The two chambers of the
National Assembly have conducted no fewer than 52 probes between them in the
last 16 years, according to a report compiled by the National Institute for
Legislative Studies (NILS).
The probes covered
government agencies/parastatals, alleged corruption and diverse issues.
But investigation by
The Nation shows that many of the issues so probed remain largely unresolved,
and in some cases have worsened over the years.
Listed as some of the
problems probed by the two chambers are: alleged corruption in the oil sector,
the closure of the Port Harcourt International Airport, and the expenditure of
$16 billion on the power sector.
Crude oil theft
continues, electricity supply is yet to stabilize while the Port Harcourt
Airport was recently described as the worst in the world.
On March 12, 2008, the
Senate Committee on FCT and that of Housing and Environment were mandated to
conduct public hearing on the activities
of the Ministry of the Federal Capital Territory from 1999 to 2007.
They turned in a report
deemed to be technically deficient but the
Senate later adopted some of its recommendations before realizing that
it had no legal authority to bar Mallam Nasir el-Rufai from politics while
those who lost houses to demolition or lost their land to revocations received
no form of compensation.
The Senate Committee on
Aviation’s 2008 probe of the N19.5 billion Safe Tower Project indicted several
top government officials for manipulating contract awards but no funds were
recovered.
Another 2008 Senate
Probe on Food Crisis in Nigeria discovered that several contractors who were
paid huge sums did not even know the project sites.
“One of the contractors
told the panel that the heavy equipment on his site were stolen by thieves; the
committee uncovered cases of stark fraud and breach of contract. The committee
also heard how stored grains meant for the markets in time of shortages were
distributed to prominent people including emirs and chiefs in the country,” the
52-page report stated.
Another 2008 probe in
the House of Representatives concluded that a former GMD of NNPC wasted over N2
billion on hotel accommodations in less than four years.
In the same year,
another probe and public hearing on “Operations of the Nigerian National
Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and its subsidiaries from 1999 to 2007” found a
litany of corruption practices.
“Incidences of
corruption uncovered include misappropriation of fund budgeted for refineries’
Turn-Around Maintenance; incessant hike in the price of petroleum products;
deliberate and unaccounted increase in the daily quota of petroleum production
against OPEC allocation; fraudulent allocation of oil blocks; lack of
transparency and imprudence in NNPC bills; crude oil theft and smuggling’
across Nigeria’s porous borders; deliberate delay in discharging of petroleum
products by ships at the seaports, and; dubious operations of International Oil
Companies (IOCs).
“It was discovered that
one of three unregistered companies (Carlson Oil Company Inc) netted about
$3.87 billion as profit from lifting 40% of Nigerian crude in ten years, the
House of Representatives and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC)
confirmed, that none of the three companies has paid a kobo in tax to the
Nigerian Government since 1999,” it stated.
The 2009 Ndudi
Elumelu-led House of Representatives probe of the $16 billion spent on the
power sector had concluded that “several contracts were found to have been
awarded to people who did not know what to do in the first place while millions
of dollars were paid up front. In many cases, the contractors didn’t even know
the construction sites.”
The panel report soon
sparked controversy across the land and
another panel was set up to probe the report.
Similarly, the House of
Reps panel that probed the Global Economic Meltdown and Depreciation of the
Naira in 2009 concluded that “the nation’s economic managers had
been economical with the truth,” and
that the global turmoil was affecting Nigeria’s economy in the areas of capital
flight, exchange rate of the naira, upward pressure on inflation and dwindling
foreign reserves.
There was also the
House probe of ‘Untold hardship of Nigerians in various deportation camps in
Libya.’ It asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to “urgently facilitate the
deportation of affected Nigerians in Libya while demanding more humane
treatment of Nigerians by the Libyan authorities.”
Many Nigerians remained
in Libya only for their conditions to worsen following the chaos that gripped
that country after the murder of President Muammar Ghadaffi in 2011.
