By Ifeanyi Izeze
\nSenators are regarded as more prominent\u00a0and serious-minded political figures than members of the House of\u00a0Representatives usually because they represent larger constituencies and are\u00a0supposed to be more matured in terms of experience both in politics and\u00a0industry\/public service. But every day that passes, the Nigerian arena\u00a0ostensibly shows that it is an exact opposite of everything a senate\u00a0should be,\u00a0mirroring it against the American standard which we are modelling. Is it\u00a0not a\u00a0shame that for whatever motives, which no doubt bothers heavily on self\u00a0interest, the Nigerian senate is being serially ridiculed as unserious,
\nwithout\u00a0integrity and grossly corrupt not from outside but from within while the\u00a0leadership of the upper chamber just watches with nonchalance?
\nThe Senate Committee on Finance which\u00a0investigated the allegations by the immediate past Central Bank governor that\u00a0$49.8 billion was not remitted by the NNPC into the Federation Account in\u00a0its final\u00a0report as submitted said their findings show that the amount was not missing.\u00a0And this report was signed by the committee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Chairman, Sen. Ahmed\u00a0Makarfi, and\u00a0nine other members.
\nAccording to the chairman of the\u00a0committee, the CBN, NNPC, Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Petroleum\u00a0Resources had agreed after reconciliation that the sum of 47 billion dollars\u00a0out of the 67 billion dollars had been credited to the Federation Account.\u00a0And\u00a0the shortfall of $20 billion was traced to the NNPC expenditure on fuel\u00a0subsidy especially kerosene within the period under review.
\nAs stated, The committee could not see\u00a0how the figure of 49.8 billion dollars was arrived at by the CBN governor in\u00a0the first instance, \u00a0adding that The problem of non-remittance of\u00a0revenues by\u00a0the NNPC was not new and it was not the CBN that first disclosed it.
\nAnd to\u00a0address this, it was recommended that inter-agencies reconciliation meeting\u00a0\u00a0institutions such as the Ministry of Finance, NNPC, CBN and the\u00a0Federal\u00a0Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) should be done on regular basis as such regular\u00a0meetings among those sensitive economic institutions would prevent a\u00a0recurrence\u00a0of this situation and ensure that all revenues were properly and legally
\naccounted for.
\nIs it not\u00a0curious that ever since the committee submitted its report on the matter, the\u00a0senator representing Kwara Central District, Alhaji Bukola Saraki, has been\u00a0struggling to tell Nigerians that he was not privy to the committee\u00a0findings as\u00a0presented and never signed any report pertaining to the investigation of\u00a0the alleged\u00a0missing $49.8 billion\/$20 billion.\u00a0As explained by the Senator media aide\u00a0in the latest statement issued in Abuja last week, the names listed in the\u00a0report as published by a national daily newspaper were just the names of the\u00a0members of the Committee and not those who signed the final report.<\/p>\n
According to him, While we are not\u00a0denying the fact that Senator Saraki is a member of the Senate committee\u00a0on Finance, and whereas we also (acknowledges) that Senator Saraki\u00a0participated\u00a0actively in almost all of the committee’s assignment as it affects the\u00a0investigation of the unremitted US$48.9 Billion oil revenue by NNPC, the\u00a0office\u00a0of Senator Saraki wish to state \u00c2 categorically and further deny that\u00a0Senator Bukola Saraki, representing Kwara Central Senatorial District of\u00a0Kwara\u00a0State did not sign any committee report as it affects the said investigation\u00a0contrary to the impression given…
\nIt would be recalled that on May 29,\u00a02014 Senator Saraki in an earlier statement had said that the Senate Finance\u00a0Committee had not cleared the NNPC nor the Minister of Petroleum Resources,\u00a0Diezani Alison-Madueke \u00c2 as such decision\u00a0would depend on the outcome of the (then) ongoing forensic audit of\u00a0NNPC account.
