Patrick Ugeh
12 September 2008
Abuja — President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua has again urged international community to regard petroleum products stolen from conflict areas as blood oil, in the same mould as blood diamond.
Speaking yesterday at the opening ceremony of the West Africa Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), Yar'Adua, who spoke through his deputy, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, said: "Of keen interest 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 were definitive challenges which EITI must face up to in the various countries of the West African sub-region, adding: "It must be stressed that, desirable as it is, EITI is not a magic bullet. This is because mere implementation of EITI will not provide the omnibus solution to all the developmental challenges of a society. By the same token, EITI cannot be a stand-alone item on the agenda for development."
He said there was therefore the critical 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."
Yar'Adua 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.
"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," he said.
"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".
"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, who said Nigeria's experience was a living proof of the usefulness of EITI, stated that 50 years after it started exporting oil in commercial quantity, the country was yet to diversify its economy satisfactorily, or provide requisite physical infrastructure, and develop its human capital adequately.
"Rather, oil seemed to fuel corruption and bad governance," he said, noting however, that because of the government's resolve to reverse this trend, the Nigerian government initiated a package of anti-corruption and governance reforms, a major part of which was the reform of the petroleum sector."
As a result, he said, it was no surprise that Nigeria was one of the first countries to sign on to, and implement EITI, a feat that was acknowledged by the AU Executive Director, M.H. Khalil Timamy, Netherlands Ambassador, Arie van der Wiel, Norwegian envoy, Mr. Tore Nedrebo, World Bank's Country director, Mr. Onno Ruhl and ECOWAS president, Dr. Ibn Chambas, among others.
Chair of NEITI, Prof. Assisi Asobie, listed the impact of the reforms on Nigeriaís economy to include an increase in the Foreign Direct Investment inflow ffrom US$1.47 billion in 2000 to US$7.6 billion in 2007 while GDP per capita rose from $875 in 2003 to $1,500 in 2007, while the Transparency Internationalís Corruption Perception Index improved from 1.6 in 2000 to 2.2 in 2007 and 2008.
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