Some of the House of
Representatives 2009 probes which inexplicably ended without a single page of
report include those on the ‘Sudden and mysterious disappearance of
Mr. Jude Onunze from the custody of Nigeria Police Force at Kuje Station,
Abuja’; ‘Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) Nationwide strike vis-à-vis
its Implication on the Society’; ‘Indiscriminate Displacement of Skilled
Nigerians by Foreign Companies Based in Nigeria’, and; a probe of ‘Security
Situation in Anambra State’.
Its 2009 probe of
‘Nigeria’s Return to Foreign Debts Burden’ following a $195 million World Bank
loan that took the country’s external debt stock to $3.7billion condemned the
process as “dubious, shady and corrupt.”
A probe of ‘Female
National Youth Service Corps member (NYSC) raped to death’ prompted the House
to demand the conferment of post-humous national honours on Miss Grace Adie
Ushang, who lost her life while serving in Borno State but this never happened
and the police later revealed that her killers were apprehended but released
because the state has no law for conviction on such cases.
At the Senate, the 2009
Transport Sector Probe headed by Senator Heineken Lokpobiri found that the
Minister of Works had a budget of N300billion in four years but could not fix
Nigerian roads properly.
Senators threw the
report of the Sylvester Anyanwu-led ‘Probe of Incessant Drop Calls by GSM
Providers’ back at the panel which continued to invite GSM providers until it
was eventually dissolved.
A 2011 Senate probe on
‘Investigation of the Privatization and Commercialization Activities of the
Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) from 1999 to Date’ made 45 recommendations
that highlighted shady deals but no one was sanctioned.
The Senate’s 2011
‘Probe of Oil Subsidy Expenditure’ named several beneficiaries of an opaque
system whereby the NNPC paid itself N847.94 billion even after it had been paid
N844.94 billion by the Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency.
The Senate’s ‘Malabu
Oil Field Transaction Probe’ of 2012 concluded its activities without issuing a
single page report.
In 2012, the House of
Representatives’ Committee on Environment which investigated the Bonga Oil Spill’ found several cases of
flagrant abuse of the extant environmental laws, but was unable to get any
relief materials for those affected and ended up without making any report of
its activities available.
In 2012, the ‘Probe of
Petroleum Product Fuel Subsidy Administration’ led by the
House of Representatives’ member
Farouk Lawan recommended that 72 firms should refund N1.7bn within three months
and that the EFCC should investigate and prosecute culprits.
Before Lawan himself
was cited in an alleged bribe scandal, his Committee recommended a mere
reprimand for the former PDP National Chairman, Dr. Ahmadu Ali, who was the
chairman of the PPPRA from 2009 to 2011, and other members of the board during
the period, for allegedly opening “the floodgate of the (subsidy) bazaar”.
The House Finance
Committee’s ‘Probe of remittances by Ministries, Departments and Agencies
(MDA)’ uncovered a N2 trillion fraud in the executive after an investigation
into the revenue generation and remittance of 60 ministries, departments and
agencies of government which showed that
top heads of ministries, departments and agencies of government generate
revenue from their agency’s activities running into trillions of naira but
under-declared such revenue while diverting the remaining for other use.
The House of
Representatives’ 2012 ‘Capital Market/Security and Exchange Commission (SEC)’
probe was dismissed after its chairman, Herman Hembe, was accused of demanding
N44m bribe and a new panel recommended the removal of Ms. Arunma Oteh who
remained at her post long afterwards.
In 2013, the House’s
‘Public Investigative Hearing to Unravel the Status of All Assets Seized and
Recovered by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Since
Inception’ looked into allegations that some N2 trillion assets confiscated by
the EFCC were being wasted and unlawfully repossessed.
Its ‘Probe into the
Aviation Ministry over a N9 billion contract (including SURE-P and the Ministry
of Works)’ found out much about the award of contracts running into billions of
naira that were paid for without execution.
Also, its ‘Probe of the
Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Malam Bala Mohammed over alleged
land swap deals’ found that the Federal Government had not fulfilled its
promise of compensating 854 indigenous communities of the FCT 37 years after
their land was taken.
