley, also said he was not in the know of who authorized subsidy deductions.
Group Managing Director of NNPC, Mr Austen Oniwon, had spoken in the same vein when he faced the panel.
The Director General, Budget, Mr Bright Okogwu, also evaded the question of who makes authorization for subsidy deductions as he simply said all leakages would be plugged henceforth.
Agbakoba blames failure of economy on successive govts
Agbakoba in his presentation, also alleged that the lacuna created by non-enforcement of existing laws exposed Nigeria to invasion and exploitation by some advanced nations of the world, which came to do business in the country.
The legal practitioner, in reacting to fuel subsidy removal, expressed doubts about the existence of any subsidy as being claimed by the Federal Government, insisting that there had not been any convincing evidences that subsidy existed.
Agbakoba, who was former President of Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, made these assertions yesterday while presenting a paper at the Farouk Lawan-led House Ad-hoc Committee set up to investigate the subsidy regime in Nigeria.
He also argued that while deregulation was a welcome global economic phenomenon, implementing the policy in isolation without taking care of other basic salient but very relevant issues in the system would be an effort in futility.
He expressed disappointment that the Nigerian government formed the habit of not patronising indigenous businessmen and professionals, lamenting that while government patronised multinational companies, they used the country’s money to develop their economies.
Noting the negative impact of allowing foreigners to dominate the nation’s business, Agbakoba observed that thousands of foreign ships come to Nigerian ports to do oil business, while the indigenous ship owners remained without serious economic activities.
This trend, he warned, must be reversed in the current effort to transform the economy; else, no meaningful achievement would be made in this direction.
He explained that the economy could not grow by mere rolling out economic policies by government that would not be judiciously implemented, but by empowering the people economically.
He said: “If we want to change our country, let us implement our laws. The economy will not grow by budgeting so much money. It will grow by government empowering our people.
“Why does our government still bank in foreign banks? Is anything wrong with our banks? Government has to promote Nigerian businesses. We have to love ourselves first.
“Mobil Oil Ltd is still importing foreign lawyers to write simple agreements. They still bring in foreign engineers while our people are here without jobs. Can you go to the United States or Britain and do that. Of course they will not allow you to do that.”
Consequently, the legal luminary implored the lawmakers to pass a law that would protect Nigerians by giving them preferential treatment in business transactions with Nigerian government over their foreign competitors doing business in the country..
He also urged the Federal Government to implement the Cabotage Act, which was put to abeyance since its passage by the National Assembly and assented to by President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Agbakoba pointed out that when implemented, the law would transform the maritime sector and make it contribute substantial revenue to the economy.
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