Leadership (Abuja)
Betrand Nwankwo
12 September 2008
President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua yesterday urged the international community to regard petroleum products stolen from conflict areas as blood oil, in the same form as blood diamond.
The president stated this at the opening ceremony of the West Africa Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI).
Represented by the Vice President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, he said: Keen to the Nigerian government is the application of the Kimberly process to elements of extractive industries other than diamond. "The Nigerian experience shows that there is a sense in which we can talk of blood oil."
According to the president, there was the need to strengthen the link between transparency, accountability and overall development, adding that meaningfully addressing these challenges would require innovative strategies that speak to "our peculiar situations."
He stated that given the strategic importance of oil, gas and solid minerals in the economies of West Africa, and given the urgent need for a more transparent and prudent management of revenues from these sectors, the ongoing conference was a timely forum.
According to him, EITI could promote growth, enhance poverty reduction and drive sustainable development. He remarked that 23 resource-rich countries across the globe had heeded the call that transparent and accountable management of extractive resources could make the difference.
"Six short years after its birth in South Africa, we are beginning to see that EITI is not an empty call: it can work, and it does work. "Even this early in the day, early fruits are becoming manifest: searchlights are being beamed on dark places; civil society, companies and government are collaborating for a win-win solution to resource governance", Yar'Adua stated.
"Sharp practices are being exposed, perceptions and incidences of corruption are reducing, citizens and civic groups are asking hard questions, becoming more constructively engaged, and in the process, strengthening the levers of democracy and development", the president added.
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