By Femi Falana
Globally, subsidies, whether for food, transportation, energy or housing, are part of good governance. So, the issue is not subsidies but who benefit from them. In Nigeria, subsidies are primarily of the rich, by the rich and for the rich. I will highlight a few, how they are being manipulated and how huge sums of money can be recovered not just to subsidise fuel but also provide funds for development.
1. Diversion of N40 billion from Federation
Account
A company, Continental Transfert Technique had
been hired by the Ministry of Interior to collect the Combined Expatriate
Residence Permit and Alien Card, CERPAC, fee of $2,000 per annum from every
expatriate in Nigeria. The revenue from 2019 comes to an average of N40 billion
per annum. This collection which violates Section 162 of the Constitution and
provisions of the Immigration Act 2015, is then shared on percentages of
Federal Government, 30; Interior Ministry, 7; Immigration Service, and
Continental Transfert Technique, 58 per cent. We challenged this illegality at
the Federal High Court and won the cases. The court directed the NIS to collect
the funds henceforth and remit same to the Federation Account. But the
contractor and the Federal Government appealed against the judgement and have
continued to share the N40 billion per annum.
2. Additional Revenue of $1.5 billion payable
to Federation Account
In July 2015, I drew the
attention of the Federal Government to the fact that the 15-year fiscal
incentives given to the oil and gas companies operating under the Deep Offshore
and Inland Basin Production Sharing Contracts Act had expired in June 2014.
When the Federal Government ignored our request, we drafted a Bill for the
amendment of the law. The Bill which was adopted and sponsored by Senator T.
Orji scaled the first reading in the Senate but was not passed before the
dissolution of the 8th National Assembly. However, the same Bill was modified
and passed by both houses of the 9th National Assembly and assented to by
President Buhari on November 4, 2019. In justifying the passage of this Bill,
then Senate President Ahmed Lawan announced that the new law would increase the
revenue of the nation by not less than $1.5 billion per annum.
3. Outstanding royalties of $62 billion
In campaigning for the amendment of the Deep
Offshore and Inland Basin Production Sharing Contracts Act, I requested the
Federal Government to collect outstanding royalties payable by the
International Oil Companies under the Act. The Federal Government admitted that
the country had lost a whopping sum of $60 billion. But my demand for the
collection of the huge fund was ignored.
The governments of Rivers, Akwa Ibom and
Bayelsa states then approached the Supreme Court which on October 20, 2018
ordered the Federal Government to collect the royalties for the past 18 years.
The Federal Government confirmed that the outstanding royalty withheld by the
IOCs is $62 billion but has refused to collect it.
4. FG denied revenue of $500 million by a
group of corrupt public officers
The international Cargo Tracking Note Scheme
to protect international shipping and prevent the movement of dangerous cargo
and arms shipments was introduced into Nigeria in 2010 via an agreement between
the Nigerian Port Authority and TPMS, a private company. Barely a year later,
the agreement was suspended. When our attention was drawn to the illegal
suspension of the Cargo Tracking Note system, we protested and the suspension
was lifted on May 28, 2015 only to be suspended again in 2016.
In 2022, President Buhari issued an executive
order which authorised a company to operate the Cargo Tracking Note. But five
companies sponsored by top government functionaries overruled the President and
hijacked the contract. The company that won the contract has since sued the
Federal Government at the Federal High Court. Meanwhile, Nigeria has lost at
least $500 million while the security of the nation has been compromised by a
bunch of corrupt public officers.
5. Sale of public assets and enterprises
Successive regimes have been selling assets
and enterprises owned by the Federal Government to members of the ruling class
in the name of privatisation. The buyers turned round to engage in asset
stripping. According to the Bureau of Public Enterprises, between 2004 and
2002, the Federal Government sold 142 public enterprises to members of the
ruling class. The 10 per cent shares reserved for the staff of every privatised
enterprise have been cornered by the so called “core investors” contrary to the
provision of section 5(3) òf the Privatization and Commercialisation Act.
6. $7 billion fixed in 14 banks
Sometime in 2006, the CBN yanked off $7
billion from the nation’s foreign reserves and fixed it in 14 commercial banks
in Nigeria. The deposit and the accrued interests were not recovered from the
banks. When I reported the matter to one of the anti-graft agencies, the CBN
claimed that it had forgiven “the forbearance”.
7. Sale of Polaris by Heritage Bank, Keystone
Bank, Union Bank and Polaris Bank by CBN
The CBN took over Heritage Bank, Keystone
Bank, Union Bank and Polaris Bank, spent trillions of Naira to revitalise them
only to turn round to sell them under the table. For instance, CBN invested
N1.3 trillion in Polaris Bank but sold it for N50 billion!
