President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday expressed great disappointment
with the way Nigeria’s oil industry has been run since he left office as
Petroleum Minister and Military Head of State in 1985.
He said those who ruled the country between then and now allowed
infrastructure, such as the nation’s refineries, to collapse in order to
give their cronies the leeway to steal by importing refined petroleum
products.
According to a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and
Publicity, Garba Shehu, the President spoke during a meeting he had with
a delegation of the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal
Commission at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Those who have ruled the country between 1985 and now are Gen. Ibrahim
Babangida (retd.); Chief Ernest Shonekan; late Gen. Sani Abacha; Gen.
Abdusalami Abubakar; Chief Olusegun Obasanjo; late President Umar
Yar’Adua and former President Goodluck Jonathan.
Buhari blamed these past administrations for the current situation in
which Nigeria is forced to spend billions of Naira annually on alleged
subsidies for petroleum products.
He said the increase in petroleum subsidy payments over recent years was
due to the deliberate neglect of the nation’s refineries, oil pipelines
and other related infrastructure to allow the importation of petroleum
products and corruption to thrive.
He said he was convinced that if the development of the country’s
domestic refining capacity and petroleum products distribution network
had kept pace with national demand, there would not have been any need
for the huge subsidies currently being paid to importers.
“They (past administrations) allowed the infrastructure to collapse so
that their cronies can steal by bringing in refined products from
overseas,” Shehu quoted the President as saying.
He therefore urged the chairman and members of the RMAFC, who availed
him of their view on petroleum subsidy payments, to go back to the
drawing board and come up with more humane proposals to rescue ordinary
Nigerians from what he described as the “wicked manipulation” of the
country’s oil industry by corrupt operators.
The President also warned that severe sanctions would be visited on any
individual or organisation that violates his directive on the payment of
all national revenue into the Federation Account.
The President said that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, the
Nigerian Ports Authority and other MDAs which previously relied on the
laws establishing them to retain all or part of revenues collected by
them, did so illegally and must now comply with the Nigerian
Constitution by paying all revenues to the Federation Account.
Buhari was also said to have chided the RMAFC for approving what he
called “excessive remunerations” for some political office holders.
He therefore urged the delegation to seek a proper interpretation of the
commission’s powers and address the public outcry against the
unreasonably high payments.
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