Weneso Orogun,
8 November 2009
Lagos — On NEITI and Welfare of the Average Nigerian Rivers State Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Mr. Magnus Abbe, who represented Governor Rotimi Amaechi, set the tone when he remarked that half of the development challenges facing the country arise from public perception of how extractive revenues, especially those from oil and gas, are managed.
"If we are talking about the challenges we are having in the Niger Delta; if we are talking about insurgency; if we are talking about Presidential Amnesty for freedom fighters, and other challenges that Nigeria is facing, about 90 per cent of them arise from the fact that most Nigerians either do not understand or do not accept the way the oil wealth of this country is being extracted and managed. NEITI was set up to restore stakeholder confidence in the extractive industries."
Speaking ex tempore, the SSG declared with unmistakable passion: " Standing here today, I must say that I'm a bit concerned that part of the vibrancy of this initiative that we expected to see would have been the mass participation and mass awareness of the Nigerian people about the activities of this initiative. Sadly, I do not get the impression that the Nigerian people have actually realised the importance of NEITI and its contribution and capacity to affect not only our national discourse but actual national development."
Abbe placed responsibility for mobilising the people to understand the part that NEITI could play in national discourse and development on the shoulders of the executive secretary and head of the NEITI secretariat. He advised that more needed to be done to galvanise public awareness and opinion about the functions and capacvity of the extractive industries watchdog.
"So, I want to use this opportunity to appeal to NEITI to make more effort to get Nigerians to buy into this initiative. Having said that, let me say that extractive industries, to the best of my knowledge, are not limited to oil and gas. The concept and unwritten agreement in Nigeria is that any time we talk about natural resources, any time we talk about mineral resources, our thoughts revolve around oil just as our national life revolves around it. This is not correct. There are other extractive industries that NEITI should cover eventually. However, given the primacy of oil in the Nigerian federation, the emphasis of NEITI on petroleum so far is not misplaced. Neither is it misguided.
"I want to say that if there is transparency in our oil revenues and we concentrate on transparency in how it is extracted and how it is accounted for at the point of extraction and at the point of accounting, and we do not pursue that transparency to the end result which is the point where the revenues are utilised, then the work of the NEITI would not have brought any change in how things happen in this country.
"The whole concept of extractive transparency must start from the manner in which oil fields are acquired to how it is extracted, how the extraction process is financed and carried out and go beyond that to how the revenues that come from this process are managed to the benefit of the entire citizenry instead of the current practice where nothing is on the table.
"Part of the challenges we are facing in the Niger Delta today stems from a clear rejection by the people of the South-South geopolitical zone , of the way the rights to access the oil fields are acquired in the first place. The problem stems from the way and manner the whole oil and gas industry is mangaed by the federal authorities and the oil companies without taking into consideration the feelings, aspirations, myths, sentiments and other local circumstances that surround the extraction sites.
"I believe that NEITI would be doing a good service if it can lend some voice to try to see that the entire process is better managed to the benefit of the whole country. The whole focus of NEITI is on how much oil is extracted by oil companies and whether the figures are correctly reflected in Nigeria's books. While this may be important, it will not achieve the disired goal that necessitated the establishment of NEITI.
"I often say to people that if we do things from a value-based perspective, then our end result would be easier to asess. If the purpose of NEITI is to ensure that transparency in the extractive industries leads to a better quality of life for Nigerian citizens, then I think that a narrow focus on just one aspect of the process without looking at the wider perspectives that are involved in getting value to the citizens would mean that all the activities of NEITI would not make any meaningful difference in the life of the average Nigerian citizen.
" I want to call on NEITI to do a value re-think of what actually they are supposed to deliver; what actually they are supposed to monitor; what actually they are supposed to ensure; what value they are bringing to the Nigerian citizen on whose behalf the NEITI was established. I think that if value anaylsis is done, and that value is clearly identified in the life of the average citizen of this country, then , NEITI would be in a better position to define its mandate and position to achieve better.
"If we did that, I'm sure the number of participants would have been much more than what we have here today because the Nigerian whose value the NEITI is intended to achieve and affect, would realise that what is done here today would go beyond oil companies and the federal government. It would be something that would touch the quality of life of the average citizen of this country."
Objectives of the Roadshow
NEITI Chair, Professor Asisi Asobie, seemed to have anticipated the fireworks unleashed by the Rivers SSG and other participants when he said in his opening remarks that he looked forward to an open public evaluation of the extractive watchdog that would generate inputs for improving the organsation's performance.
"A road show is mutually interactive, eminently activist, and hugely impactful in a sustainable manner," Asisi stated. He listed his expectations of the town hall meeting to include emegence of a NEITI stakeholders' forum dedicated to promoting NEITI principles, an information centre that disseminates and receives feedback in a structured manner on the relevance and objectives of NEITI and the goals of the body for the South-South region. Another is an ICT-based centre that provides opportunity for constantly holding governnments to account on oil revenues and expenditure transparency.
