[Being The Text Of A News
Conference Jointly Addressed By Protest To Power Movement [P2pm] , Civil
Society Legislative Advocacy Centre[Cislac],
And State Of The Union [Sotu] Project;
Friday 9th January 2015]
Introduction And
Context:
Three years
ago this month, a monumental crisis of historic proportions unraveled and shook
our country to its very foundation. At the root of that crisis were corruption,
and the impunity in governance that enables, drives, and protects its
perpetrators and perpetuators.
This same
phenomenon of corruption, grand theft and pillage of public treasury by a few
entrusted with the safe keeping of our commonwealth, has alas since then grown
and become not only endemic, but also pervasively systemic.
If we
recall, January is the month of the anniversary of that historic eruption of
popular anger that became known as Occupy Nigeria, the January Uprising.
Today, 9th
of January 2015 marks three years since a growing spontaneous protest movement
ballooned into a nationwide uprising, the most massive, and significant in our
history. For it was on January 9th2012 that the joint Labour and
Civil Society Coalition launched a Nationwide general strike and mass protest
that went on to involve more than 55 cities and towns across the length and
breadth of Nigeria.
What
triggered that nationwide crisis was the unprecedented hike in fuel prices
announced by the government as a New Year gift on January 1st 2012.
That hike in
fuel price, was prompted by government’s stated desire to end what it called
the unsustainable regime of fuel subsidy.
Corruption In The
Petroleum Sector And Occupy Nigeria:
That crisis,
the January Uprising exposed the corruption at the heart of the fuel subsidy
regime, and validated the position of civil society regarding the cause of that
burden on the economy.
For the
avoidance of doubt, it is important to restate the facts, because those facts
are still clearly at play even today.
What the
government called fuel subsidy is the difference between the cost of importing
refined products, and the pump price of fuel. This difference which is an
unnecessary cost exist because our domestic refineries are in a state of
dilapidation, like almost every other public basic infrastructure, as a
consequence of which we have to depend on imported refined products to meet our
domestic need. This situation is further compounded by the fact that the value
of the Naira is not stable against the US Dollar, the currency in which crude
oil is sold, refining and transportation cost is incurred internationally.
The January
Uprising exposed the fact that the daily consumption rate of petrol was
astronomically inflated, thus exponentially increasing the cost of the subsidy.
For instance daily consumption increased from just above 30 million litresper
day in 2010 to 60 million litresper day in 2011, and then dropped significantly
after the January Uprising to 40 million liters per day in 2012 and now average
of 38 million liters per day in 2013 and 2014.
Relatedly
this inflation of the daily consumption rate shut up steeply the cost of the
subsidy, rising from less than N600bn in 2010 to N2.7trn in 2012 [more than 50%
of the country’s annual budget, and nearly three times the size of the annual
capital vote], and dropping to just about an average of N1.2trn in subsequent
years.
Similarly
the number of fuel importers, many of them revealed illegal entities, and a
host of which collected subsidy claims for undelivered products, and or were
involved in the practice of round tripping and over invoicing, shot up to more than
150 in 2011, and dropped to less than 50 after the January Uprising.
Remarkablyin
spite, of this monumental fraud and looting of the treasury that was exposed,
no significant action has been taken to identify, prosecute and punish
culprits, much less recover looted funds.
Additionally
even though it is clear that such a grand scale and scope of treasury looting
could not have been undertaken without the collaboration and protection of
highly placed political officials as well as highly placed officials of the
major public sector actors in the petroleum sector, including the NNPC, DPR,
PPPRA, and Federal Ministries of Petroleum and Finance, uptill this time no
official has been implicated much less disciplined for these fundamental
breaches.
Furthermore,
at the height of the January Uprising, and significantly during the
negotiations between government side and the labour-civil society side,
promises which have turned out to be outlandish had been made regarding not
only identifying and punishing the corrupt, but also with respect to acquiring
adequate domestic refining capacity within a three year period.
Importantly
the Minister of Petroleum Resources had said then that capacity utilization
rate of the domestic refineries which she claimed stood at 40% during the crisis
would be improved and increased to over 90% by 2nd quarter of 2014.
The Federal
Government which had stated that it would take about three years to build new
refineries had also signed MOUs and granted licenses to build and complete by
end of 2014 four so-called Greenfield Refineries through
Public-Private-Partnership.
Three years
to the January Uprising however, all the promises made have not been realized,
ensuring that the nation continues to be dependent on imported refined products
for more than 80% of its requirements; the only OPEC member country to be so
dependent.
Outrageously,
capacity utilization at the nation’s four domestic refineries is now reported
to be at a mere 16.14% average, according to the latest data from the sector.
And this is after the expenditure of a tidy sum of N152bn spent on failed Turn
Around Maintenances [TAMs] of the refineries as at 2013.
To make
matters worse, none of the four Greenfield refineries have been built, much
less operationalized. In point of fact not even the land has been cleared at
the sites acquired since 2012 for these projects.