No sanction was visited
on anyone and the indigenous communities’ situation remains the same.
Other 2014 probe
activities include the House’s ‘Probe of N29 billion Police Pension Funds’;
Senate’s Investigation into allegation of missing $49.8 billion in the account
of Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) by former Governor of Central
Bank (CBN), Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi; the House’ inconclusive ‘Investigation
of financial recklessness levelled against the Minister of Petroleum Resources,
Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke’; probe of
‘NIS Recruitment Tragedy’, and; the ‘Investigative Public Hearing on
Supply, Distribution, Expenditure and Subsidy on Kerosene’.
The lack of sanctions
or deterrence has made the numerous probes to look like mere formalities as the
problems they sought to end have remained.
NILS which copied the
bulky report came into being in March 2011 when President Goodluck Jonathan
signed the NILS ACT 2011 into law following the passage of the same by the
Senate and the House of Representatives.
It made no
recommendations on its study of the probes at the NASS
PROBES CONDUCTED BY THE
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY SINCE 1999
2008
* On March 12, Senate
probe of the Ministry of the Federal Capital Territory from 1999 to
2007
* The Senate Committee
on Aviation probe of the N19.5 billion Safe Tower Project
* Senate Probe on Food
Crisis in Nigeria
* House of
Representatives probe of a former GMD of NNPC over alleged wastage of over
N2 billion on hotel
accommodations in less than four years.
* Anther probe and
public hearing on Operations of the NNPC and its subsidiaries from
1999 to 2007
2009;
* Ndudi Elumelu-led
House of Representatives probe of the $16 billion spent on the power sector
* The House of Reps
panel probed the Global Economic Meltdown and Depreciation of the Naira
* The House again
probed of ‘Untold hardship of Nigerians in various deportation camps in Libya.’
* Probe of the ‘Sudden
and mysterious disappearance of Mr. Jude Onunze from the custody
of Nigeria Police Force
at Kuje Station, Abuja’
* Probe of the
‘Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) Nationwide strike vis-à-vis its
Implication on the
Society’;
* ‘Indiscriminate
Displacement of Skilled Nigerians by Foreign Companies Based in Nigeria’
* Probe of ‘Security
Situation in Anambra State’
* Probe of ‘Nigeria’s
Return to Foreign Debts Burden’
* A probe of ‘Female
National Youth Service Corps member (NYSC) raped to death’
(in Borno State)
* Transport Sector
Probe headed by Senator Heineken Lokpobiri
* ‘Probe of Incessant
Drop Calls by GSM Providers’
2011
* Probe on
‘Investigation of the Privatization and Commercialization Activities of the Bureau of Public
Enterprises (BPE) from 1999 to Date’
* The Senate’s ‘Probe
of Oil Subsidy Expenditure’ 2012
* Senate’s ‘Malabu Oil
Field Transaction Probe’
* House of
Representatives’ Committee on Environment investigated the Bonga Oil Spill’
* House of Reps ‘Probe
of Petroleum Product Fuel Subsidy Administration’ led by Farouk Lawan.
* The House Finance
Committee’s ‘Probe of remittances by Ministries, Departments
and Agencies (MDA).
* The House of
Representatives ‘Capital Market/Security and Exchange Commission (SEC)’
probe
2013;
* The House’s ‘Public
Investigative Hearing to Unravel the Status of All Assets Seized and
Recovered by the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Since Inception’
* ‘Probe into the
Aviation Ministry over a N9 billion contract (including SURE-P and
the Ministry of Works)’
* ‘Probe of the
Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Malam Bala Mohammed
over alleged land swap
deals’
2014;
* The House ‘Probe of
N29 billion Police Pension Funds’ *Senate’s Investigation into
allegation of missing
$49.8 billion in the account of Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC)
* The House
‘Investigation of financial recklessness levelled against the Minister of Petroleum Resources,
Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke’
* Probe of ‘NIS Recruitment Tragedy’
* The ‘Investigative
Public Hearing on Supply, Distribution, Expenditure and Subsidy
on Kerosene’.
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