How NEITI is Implementing its Mandate
Asisi also explained four methods NEITI is using to put its principles into practice in the country. The first entails disclosure and reporting of extractive revenues while the second concerns extractive accountability by which is meant the extent to which all tiers of government and the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) are accountable to the people for the extractive revenues allocated to them.
The third method in NEITI's arsenal for implementing its mandate is identification of lapses and taking measures to enhance the capacity of any organ of government that has responsibility to monitor revenue payments by extractive industry companies. Lastly, NEITI creates public awareness of strategies and tools for eliminating all forms of corrupt practices in the determination, payments, receipts and posting of revenues acruing to the federal government from extractive industry companies.
"In this regard, NEITI is fortunate to have a unit known as Technical Unit on Governance and Anti-corruption Reforms (TUGAR) which operates under the aegis of an Inter-agency Task Team under NEITI chairmanship", Asobie explained. He added that working with a broad spectrum of anti-corruption agencies, TUGAR has been coordinating efforts that are expected to culminate in concerted efforts to tackle corruption in the extractive industries sector.
Hard Nuts to Crack
Despite elaborate explanations about how NEITI works by both Asobie and NEITI's Executive Secretary (ES), Mallam Haruna Sa'eed, the over 200 participants who thronged the Yenagoa venue of the town hall meeting on the second of the two-day event, raised numerous questions.
A female participant recalled that at a roadshow in Port Harcourt, a representative of DPR admitted that the regulator often relies on international oil companies (IOCs) for production figures. She asked what NEITI was doing about the issue. An activist wanted to know whether the statutory provision in the NEITI Act 2007 that requires Mr. President to appoint the Executive Secretary (ES) amonts to presidential interference.
Another participant wanted to know whether NEITI has the power to sanction oil companies that do not play by the rules or refuse to cooperate with it. Yet another asked why NEITI would not fund CSOs to step down the NEITI message to the grassroots? A representative of the Department of Petroleun Resources wondered whether the audits commissioned by NEITI benefit from the expertise of oil industry specialists who could help improve the technical accuracy of the audit reports. A lady wanted to also know whether NEITI could put together a youth programme to promote advocay on extractive accountability at local government level.
Presidential Interference
Sa'eed said the issue is often raised by stakeholders who are uncomfortable with the statutory provision that requires Mr. President to appoint the exectutive secretary. The organisation has to work with the existing legislation. While explaining that when questions are asked that are critical, then it is time to provide honest and transparent answers. The question about the appointment of the ES has two components. One is about presidential interference and the other is what the existing law says.
Technical Department within NEITI
Sa'eed said "Our mandate requires that we deal with technical issues. But as an organisation, NEITI hires competent people with the right training and experience to compliment secretariat staff that do its work. Some of these are people who have retired from the oil industry and now work as consultants".
On Environmental Issues
Sa'eed also explained that like "we do in every situation, NEITI is a triangular organisation. We have CSOs, we have the government and we have the petroleum industry. Every oil company is required to operate based on contractual obligations. Our job in NEITI is to ensure that the processes specified in contractual relationships with the federal government are being followed to the letter. The role of CSOs is to ensure that oil companies, regulatory agencies and other stakeholders do the right thing. Environmental issues represent one group of concerns over which stakeholders are required to do the right thing.
On Crude Oil Accounting
A representative of DPR noted that many have commented on accounting for oil but said, "each time, the impression is created that DPR does not have the capacity to account for the quantity of oil extracted from Nigeria's soil daily or annually by companies. The point I would like to emphasise is that oil, as it comes from the well, it does not come pure. It comes in a complex mixture of oil, sand, water, gas etc.
DPR can get the oil companies to install appropriate metres but I would like to plead that it is misleading to claim that DPR cannot account for oil produced. It should be added as a caveat that given the technology in use, it has not been possible to find a metre that will measure what comes out of the well head and give us what quantity of oil comes out of a particular well."
For the executive secretary It is well taken that crude oil comes with lot of impurities but what makes an oil company to abandon a well? "It is when the company determines that it is no longer economical to keep the well in production. It means that oil companies have the technology for knowing what quantity of oil is produced at the well head. This is one reason NEITI is insisting that we look at what is produced at the well head.
Asobie further assured that "There is a technology we know already that can measure oil production at the well-head. It is still not yet commercially available and, therefore, very expensive. The real concern is how to get the oil companies to overcome their reluctance to work with NEITI to find a solution to satisfactory metering of production. NEITI is determined to get a head way on this matter."
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2009 This Day. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