8. Theft of Crude oil
The Nigerian Extractive Industries
Transparency Initiative, NEITI, has revealed that Nigeria lost 619.7 million
barrels of crude oil valued at N16.25 trillion ($46.16 billion) to crude oil
theft between 2009 and 2020. Immediate past National Security Adviser, General
Babagana said that Nigeria might lose $23 billion in 2023 to crude oil theft.
9. Theft of gold and other solid minerals
The theft of the nation’s mineral resources is
not limited to crude as solid minerals are equally smuggled out of the country
by highly placed criminal elements. Former Minister of State for Mines and
Steel Development, Dr Uche Ogah, recently disclosed that private jets are being
used by the rich for gold smuggling in Nigeria. He stated this at an
investigative hearing on $9 billion annual loss to illegal mining and smuggling
of gold organised by the Senate Committee on Solid Minerals, Mines, Steel
Development and Metallurgy. During his contribution at the hearing, Senator
Orji Uzor Kalu disclosed that Nigeria lost close to $54b from 2012-2018 due to
illegal smuggling of gold.
10. AMCON is owed N5.4 trillion by the rich
A few years ago, commercial banks were going
to collapse due to toxic loans taken by members of the ruling class. To
prevent the impending economic doom, the Federal Government set up the Asset
Management Corporation of Nigeria, AMCON, to buy off the loans with trillions
of Naira provided by the CBN. AMCON has not been able to recover the loans of
N5.4 trillion from about 370 corporate bodies.
11. Indiscriminate import duty waivers
A few privileged members of the business
community buy dollars at official rate while they are allowed to import all
manners of goods into the country. In the last five years, import duties worth
N16 trillion were waived for them.
12. Effort to track and monitor tankers
conveying fuel sabotage by NNPC
On August 8, 2018, the Federal Executive
Council, FEC, approved the installation of technology monitoring schemes and
structures under the Petroleum Equalisation Fund, PEF, for N17 billion. The
technology which was designed to track and monitor tankers conveying fuel and
other petroleum products was not acquired while the N17 billion approved for it
was diverted.
13. N10 trillion diverted by CEOs of
government enterprises
The Buhari government revealed in December 19,
2018 that government enterprises including the CBN owed about N10 trillion in
unremitted operating surplus as at August 2018. The details were provided. The
said sum of N10 trillion remains unpaid.
The Minister no doubt enjoyed her trip to
Nigeria and Lagos in particular as during her interactions with Nigerians
throughout her official visit, she never failed to allude that Nigeria is a
good place as her French colleagues, including the French Ambassador,
Emmanuelle Blatmann who accompanied her all through the visit were ecstatic and
at home with Nigerians.
The Minister may also be re-echoing what she
has been hearing from her boss, President Macron who was quoted by Habib
Haruna, Chief Press Secretary to former Lagos State Governor, Ambode during his
visit in 2018 that “I discovered Nigeria and a lot of my friends are here. I
discovered Nigeria and I discovered Lagos and I discovered the shrine, an
iconic place, a place where the best of music is given”.
14. N6
trillion unpaid ground rents by buyers of government properties
On March 29, 2023, the Senate
noted that since 1992, over two million houses across the 36 states and the FCT
had been built and allocated to beneficiaries by the Federal Government without
evidence of payment of ground rent on the properties. Consequently, the Senate
set up an Ad Hoc Committee to recover over N6 trillion unpaid ground rents from
property owners in the country.
15. Stolen crude oil valued at $29.17 billion
A group of lawyers engaged by NIMASA confirmed that 60.2 million barrels
of crude oil valued at $12.7 billion of crude oil was stolen and illegally
exported to the United States of America between January 2011 and 2014.
This has not been recovered.
Also, the House of Representatives investigated and confirmed that undeclared
crude oil worth $17 billion was exported to global destinations during the same
period. The affected companies are known but government seems to lack the will
to bring them to book and recover the sum of $29.7 billion being the value of
the stolen crude.
16. Oil theft of N16.25 trillion
The Nigerian Extractive
Industries Transparency Initiative, NEITI, revealed that between 2009 and 2020
Nigeria lost 619.7 million barrels of crude oil valued at N16.25 trillion
($46.16 billion) to oil theft. The security forces have not been able to stop
the stealing and smuggling of crude oil from Nigeria. However, Tantita Security
Services Nigeria Ltd, TSSNL, a private company discovered pipelines through
which crude oil was being diverted from a 40,000 barrel per day Forcados pipeline
to the high seas for export. The indicted oil companies, including an IOC
involved in this grand theft, are yet to be prosecuted.
17. Deduction of collection costs by FIRS & NCS
The Federal Inland Revenue
Service and Nigeria Customs Service are allowed by their enabling laws to
deduct percentages of the taxes and duties collected by them as collection
costs. Thus, the FIRS between 2016 and 2020 made N533.39 billion deductions,
while Nigeria Customs Service withdrew N128.64 billion as cost of collection in
2022. The laws which allow agencies of the Federal Government to deduct
collection costs are contrary and inconsistent with section 162 of the
Constitution which provides that all revenues collected by the Government of
the Federation shall be paid into the Federation Account.
