Seeks scrapping of NNPC, Apapa Port
Former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) and Founding Partner of Olisa Agbakoba Legal (OAL), Olisa Agbakoba (SAN), has advocated the need to ensure that Section 162 (1) of the Constitution, which focuses on fiscal policy reform, is fully implemented.

Agbakoba, in a policy paper yesterday, said: “Section 162 (1) of the Constitution provides as follows: ‘The Federation shall maintain a special account to be called the Federation Account into which shall be paid all revenues collected by the Government of the Federation.’ This is the law, but it is not being followed.”

He recalled that former Finance Minister, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, during her tenure, created the Treasury Single Account (TSA) to consolidate government revenues.

“It was a well-intentioned reform. But the Treasury Single Account is not Section 162. It was introduced by executive directive, not by law, and it does not have the constitutional force that Section 162 carries. Leakages have continued. By current estimates, Nigeria is losing up to N20 trillion every year in revenues that should be entering the Federation Account but never arrive,” he said.

The legal luminary, however, recommended that the solution lies in fully implementing Section 162 by amending the Constitution to make its obligations clear, binding, and enforceable.

“All revenues accruing to the federation shall be paid into the federation account in gross, and no deductions, costs, charges, or offsets of any nature shall be made prior to such payment.

“All costs and expenditures relating to the generation of such revenues shall be appropriated by the National Assembly and disbursed only after remittance into the Federation Account. No executive instrument, administrative direction, or government policy shall establish or maintain any account as a substitute for or equivalent to the Federation Account established by this section.”

He said that if the amendment is passed and enforced, it would address leakages at the source.

Agbakoba further stated that fiscal reform must become a key election issue in 2027.

He said politicians today are indifferent to the escalating rate of poverty.

The legal luminary, who described the Apapa Port as “technically dead,” adding that the N1 billion reportedly borrowed to revamp it was a waste, questioned the level of voter awareness in Nigeria.

According to him, how many Nigerian voters truly understand why they are voting, who they are voting for, and the nature of the democracy being practised?

“Not all Nigerians have the intellectual capacity to vote,” he added, while also questioning whether democracy, as currently practised, is suitable for African societies.

Agbakoba also called for the scrapping of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC), saying: “The Corporation is effectively dead. The government should list it on the stock market and reduce it to a Plc.

“NNPCL today is more powerful than the Nigerian government.”