\nIs it not absurd that Saraki should be\u00a0talking of forensic auditing of the NNPC accounts after a committee he fully\u00a0participated in its assignment had finished sitting, concluded investigation\u00a0and had submitted its report? Except Saraki is saying that the Senate Finance\u00a0Committee which he is a member, contracted their duties to investigate the\u00a0issue of the missing $49\/$20 billion or whatever to a forensic auditor, which\u00a0forensic auditing was he talking about?<\/p>\n
\u00a0Does it make any sense at all that a Distinguished\u00a0Senator of the Federal Republic would want the Nigerian public to believe\u00a0that\u00a0a probe panel set up to unravel the mystery behind the alleged missing $49\/20\u00a0billion would waste tax payers or more aptly our oil money over an inquest\u00a0only\u00a0to turn around and tell us that he would prefer to rely on the finding of a\u00a0forensic auditor contracted by the alleged culprit in the fraud? Haba, the\u00a0Nigerian Senate is expected to be wiser and more creative than this?
\nThe problem with most of our so called\u00a0leaders in this country is that they don’t think deep before saying\u00a0things and\u00a0it makes them look naive. Was it not the Finance Minister, Dr Ngozi Okonjo\u00a0Iweala that arranged for a forensic audit of the accounts of her Ministry and\u00a0that of the NNPC? If this money was actually missing, who would have taken\u00a0it?<\/p>\n
Are they not the same people Saraki is relying on their forensic audit? Is\u00a0Saraki expecting the federal government- contracted auditor to support him by\u00a0indicting President Goodluck Jonathan, Diezani, Okonjo Iweala or even the\u00a0NNPC? Abeg make all of una go sitdown for\u00a0ground\u00a0\u00a0when Senator Saraki \u00e2\u20ac\u0153participated\u00a0actively in almost all of the committee’s assignment as it affects the
\ninvestigation of the unremitted US$48.9 Billion oil revenue by NNPC\u00a0what were\u00a0they screening- rumours and beer parlour gists? Nigeria we hail thee!
\nThe senate finance committee is made up\u00a0of PDP and APC members. How come that all the other APC members did\u00a0protest and\u00a0reject in unison the report? Where were they when the committee chairman\u00a0presented the report? Was it agreed whether unanimously or by majority\u00a0that the\u00a0report should go as packaged? Is Saraki the only dissenting voice in the\u00a0committee and if not, why is he the only one issuing press statements\u00a0everyday\u00a0on this particular investigation?
\nThis was the Senate President remark\u00a0as the report was submitted: Facts are different from rumours and what
\nwe have\u00a0before us are the facts based on the interview conducted by the committee\u00a0on public\u00a0hearing and on all the documents that they could put together.<\/p>\n
Is Saraki\u00a0\u00a0that the facts and figures presented in the report were not based on\u00a0documents presented to them and interviews conducted by the committee?If\u00a0Saraki wants us to take him, he should tell us how his committee sourced the data used to\u00a0establish or discredit the allegation and why he didn’t raise alarm when\u00a0they\u00a0were doing it.\u00a0What prevented Senator Saraki and other\u00a0members of the committee supporting him (if any) from coming out with a\u00a0report\u00a0of their own findings and also placing it in the public domain so that\u00a0Nigerians can look at the two reports and know who to believe? Now they have
\nup the entire case because even if they produce their report now,\u00a0nobody\u00a0is going to believe it as it would be taken as an after-thought or rather\u00a0sterile politicking.
\nIs it not clear to Saraki that he and\u00a0the entire senate are as guilty or even more than the NNPC that applied\u00a0resources without the due process of appropriation? \u00a0If the committees\u00a0(ofcourse including Saraki committee) expected to carry out oversight\u00a0functions on the NNPC were doing their job very well, we should not have been\u00a0in this mess of reconciling the accounts of the agencies involved in\u00a0receiving\u00a0and managing the nation funds?\u00a0Truth be told, unnecessary\u00a0politicisation of very serious issues especially those that bother on\u00a0stealing\u00a0or rather misapplication of public funds only denies us the sincerity to\u00a0trace\u00a0and recover some of these monies and this has to stop.
\nIFEANYI
\nIZEZE, Abuja: iizeze@yahoo.com; 234-8033043009)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Ifeanyi Izeze Senators are regarded as more prominent\u00a0and serious-minded political figures than members of the House of\u00a0Representatives usually because they represent larger constituencies and are\u00a0supposed to be more matured…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16303,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n