The Integrity Youth Alliance has knocked the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) for doubting NNPC’s accountability with regards to subsidy.
According to a press release on Thursday in Abuja signed by the Chairman, Board of the Alliance, Adewole Kehinde, he said that Group Managing Director/CEO of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Ltd, Malam Mele Kyari, has never failed on his promises that the Company will remain transparent and accountable to Nigerians.
“It is on that NNPC posts its first profit of N287 billion after 45 years of existence under the leadership of Malam Mele Kyari, ” Adewole said.
The statement read, “Under Kyari, the NNPC Ltd remained committed to conducting its operations with Transparency and Accountability.
“Kyari has attributed the successes recorded by the company’s management team to the freehand and support they got from President Muhammadu Buhari, who he said had never interfered in its affairs.
“Instead of depending on the monthly Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) for funding, we called on the Nigeria Governors to:
- Bring on board creative ideas and solutions to improve their Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) instead of depending on NNPC’s revenue.
- Start thinking like sovereign states in the area of Internally Generated Revenue to be able to survive.
- Start investing in areas where their states had comparative advantages to shore up their IGR with a view to stop their reliance on federal allocations.
“Instead of accusing the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited of fraud and unclear intentions, the Governors should make good use of the opportunities at their disposal and stop relying solely on the Federal Government for survival.
On the partnership of the Nigeria’s Governors Forum with the NLC to confront the challenges of what the NNPC is about, the Group advised the NLC to ensure all the 36 States and the FCT pays Minimum wage to their workers and ensure transparency in the expenditure of the more allocations coming to the States due to subsidy removal.
“There State Governors must be transparent in using their State allocation judiciously and this should be monitored by the NLC and other Civil Society Organisations in the country,” the statement concluded.
It will be recalled that the Chairman Forum and Governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi, said it has become necessary for the two groups to carefully verify all of NNPC’s estimates to ensure that whatever action is taken on subsidy, would make the people direct beneficiaries and not a few wealthy individuals and their cronies in the country.
