NNPCL probe fallouts: Senate on trial

An ongoing investigation of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) by the Senate is living up to expectation as it is offering the opportunity for a visceral dissection of the mystery surrounding the finances of the national oil giant. For too long, not a few Nigerians have been left to rue the situation whereby the operations and finances of the company have not added up, leaving scandals and bitter taste   as hallmarks of the trending narratives about its fortunes. It is also of interest that a fallout of the ongoing is a not surprising dimension whereby the main issue is contesting for attention with a play-out of the personal quarrels of some key figures in the Senate, even at the expense of national interest.

In the course of the recent consideration by the Red Chamber in plenary, of the report of the Senate Committee on Public Accounts on the NNPCL, reactions by some senators on the reported loss of the sum of N210 trillion from the company’s coffers between 2017 and 2023, have tended to portray the Senate as allowing itself once more to be seen by Nigerians as acting outside the expectations of the citizenry and pandering to entrenched personal interests.

The Senate Committee on Public Accounts had recommended the arrest of the immediate past Group Managing Director (GMD) of the NNPCL, Mele Kyari for failing to honour as many as 9 invitations to appear before it and clarify issues concerning the failure of the company to account for as much as N210 trillion during his tenure. However, when the matter got to the Senate plenary, its leadership under the watch of its president, Godswill Akpabio, overturned the arrest order, citing technicalities associated with the rules of the Senate.

This development spawned several reactions from senators, including a heated debate between Adams Oshiomole (a ‘pro-Kyari arrest’ advocate) and Akpabio, which has not only been trending in the social media space but seems to share public attention with the main issue of missing funds. In the circumstances, not a few Nigerians are left wondering over the actual disposition of the Senate towards national interest.

However whatever differences that may run among the senators, one clear fact remains, that the last has not been heard about this matter as it is playing out in the public domain, with the imperative beckoning on the Senate to review its position on it and allow the affirmative stand of its Public Accounts Committee prevail. And the reasons for this are legion, including the following.

First of all, the committee acted within the extant rues of the Senate to call for the arrest of Mele Kyari for persistently dishonoring the invitation to appear before it for as many as 9 times. In the history of the National Assembly, there had been several instances when invitees to face committees and plenary sessions who fail to honour such invitations were compelled to do so by ordering their arrest through the Inspector-General of Police (IGP).  Serving ministers and other high-profile personalities have at one time or another faced the invocation of the powers of the National Assembly to be arrested and produced by the IGP.  Hence the call for the arrest of Mele Kyari remains justifiable and should not be taken out of context of the routine functions of the Senate, either at the committee level or plenary.

Secondly, the issue at stake – (a loss of N210 trillion) – is a matter of grave national concern as it is one of severe hemorrhage of Nigerians’ common patrimony, which is detrimental to the citizens’ welfare.

More grievous is the fact that as much as N107 trillion was reported to have been deposited and now trapped in unnamed banks which have gone under, implying that recovery of such funds in full may be compromised. Meanwhile, hardly should such a dispensation be reported in the records of a public institution as strategic as the NNPCL is to the country’s economy.

By standard banking procedures in an organisation as the NNPCL, transactions with both local and foreign banks mandatorily follow routine and rigorous documentation. In that context therefore, banks cannot just vanish without trace as ghosts, and even if they go under, there are established procedures all over the world for recovery of depositors’ funds. Hence reporting such banks in which NNPCL funds were deposited as unnamed constitutes a tragic lie, which should attract due legal sanctions for any officer testifying to such under oath.

Thirdly, rather more important is the fact that the indictment of the NNPCL is by its own official auditors and not by any eternal tale bearers, in which case the integrity of the reported malfeasance remains beyond doubt.

In the light of the foregoing, the 10th Senate stands in the dock of public scrutiny over its next step on the matter. Will the matter be swept under the carpet as several other sensitive matters of critical national concern had fared, even to the disappointment of Nigerians.

With respect to the current situation, the Senate has its next line of action cut out neatly for it. Nigerians are watching to see how the Red Chamber will deal with this unprecedented outrage on the country’s common patrimony.

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