Indicted Oil Players Target Ribadu’s Report

Posted by admin Latest Politics, Oil Politics Sunday, November 4th, 2012

Set To Discredit It In Coming Days

THERE are indications that indicted parties are making moves to discredit the Mallam Ribadu report submitted to the Presidency last week. The plan is prompted by the subsisting controversy trailing the report.

The Guardian learnt that the leadership of the regulatory bodies, who had procured copies of the draft report days before its submission to the President, was studying it for the purpose of taking a position in the coming days.

At the weekend, a top legal personnel in one of the establishments said the recommendations were not different from existing proposals that had been in public domain for years.

The officer, who said his organisation was examining the report with a view to making its position known on the matter, said the exercise of the committee amounted to waste of resources, as it added no value to ongoing reform in the sector.

He said: “I am an insider, and I understand how these things work better than others. There is really nothing new about the report; anybody who knows the industry can confirm that. In my views, the commendations are not the types that can take the industry anywhere.

“What they are talking about are things everybody knows. There is nothing earth-shaking about them. I can tell you that nothing positive will come out of the report. Until you solve the fundamental issues, you cannot position the industry for growth.”

President Jonathan, on Friday, received the reports of the Petroleum Revenue Special Task Force (led by Mallam Nuhu Ribadu), the Governance and Control Task Force (led by Mr. Dotun Sulaiman) and the National Refineries Committee (headed by Dr. Kalu Idika Kalu) at the Council Chambers of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Although the Sulaiman and Idika Kalu-led committees enjoyed a smooth presentation, the same could not be said of the Petroleum Revenue Special Task Force, as its chair, Ribadu, his deputy, Mr. Steve Orosonye, and another member, Mr. Bernard Oti, disagreed over the content of the report, raising doubts over the integrity of the process.

Insisting that the Report could not be implemented, Orosanye, an establishment personality, described it as a knee-jerk reaction, and the process flawed.

Although the acting secretary of the committee, Mallam Sumaila, explained that both Oti and Orosanye joined the committee very late, Oti, who is managing director of Diamond Bank Plc, insisted that the right process was not followed from the beginning.

Prior to last weekend’s presentation, a version of the Ribadu report was being circulated in the media, prompting denial of its authenticity by the Presidency and some members of the committee.

But questions are being raised concerning the ease, or otherwise, of implementing the report, especially as the controversy trailing it appears to have weakened the hands of the Presidency.

On the readiness of the Presidency to implement the recommendations, Port Harcourt-based oil and gas consultant, Chief Oz Emoyon-Iredia, said it was a sign of what would become the fate of the panel’s findings.

“There has been talk about reforming the NNPC. People outside don’t see what the government is seeing. It is easier to say you will do certain things when you are outside, but by the time you are there, you understand that it is a rotten setup. That is why even reformists fail when they get there,” he said.

Emoyon-Iredia noted that the controversy over the report has provided the government an alibi to reject the findings or subject them to endless reviews.

Another industry expert, who wondered why the report was released to the media when the committee members did not agree with its content, however, urged the government to adopt it despite the misunderstanding.

The respondent also observed that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) could not be run professionally, as suggested, unless is it was fully commercialised.

“And the way the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) is structured is shameful,” he said. “You have civil servants in Abuja, who know nothing about the industry. How do they perform efficiently? You bring ignorant individuals together and you say they are regulators. Do things work that way?”

The source also said there was no panic in whatever form among handlers of the regulatory bodies.

But, citing economic considerations, stakeholders in oil and gas sector yesterday called on government to move quickly and implement the recommendations of the committee.

Jonathan, they said, could write his name in gold by engendering radical reforms in the sector. They also observed that the industry was in dire need of reforms to make petroleum income more transparent and the sector more open to genuine investments.

Meanwhile, in an online chat, Executive Director Centre for the Study of the Economies of Africa, Dr. Eberechukwu Uneze, warned of vested interests in the petroleum sector that could move against the implementation of the committee’s recommendations.

Calling attention to an urgent need to restore investors’ confidence in the lucrative oil and gas sector, he urged the Federal Government to make public the full content of the report, contrary to past experiences, in which government literary puts away committee reports.

Uneze identified the right political will as the biggest evidence of sincerity on the part of government.

Similarly, a US-based Energy Law expert, Felix Ayanruoh, called on government to see the report as being the necessary incentive for social and economic re-engineering.

He stressed: “The Mallam Nuhu Ribadu Petroleum Revenue Special Task Force should be highly commended for completing its assignment in good time.

“The Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, who set up the committee, stated that the move is “designed to enhance probity and accountability in the operations of the petroleum industry.

“When it comes to implementing committee reports, I think our nation need social and economic re-engineering. There have been reports since independence that are still unattended to (or sabotaged) by some people in government.”

-Guardianwp_posts