When the Farouk Lawan-led House of Representatives ad hoc committee that investigated the 2009-2011 fuel subsidy payouts submitted its report to the House for deliberation, debate and consideration on April 18, 2012, Nigerians were saddened by the extent of rot uncovered.
At the same time, they were very pleased with the mind-boggling revelations that vindicated their long time belief that the subsidy regime operated in Nigeria’s downstream petroleum sub-sector was nothing but a scam.
Nigerians had always been aware that the fuel subsidy system was never transparent and was riddled with corrupt practices for ages. The quantum of revelations of what was going on in the management of the so-called Petroleum Support Fund (PSF) under the custody of the Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) – a statutory agency of the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources – merely attested to this. For example, the PPPRA figures for subsidy payout covering the five-year period 2006-2011 indicated that at the inception of the PSF in 2006, PPPRA paid N261.105 billion in subsidy covering both premium motor spirit (PMS) or petrol and kerosene (diesel and aviation fuels having been earlier deregulated). In 2007, the figure was N278.859 billion; and in 2008, it jumped to N630.571 billion. In 2009, the figure came down to N463.517 billion, and then rose to N673 billion in 2010. But by the end of December 2011, the subsidy payout peaked at a record of N2.59 trillion, according to the final figure computed by the ad hoc committee.
The committee, in the light of its findings, recommended full refund to the nation’s treasury of the sum of N1.06 trillion believed by it to be the amount wrongly or illegally paid to fuel importers/marketing firms and sundry beneficiaries of the subsidy largesse; further in-depth investigations into the role played by some key public office holders, private individuals and corporate entities involved in the alleged fuel subsidy scam, and their possible prosecution, among others. Indeed, the overwhelming majority of concerned Nigerians expressed support for the committee’s recommendations as amended and adopted by the full House of Representatives.
However, as soon as the report started receiving national and international acclaim, those not happy with it started working earnestly to discredit it in its entirety. That is to be expected, especially in a country where for a very long time, civility and rule of law have lost their basic meanings and respectability. But the most daring thing that came to public limelight that could further derail the implementation of the far-reaching recommendations of the ad hoc committee’s report is the sudden outcropping of bribery allegation to the tune of $620,000 against the erstwhile chairman and secretary of the committee, Farouk Lawan and Bernard Emenalo, respectively. The bribery saga emanated from self-confessed Femi Otedola, a very powerful and highly connected Nigerian oil mogul and owner of Zenon, one of the oligarch indigenous oil and gas companies. But whether or not all the machinations against the fuel subsidy report purportedly by the cabal behind the indicted fuel importing and marketing firms will succeed depends on the actions and/or inactions of the executive and judicial arms of government, respectively, as well as further actions and/or reactions of the Nigerian public.
The current Farouk-Otedola saga is not the first in the history of bribery and corruption in Nigeria since independence. It is, however, the one that would show whether or not Nigerians are really interested in and committed to fighting bribery and corruption in all facets of our national life. For example, not long ago, the nation witnessed a litany of corruption scandals, those involving state governors, ministers, permanent secretaries and directors, commissioners, local government chairmen, heads of parastatals and security outfits, etc. Yet, as serious as these record-making cases are, Nigeria is yet to record any landmark success in prosecuting indicted individuals and corporate entities. From the Siemens and Halliburton international bribery scandals, the Malabu Oil deal scandal, the power sector probe, the oil and gas sector probe, to the very recent capital market probe, no indicted individual Nigerian or corporate entity has been successfully prosecuted in the nation’s judicial system. Ironically, former governor of Delta State, James Ibori, who was discharged and acquitted by a court in Asaba, is serving a 13-year jail sentence in a British prison, having been convicted by a British court of stealing funds belonging to Delta State and laundering them to Britain and other European and Middle Eastern countries.
Therefore, how the fuel subsidy scam and the bribery scandal surrounding it are resolved would be a test case of whether or not Nigerian leaders at the executive, legislative and judicial levels have the political will to fight corruption in the country. The whole world is watching Nigeria to do the right and correct things – to at least address the culture of selective justice as well as impunity in looting public funds by the Nigerian ruling elites and their foreign collaborators.
