By Ikechukwu Okaforadi
Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to end the inefficiency and endemic corruption in NNPC Limited, formally Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), if Nigeria will ever meet its Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) production quota in the near future.
The CNPP in a statement signed by its Secretary, Willy Ezugwu, said that to continue to see the monetary policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as responsible for continuing crash of the naira against the dollar amounts to taking the blame game of appointees in the Buhari administration too far, insisting that “the CBN cannot be blamed when the country is not meeting its OPEC production quota as an economy that mainly depends on crude oil revenues.
The CNPP was reacting to media reports credited to the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, who confirmed that Nigeria was not meeting its OPEC production quota due to oil theft.
Faulting the Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPC Limited, Mallam Mele Kyari, who corroborated the Minister’s position and lamented that Nigeria was currently losing about $2 billion monthly to the activities of oil vandals, the CNPP noted that the “claim was aimed at shielding himself and the company’s management team from any blame.
“The country is obviously facing revenue challenges as a mono-economy and the only viable sector for earning foreign exchange is managed by corrupt appointees of the present administration.
“According to media reports, as at June this year, Nigeria has incurred an estimated petrol subsidy to the tune of N2.1 trillion in the first six months of of 2022. This is besides crude oil the NNPC illegally swap traditionally to sustain a corrupt subsidy regime.”
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