18. Diversion of $6.065 billion approved for turn-around
maintenance of refineries
Between 1993 and 2016,
successive regimes spent, through the NNPC, about $6.065 billon on the
so-called turnaround maintenance and rehabilitation of the four refineries at
various times. It is public knowledge that the turn-around maintenance of the
refineries was not carried out. Therefore, the contractors should be invited by
the EFCC and compelled to refund the said sum of $6.025 billion.
19. Investment in Dangote refinery and rehabilitation of 4
refineries
The Federal Government has
invested $2.7 billion in Dangote Refinery while the NNPCL will supply the
refinery with 300,000 barrels of crude oil per day. Furthermore, government has
awarded the contracts for the rehabilitation of the two refineries in Port
Harcourt for $1.5 billion, as well as Kaduna and Warri refineries for $1.4
billion. We are compelled to call on the Nigeria Labour Congress and Trade
Union Congress to monitor the ongoing rehabilitation and upgrade of the four
refineries.
20. Special salaries for top public officers, security
votes, and pension for governors
Top public officers have
illegally taken themselves out of the general salary structure. For instance,
contrary to section 70 of the Constitution which provides that the salaries and
allowances of legislators shall be fixed by the Revenue Allocation Mobilisation
and Fiscal Commission members of the National Assembly are paid emoluments
ranging from N13 million to N15 million per month. In addition to their
salaries the 36 state governors are paid security votes running into hundreds
of millions per month. The largesse has since been extended to all senior
public officers, including heads of ministries, departments, and agencies of
the federal and state governments, as well as local government chairmen.
The security votes paid to
senior public officers are about N241 billion per annum. As if such subsidy is
not enough, state governors have been placed on scandalous pension of billions
of Naira. But due to public criticisms, the Lagos State Government has halved
the pension for ex-governors while the governments of Kwara, Imo, and Zamfara
states have abolished the payment of the outrageous pension to former governors
and deputies. We call on all other state governments to emulate the example of
the aforementioned three state governments.
21. Diversion of dividend and feed gas of $33 billion by
NNPCL
Nigeria LNG Limited is jointly
owned by Nigeria and the OICs. The 49% shares of Nigeria in the joint venture
were paid for from the Federation Account in 1989. On March 29, 2021, former
President Buhari disclosed that the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas, NLNG, had
generated $114 billion in revenues, paid $9 billion in taxes, $18 billion
as dividend and $15 billion in Feed Gas Purchase to the Federal Government.
However, rather than pay the fund into the federation account as
constitutionally directed, the $33.9 billion dividend and feed gas was diverted
by the NNPCL.
22. Diversion of trillions of Naira through fuel subsidy
fund
Notwithstanding the allocation
of 445,000 barrels of crude oil to NNPC per day for domestic consumption,
it has been confirmed that the figures for fuel importation in Nigeria between
1999 and 2023 are as follows: *1999-2006 =N813 billion; * 2007-2009= N794
billion; * 2010-2014= N3.9 trillion; * 2015-2023= N11 trillion.
… The Chief Executive Officer of
the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, Mr. Mele Kyari, stunned
the nation when he said that the Federal Government still owes the company N2.8
trillion in fuel subsidy payments. But the monumental fraud that has
characterised the fuel subsidy scam has been confirmed by the Buhari regime.
Thus, on March 27, 2022, former Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr.
Timipre Sylva, publicly lamented the controversies surrounding the amount of
petrol that the nation consumes daily; he said the subsidy regime encouraged
criminal activities like smuggling, which in turn impact negatively on the
nation’s oil resources. He said that: “I am told the figure sometimes rise to
as high as 90 or over 100 million litres. I don’t know how that happens. At
this rate, I have said if anyone is looking at a criminal enterprise, look no
further than the fuel subsidy.” The criminal enterprise ought to be probed by
the Bola Tinubu administration.
Conclusion: It is crystal clear
from the foregoing that members of the ruling class are heavily subsidised by
the peripheral capitalist system while the masses are subjected to excruciating
economic pains. We are therefore compelled to call on the Nigeria Labour
Congress and Trade Union Congress as well as the progressive extraction of the
civil society to mount pressure on the Federal Government to stop the
dollarisation of the national economy, indiscriminate grant of duty waivers,
theft of crude oil, gold, and other mineral resources and recover the nation’s
looted wealth. In other words, these ‘subsidies’ should be recovered while the
nation’s refineries are fixed so that the country can provide genuine subsidies
that can make life livable in Nigeria.
*Falana, SAN, lawyer and human rights activist, wrote from Lagos
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