MARGARET CHIDERA
ABUJA, Nigeria – Muhammadu Sanusi II, a former emir of Kano, has called for the audit of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited.
He made this known during the Bank Directors’ Association of Nigeria conference, in Abuja on Wednesday.
Sanusi said the country needs to shine the light on NNPC in the areas of revenue generation and oil production.
“The finance minister can not tell you because he doesn’t have a metering system that reports to him,” he said.
“The finance minister cannot tell you that today, this is how many barrels of oil that we produce and export here. He can only rely on NNPC telling him. Those barrels are revenue; they belong to finance. We have been talking about this for 10 years. We need a metering system.
“The finance ministry needs to know how much oil we are producing everyday, selling, and where the money is going.”
Sanusi said if the leakages are not fixed in the system — the dollar revenue issue — the exchange rate problem will not be fixed.
“Oil is not going to grow our GDP, I have always said that. If you took out all the oil in Nigeria today and sold it, it would raise our per capital income to maybe $4,000,” he said.
According to Sanusi, oil will ‘never enrich’ the country but it is a working capital for an import-dependent economy.
He said the country cannot afford to continue producing oil and not receive revenue in return.
“We are no longer paying subsidy, so where are the dollars? Before it was under recovery, now we do not have underestimate. Where is the money?” He asked.
Speaking further, Sanusi said petroleum exploration licences given to unworthy players should be revoked for maximum revenue.
He also said the country would earn more revenue by moving to alternative energy.
‘PRESIDENT SHOULDN’T BE PETROLEUM MINISTER’
Sanusi said Nigeria should have a petroleum minister and the president of the country should not occupy the office.
“Let me advise that the idea of the president being petroleum minister. The last president was minister of petroleum for eight years,” he said.
“When I was governor of CBN, we had a petroleum minister. So when we talk about NNPC, I could attack Diezani, now nobody can talk about petroleum because in eight years if you talk, you are attacking the president.”
He said a minister who is to be held accountable should be in the office.
