Onwuka Nzeshi
12 November 2009
Abuja — Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Dimeji Bankole yesterday decried the daily loss of revenue from crude oil as a result of the activities of illegal oil bunkering gangs and their international collaborators and charged security agencies in the country to code every barrel of oil produced from the nation's oil fields to enhance their easy identification in the international market.
Bankole also expressed disgust at the current political developments in Anambra State, declaring that the solution to the problem lies not only in the security agencies rising up to their responsibilities but in coming together of prominent citizens of the state to speak out against the brand of lawlessness associated with politics in the state. According to 1999 Constitution, Bankole said, the security and welfare of the people of Nigeria should be the responsibility of the state, adding that when the security of a state degenerates, lawlessness and insecurity take the centre stage.
He warned that the situation in Anambra must not be allowed to degenerate to an unmanageable level as it could have grave implications for the entire country.
Delivering a lecture titled "Towards Effective Budgetary Provisions for the Realization of the Security Component of the 7-Point Agenda" for participants of the Executive Intelligence Management Course 2 at the Institute of Security Studies, Bwari-Abuja, Bankole said the issue of crude oil theft in the creeks of the Niger Delta can no longer be tolerated as it constitutes a drain on the nation's resources.
The relevant security agencies should rise to the occasion through the imprinting of a security code on Nigeria's crude oil to frustrate the activities of the international syndicate which specialises in stealing the oil using local collaborators.
According to Bankole, about fifty per cent of Nigeria's crude oil in the international market got there illegally and amounts to a huge drain on the nation's foreign exchange earnings.
The implication of this trend, he said, is that if left unchecked our oil reserves which could have lasted for a hundred years, will now be shortened to 50 years. He however assured that this loss of revenue can be stopped if the security agencies were able to put in place measures such as the finger printing or coding system to distinguish Nigeria's crude oil from others anywhere in the world.
Bankole who alluded to similar situations in other countries said the coding system was used in the case of "blood diamonds" in war torn Sierra Leone, adding that security agencies in Nigeria should brainstorm on how to achieve the same feat in the interest of the nation's economic development and the security of the Niger Delta.
The speaker, who also expressed discomfort with the country's rising foreign debt portfolio, said that the biggest security blunder committed by Nigeria was the $3 billion loan it took in 1993 as it had grown to $35 billion by 2005 without Nigeria taking any additional loan. He said that to halt the drift towards huge debts, Nigeria must diversify its revenue base from the current over dependence on crude oil to harnessing the yearly revenue generated by Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) which amounts to almost a trillion annually.
He stated that if this unremitted revenue is made part of the budget, the pressure on the crude oil from Niger Delta would have been reduced. He pledged that the House of Representatives will continue to accord security matters the attention it deserves; stressing that this is what informed the passage of the President's supplementary Budget in a record time of 24 hours without any change to fund the amnesty programme and associated security issues in the Niger Delta.
The Commandant, Institute of Security Studies, Mr. William Toyin Akanle applauded the Speaker's courage and comments on national issues but observed that Bankole had oftentimes been misunderstood in certain circles especially in his comments on funding of Niger Delta states, Ekiti Governorship re-run election and the need for security, the lack of capacity of civil servants to fully implement projects for which funds have been provided in the annual budgets.
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