Importation of petroleum products to end soon –Buhari

By Adewale Sanyaolu

THE continued importation of petroleum products will end soon to bring an end to a system bedevilled with graft, President Muhammadu Buhari has said.

The President stated this in his Inde­pendence Day Message to Nigerians last Thursday.

Buhari said preliminary steps have been taken to sanitise the Nigeria Nation­al Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and improve its operations so that the ineffi­ciency and corruption could be reduced to a minimum.

“Those of our refineries which can be serviced and brought back into partial production would be enabled to resume operations so that the whole sordid busi­ness of exporting crude and importing finished products in dubious transactions could be stopped,” he said.

On power, he said government officials have held series of long sessions over several weeks on best ways to improve the nation’s power supply in the safest and most cost-effective way.

He, however, said in the meantime, improvement in the power supply is moderately encouraging while supply of petrol and kerosene to the public has improved throughout the country, add­ing that all the early signs are that within months the whole country would begin to feel a change for the better.

Recall that the Federal Government had in August announced plans to ap­point two international forensic audit firms to audit the accounts of all its rev­enue generating agencies.

Chairman of the National Economic Council (NEC) adhoc Committee on the Management of Excess Crude Ac­count Proceeds and Accruals into the Federation Account, Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State, had said the audit would unravel the secrecy that had trailed accountability in revenue collec­tion.

“Given our mandate, even if we are professional accountants, because we are sitting governors, we do not have the time to do the kind of forensic auditing, which this assignment entails. Therefore, we have agreed to appoint two interna­tional reputable auditing firms,” he said.

He said the audit will cover a five-year circle beginning from January 1, 2010 to June 30, 2015 but could be extended if there is need.

Oshiomhole said the forensic audit initially carried out on the NNPC on missing funds that had to be remitted into the Federation Account was marred by secrecy.

He said no agency would refuse to open its books to the audit firms as the government of President Muhammadu Buhari will not condone official secrecy in whatever form.

Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Ru­fai, had equally said the move to engage the audit firms was arrived at in order to uncover massive corruption in the rev­enue collection process.

He expressed optimism that Nigerians will have all their questions answered by the time the audit is completed.

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