Nigeria’s oil wealth woes

Niger State Governor and Chairman, Northern Governors’ Forum, NGF, Dr. Babangida Aliyu, yesterday accused the Federal Government of lacking in transparency in the handling of crude oil earnings. He also faulted the government for the absence of accurate data on the daily production of crude oil in the country.

In a lead presentation at the Leadership newspapers’ Annual Lecture and Awards ceremony in Abuja, Aliyu said that despite the enormous resources generated from the oil sector, the country had nothing significant to show for it.

He said: “Despite the enormous resources generated from the oil sector, no accurate data is available to present daily production of crude in the country.

“This has led to corruption and negative twist in the economic fortunes of the country as only a few who control the monopoly siphon our commonwealth.

“The exact figures are only known to the people involved as transparency is limited. “Instead of economic gains for the ordinary Nigerians, crude oil discovery in Nigeria appears to be more of a problem, as it has killed agriculture which was the mainstay of our economy.”

On the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, currently before the National Assembly, the governor said: “Do we deserve the kind of tension, apprehension and anxiety that follows some national issues in the country? Why should politics of revenue generation and sharing or the PIB generate so much passion in this country today? “This is happening because of our penchant for cake sharing rather than cake baking and lack of confidence by the citizens in the process and motives behind some of the policies.”

Speaking on the spate of terrorist attack by Islamic insurgents in the North, Aliyu maintained that there is no compulsion in Islam, arguing that a person can be persuaded to convert to Islam through actions but not to the point of saying the person must convert.

He insisted that members of the Boko Haram sect do not represent Islam, do not know and fight for the religion, stressing that members of the sect engaged in things that were anti-Islam.

The governor said: “We must tackle unemployment or we must be ready to tackle one security challenge after another. “If we do not solve actual problems on ground, then another group will succeed them.

We must arrest that situation in rebuilding our country.” Also speaking at the event, Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, John Cardinal Onaiyekan, urged the Federal Government to take its fight against corruption more seriously.

He said Nigeria could only record meaningful development if the government tackles malfeasance and general insecurity in the country.

“Two of the obstacles before us which we must resolutely confront are corruption and insecurity. When we talk about corruption, I’m not talking about small bribes, but big, legal and official corruption in high places.

“What is needed in Nigeria is radical renovation of the country. “We are hearing of billions of dollars being stolen. The people of Nigeria are being deprived of their belongings. “It is no longer a rumour that our monies are being stolen.

This stealing must stop. No more cover up or pretence. Stolen resources must be recovered and put back in the places where they’ve been taken from. We should pardon our thieves, but they must return the loot,” he said.

Onaiyekan, however, noted that there were no signs to suggest that the nation was on the verge of disintegration. He said: “I see a failed state in Somalia and I can’t say that about my country.

We still have time to make amends and we can still hold on.” National leader of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, advised that the country should revert to the first national anthem it had before independence, stressing that “the anthem represents what the country stands for.”

“Let’s go back to our first national anthem we had at independence. All we are talking about is to serve the nation. Let’s make the effort to go back to that national anthem.

Let’s sing it from the heart and not from the tone,” he said. Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha also advised the leaders to solve the challenge posed by the Boko Haram Islamic sect and stop what he called cynical blames over the challenge. He said that the current bloodletting in the country had surpassed what obtained during the civil war.

Okorocha, however, cautioned that this was not a time to point accusing fingers or engage in “pointing cynical blame of responsibility.”

He insisted that the problem of the nation lies in leadership and had nothing to do with followership