Is President Olusegun Obasanjo's proposed National Dialogue the way forward for Nigeria?
FG to Audit NNPC Account, Says Minister
From Tunde Sanni in Ilorin, 12.15.2004
Minister for Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, yesterday said the Federal Government, as part of its due process monitoring policy may soon audit the accounts of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company {NNPC}. The minister, who was the special guest of honour at the Kwara State Economic Summit held in Ilorin in her goodwill message to the occasion said the Federal Government would report its findings from the NNPC audit back to Nigerians. She added that by the second quarter of next year, the audit report would be ready for Nigerians to assess the performance of the government in the oil sector. She explained that the focus of the NNPC audit would be to determine the number of barrels of oil that were sold and how the money realised from the sales was utilised. Okonjo-Iweala highlighted the efforts of the government to ensure prudent management of the nation's resources and pointed out that so far, the Obasanjo administration had saved extra $5.2 billion from sales of crude oil. "That is the extra and the plan is that next year, 50 percent of that will go into investment, mostly in power, a little bit in health and in education and some would go into pension. "The other 50 percent we are going to keep because when the oil price come crashing down, it will not go back to where it used to be and that is the real problem," she said. The minister urged Nigerians to embrace re-orientation of values as the current traditional value system encourages corruption. She hinted of a possible restructuring in the federal civil service, in which less than 13 percent of staff in her ministry are graduates while about 70 percent others belonged to the junior cadre of grade level 01-06. Okonjo-Iweala stated that the junior staff rather than being laid off would be empowered educationally and made to acquire professional skills. In his welcome address, Governor Bukola Saraki tabled a list of requests before the Federal Government which he wanted the minister to assist in relaying to President Olusegun Obasanjo. The governor called on the Federal Government to redeem its pledge to the state on the rehabilitation of the Chikanda-Kosubosu road which linked the state and the country with the Republic of Benin, and requested that the project would sail through the 2005 federal budget. He pleaded for the support of the Federal Government for the state owned Kwara Furniture whose products he noted are targetted at the international markets. "This means the products must be of top quality, which cannot be supported by materials and fabrics available locally," Saraki said. The governor also sought federal support in the efforts to turn the Ilorin International Airports into a major cargo hub. He said his administration is already discussing with a Cargo company which is contemplating relocating to the state from its Lome base. "The Federal Government needs to support this project by reviewing the complex bureaucracy that currently makes cargo clearing very tedious, by creating more efficient customs services and other policies that encourage business in this sector," he said. In his speech, the Economic Adviser to the President, Professor Ode Ojowu who is the guest speaker at the summit remarked that the State Economic Empowerment Development Strategies (SEEDS) is a neccessary complement to the National Economic Empowerment Deve-lopment Strategies (NEEDS). The presidential adviser explained that the basis of the development strategy was the need to pilot the Nigerian economy towards the same direction if government efforts and programmes are to be translated into meaningful life for the people of the country. He explained that like the NEEDS programme, SEEDS aimed at focussing on the agreed common priorities like agriculture, small/medium scale enterprises, infrastructure, public finance/public sector reforms and laid emphasis on the social sectors.
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