Go after subsidy cabal, fight corruption

When the news went out last Monday that President Bola Tinubu was to address the country, citizens’ expectations went very high. The removal of fuel subsidy had caused a huge dislocation to businesses and personal finances, such that in two months the burden had become unbearable. The people were hopeful that the anguish in the land had reached the ears of persons in high places and was about to yield a significant change of heart. Many expected to hear that the pain on their necks would be lessened with immediate effect to enable them breathe again.

But the president postponed their collective hope. Instead, he regaled fellow Nigerians with old and boring tale of a thieving elite that is responsible for the subsidy scam Nigerians are now paying for. And there was nothing government could do to punish the scammers, except to transfer the burden to Nigerians. As far as the President was concerned, it’s well and good so long as government cornered more revenues to power the bureaucracy. The people can make do with painkillers for now.

It’s not that citizens are not aware of an elite leeching on the economy. It was because of the elite that Nigerians embraced Tinubu’s All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2015, the platform they promised would set the people free. We were told then that pro-poor and ascetic Muhammadu Buhari would fight the elite with his well-advertised incorruptible armour.

One of their major promises was to dismantle the corruption in the oil and gas sector. They were very certain that subsidy, which the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) used billions of taxpayers’ resources to offset did not exist, it was all a scam, they said. But under Buhari, subsidy payments ballooned so high that the economy became comatose.

Last week, President Tinubu told Nigerians that the elite spongers were still alive. Buhari could not bring them to book and he doesn’t want to fight them either, so they don’t fight back. But the pockets of poor Nigerians can pay for the hole the scammers dig in the economy.

Hear him: “Thus, the defects in our economy immensely profited tiny elite, the elite of the elite you might call them. As we moved to fight the flaws in the economy, the people who grow rich from them, predictably, will fight back through every means necessary.”

Let’s remind ourselves that way back in August 2011, the administration of Goodluck Jonathan, through a Presidential Committee unveiled 21 oil marketers that fraudulently collected N383 billion for subsidy payments they did not earn in that year. The Presidential Committee did not disclose the identities of the marketers, it promised to recover the sums and then follow up with prosecution of erring firms.

Also, former Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, had revealed that some oil marketers had claimed N40 billion from government through fraudulent means, yet, they did not supply one litre of fuel. The names and identities of the oil marketers and those who fronted for them were listed, along with the amounts they stole, some N10 billion, N6.23 billion, N2.948 billion, N2 billion etc. They were not faceless. Those who unveiled the tiny elite did not fidget that they would fight back. In fact, prosecution had commenced in some but had been in limbo largely, with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) becoming lukewarm. Some had gone on interlocutory appeal to stall trial perpetually.

Unfortunately, some have joined politics and have become legislators; others fund political activities from a distance and have bought immunity for themselves from prosecution.

We couldn’t also have forgotten that way back in 2012, there was an attempt by the House of Representatives to investigate suspected firms and owners who collected fuel subsidy payments fraudulently. Unfortunately, the usual transactional manner matters are conducted in the legislature frustrated that opportunity. They begin by cajoling us to believe that they mean business, to arrest citizens’ attention, only to turn cold and nothing serious is achieved. But in that particular episode, the hunter, one Farouk Lawan became the one who was hounded into jail.

Without doing a detailed job, the House of Representatives had claimed that 69 oil firms got paid trillions of naira for subsidy, and Lawan, Chairman of the Committee, was not well guided in that assignment. It turned out that the Committee had nefarious plans to use the probe for other untoward purposes. He reportedly paid an unwholesome visit to billionaire businessman and founder of Zenon Oil and Gas Ltd, Femi Otedola, where he (Lawan) was captured in a bribe-taking sting operation.

The Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) took up the matter and got Lawan jailed after seven years of trial. It was Lawan, the petit character in the House with a piercing tiny voice that went to jail, not the subsidy racketeers. Yes, corruption did fight back.

The point is that back in 2012, the war against corruption in oil and gas had been waged. And it was not as gloomy and helpless as President Tinubu attempted to paint last week of an unreachable tiny elite. It’s deceptive and cowardly for the Federal Government to incapacitate itself because of a few extortionists, to the detriment of the larger, toiling population. The action of this government amounts to digging a hole to fill another. Citizens are now the ones subsidising petrol and cushioning the devalued naira at the same time. Let NNPC tell us what the landing cost of PMS is as of today, then we do the mathematics.

It is not that the subsidy elite Tinubu painted as being ghostly are really faceless. They are known but the political will to go after them is what is lacking. Instead, government finds it easier to go after citizens, to inflict economic woes on them.

To stretch the argument, beginning from 2017, the NNPC had announced itself as sole importer of PMS. At that time oil marketers, most of them downstream operators who used to partner NNPC to import fuel decided that it was no longer profitable for them due to shortage of forex and inability to sell above N145 per litre. They also complained of increased crude prices in the international market.

Since then NNPC has been the sole importer of refined petrol, a development the Corporation confessed was doable due to its Direct Sales Direct Purchase (DSDP)scheme. If that been the case for the past seven years, is it the NNPC Mr. President was referring to as the “small, powerful, yet unelected groups holding enormous influence over our political economy and the institutions that govern it?” Is NNPCL the elite that President Tinubu is afraid to confront, or the companies NNPC contracts to import on its behalf?

We got evidence of this aspect where the sole importer also contracts others to import on its behalf in February 2022, when the NNPCL listed four oil firms that imported bad fuel into the country. So, they are not faceless. Go after them.

In 2022, the House of Representatives, in another attempt to be seen chasing thieves listed 23 oil firms for subsidy investigation from 2013 to 2021, but with a claim that it does not know the profiles of the companies trading oil in the country. Jokers!

The Chairman of the committee assigned to do that job, Ibrahim Aliyu, had told the House that the companies had questions to answer and then applied to the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) to have profiles of the companies. The CAC said there were no details on the firms. That rested the matter for the 9th Assembly. Hopefully, the 10th Assembly will summon courage to help President Tinubu expose the oil thieves, in case he still pretends not to know them.

What was grossly missing in the President’s speech was a clear determination to tackle corruption. For two months now, Mr. President is yet to unveil his blueprint on corruption. A coalition of civil society groups had requested for a clear blueprint to strengthen the fight. They are worried that the same gaps, which rendered Buhari’s anti-corruption regime ineffective, are still at play.

In 2015, when Buhari was asked how he would deal with corruption, knowing that the coalition that brought him was infested with corrupt politicians, he said he would draw a line between the past and the present. It was that vagueness that characterised his regime. He never drew any line; instead, he welcomed all manner of persons that were notorious for thievery in their former party.
For President Tinubu, he is by far smarter than that. If he wants to deal with corruption, he knows how, unless there are some commitments he cannot abandon yet. But that could make a mockery of his efforts.

Take for instance,the case of the suspended Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, why unleash the DSS to muddle the game when the President, himself an auditor, knows of better ways to investigate an institution?

Having appointed an investigator in the person of the Chief Executive Officer of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria, Jim Obazee, Mr. President should appoint one or two globally reputed auditing firms to join in that exercise. Nigerians cannot trust a closet investigation of the CBN. Let it be a transparent exercise if we want to fight corruption.

Let the detained former EFCC Chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa, be taken to court and his offences transparently tabled. Let him defend himself. Picking and choosing which personality to go after and which ones to protect cannot help the fight. It will not earn this administration the trust it needs very urgently especially in the area of integrity.
What is good for the CBN is good for the NNPCL and the refineries.