It is the
gluttonous greed of the ruling political elites, which drives their
unprecedented levels of light fingeredness, leading to the routine frenzied
pillaging of national wealth, which has placed an implacable obstacle on the
part of combatting corruption, making the refineries work, building new
refineries, thus achieving sufficient domestic refining capacity and doing away
with the subsidy regime.
The impact
of the corruption in the oil and gas sector of Nigeria has been further
accentuated in recent times by the crash in crude oil prices, and the
revelation that we had depleted our savings long before the crash, and are thus
right now on the brink of bankruptcy.
The same impunity
driven and aided corruption that is at the heart of the subsidy regime, is also
at play in the mismanagement of our external savings.
The External
Reserves [ER] and the Excess Crude Account [ECA] created and established to
cushion the country’s economy against the vicissitudes of the global economy,
were ravaged in times of plenty so much so that now in times of need, we have
almost nothing to fall back on.
For instance
both the ER and ECA which stood at $48bn and $10bn respectively at the end of
December 2013 had been drawn down to less than $33bn and $3bn respectively even
before the oil price crisis unraveled.
Non Implementation Of
The African Convention On Corruption:
What appears
perplexing is the fact that the country is witnessing these unprecedented
levels of corruption with impunity even though Nigeria is a signatory to the
2003 African Convention on preventing and combating corruption which came into
force on August 5th 2006. 34 African countries, including Nigeria
have ratified this convention.
The
convention focuses on the promotion of accountability and transparency in the
management of public affairs, in order to create conditions that will support
socio-economic development.
In line with
issues addressed in the convention and the provisions thereof, the AU mandated
state parties to the convention to implement the following:
• African states will develop
legislative measures to criminalize the conversion, transfer and disposal of property that is the
proceeds of corruption or related offences or the disguise or concealment of the true nature, source,
location, disposition, movement or ownership of or rights with respect to property acquired through proceeds
of corruption.
• African governments must develop laws
to establish the offence of illicit enrichment.
• African governments will adopt laws to
prescribe the use of funds by political parties in a transparent and accountable manner.
• African states will develop laws,
mechanisms and other measures to fight corruption in the private sector including companies paying
bribes to win tenders while encouraging the private sector to assist in the fight against corruption.
On this 3rd
anniversary of the January Uprising, triggered as it is by mass anger and
popular outrage at the scale and scope of corruption, alas we are where we are
at present, largely because our government has not fulfilled its commitment to
the African Convention on preventing and combating corruption, which it freely
entered into and ratified.
Uptill this
moment, necessary policy, legislative and institutional frameworks have either
not been put in place, or where they are in place, they have been weakened and
incapacitated, making it impossible for these to be effective.
The Importance Of The
Upcoming General Elections:
The major
culprit here is the absence of political will on the part of political leaders
and elites to combat corruption largely because they have either been
compromised or have become beneficiaries of corruption.
It is in
this light that we call on and urge Nigerian citizens to make good use of the
election campaign process and the upcoming general elections to ensure that
they hold politicians accountable, and make parties and their candidates commit
to actionable strategic plans to implement the African Convention on preventing
and combating corruption in Nigeria.
If we are
able to achieve this, it would be a befitting legacy to the spirit and courage
of the January Uprising of 2012, the 3rd anniversary of which we
have gathered here to mark today.
Our Demands:
In view of
the forgoing we make the following demands;
1. That Nigerians should take advantage
of the forthcoming elections to make political parties and their candidates
enter into binding commitments with citizens on preventing and combating
corruption
2. That this government and the post
February election government should immediately develop in a participatory
manner a National Action Plan with set targets and penalties for implementing
the African Convention on preventing and combating corruption
3
That immediate and measureable steps
be undertaken to identify, prosecute and punish all those individuals,
officials and companies involved in the various processes of corruption in the
petroleum sector, including the failed turn around maintenances of refineries
and the fuel subsidy regime
4.
That immediate steps be taken to
recover looted funds in the petroleum sector
5. That as a lasting legacy to our
January Uprising of 2012, all active Nigerian citizens should redouble their
organising and mobilising efforts to ensure that government and political
parties and leaders take seriously the fight against corruption and develop and
practice of zero tolerance to corruption in the country
6.
That justice be given to those who
lost their lives in the January 2012 fuel subsidy uprising and compensation be
given to their families
7.
That the passage of the petroleum
industry bill (PIB) inclusive of civil society concerns and recommendations
8.
That measures to reduce landing and
distribution be put in place by improving the efficiency of ports and depots
9.
That the NEITI Audit reports be
implemented without further delay
10.
That measures are put in place to
stop immediate stoppage oil theft.
Conclusion:
Finally we
wish to express our appreciation to Nigerian citizens for the courage
demonstrated during the January Uprising, and to our colleagues in the media
for their steadfast support for anti-corruption causes.
Signed:
Okeke Anya
State of the Union
Coalition (SOTU)
AuwalMusa Rafsanjani
Civil Society Legislative Advocacy
Centre (CISLAC)
JayeGaskia
Protest To Power Movement [P2PM]
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