Monday 5 November 2012

Shameful”: Observers react to Steve Oronsaye’s moves to discredit Ribadu Report

by Isi Esene
The altercation between former Head of Federal Service, Steve Oronsaye and Nuhu Ribadu during the formal presentation of the report of the Petroleum Revenue Special Task Force to President Goodluck Jonathan on Friday has continued to elicit reactions.
Some observers describe the open disagreement as not only “shameful and irresponsible” but also an “attempt to undermine President Goodluck Jonathan’s determination to fight corruption and entrench transparency and accountability in the country’s petroleum industry”.
Oronsaye, the deputy chairman of the committee, and Bon Otti, a member, had opposed the recommendations contained in the report faulting the processes adopted in arriving at the recommendations.
He claimed all the members of the committee were not allowed to see the final draft before submission.
Ribadu, however revealed that both members who opposed the recommendations had complained about the tone of the report saying it was rather harsh.
According to the former EFCC chairman, Oronsaye had reportedly abandoned the task of the committee to pursue his personal ambition to be appointed into the board of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), while Otti was distracted following his appointment as director of finance of the NNPC in the course of the assignment.
A member of Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) Board, Faith Nwadishi, said the president should not allow himself to be distracted by the apparent personality clash among the committee members urging the him to maintain focus on the report’s recommendations with a view to implementing it effectively.
“The Federal Government should not be misled into thinking that because Mr. Oronsaye allowed himself to be used to rubbish the report that the recommendations should not be considered,” Ms. Nwadishi said.
“Every letter of the recommendations must be considered and implemented. Government should forget about going in circles with all these probes and begin to take more serious interest in the various NEITI audit reports since 1999 if it is serious about checking corruption and promoting transparency in the petroleum industry.
“If the President said that another committee will be constituted to consider the Ribadu report, that should not be done in isolation of NEITI audit reports, and others, like the KPMG and other probe reports on the industry.
“The Ribadu report is not saying anything different from what either the Farouk Lawan Committee Subsidy Report said, or what the NEITI audit reports have been saying over the years about corruption in the petroleum industry. It might be saying the same thing in a different language.”
She questioned Oronsaye’s integrity and seriousness saying, “How can a deputy chairman of a serious committee like that not attend meetings and participate in deliberations where decisions were taken only for him to show up a day before the presentation of the report to complain about process.
“For such lack of seriousness, he should be sanctioned and asked to refund all allowances he may have been paid. It is the very height of irresponsibility for a supposed former Head of Service of the Federation to behave so shamefully.
“If he did not participate in the deliberations of the committee, it is a shame that he still showed up on the day of the report presentation to publicly ask questions and condemn the report. Clearly, Oronsaye lent himself to be used to rubbish that report. But, what they should understand is that Nigerians would not allow that report to be rubbished under any guise.”
The executive director, Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, CISLAC, Awwal Rafsanjani, also lent his voice to the issue saying, “Describing the recommendations of the committee as harsh and demanding that it should be toned down after accepting appointments into the Board of the NNPC and as the Director of Finance, NNPC shows that Mr. Oronsaye and Mr. Otti were serving their selfish interests and not the interest of Nigeria, as they were desperate to justify those appointments.”
Now, we wait for the presidency’s implementation of the controversial report.

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