Expert Proffers Solution To End Corruption In Petroleum Industry

Corruption in petroleum industry birthed militancy – Christopher Akpojotor Agaga

There is no denial that in the minds of many patriotic Nigerians in Diaspora, who are Professionals and have become authorities at different capacities, what matters most is setting things straight in Nigeria; making leadership accountable to the people while delivering election campaign promises to the citizenry. This is similar to the interests of the Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Spain, Comrade Stephen Tella and a few other Chairmen, APC Diaspora.

Christopher Akpojotor Agaga

It is in the effort to correct the age long plague, corruption, that has bedevilled the Nigerian petroleum sector, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Niger Delta region in South-South Nigeria, that APC diaspora has sorted out Prince Christopher Akpojotor Agaga, who is well read and informed in the Nigerian petroleum industry as well as a few other countries around the world.

Recalling the problems with the Nigerian oil sector, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the Oil cabals and the Niger Delta people of South Southern Nigeria which dates back to 1907 when Nigerian Bitumen Corporation conducted exploratory work in the country, Prince Agaga boasted that if the Federal Government agrees to follow his proposal, contained in this report, the issue of Niger Delta agitations/militancy, the amnesty programme, as well as the unemployment menace ravaging Nigerian youths will be properly taken care of.

Of a truth, the Nigerian oil and gas industry has been vibrant since the discovery of crude oil in 1956 by the Shell Group. However, the sector was largely dominated by multinational corporations until the early 1990s when Nigerian companies began to make a foray into the industry. Local participation was boosted with the implementation of the Nigerian Content Directives issued by the NNPC about a decade ago, and eventually, by the promulgation of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGIC) Act (The Act) in 2010, which seeks to promote the use of Nigerian companies/resources in the award of oil licences, contracts and projects.

In respect to the enactment of the Local Content Act, Agaga, in an interview with newsmen, advised the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to create the office of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), which he said will be a Federal Government organ, statutorily saddled with the authority to formulate and regulate the implementation of the Local Content Policy in the Petroleum industry.

“This by extension is to monitor the full adherence to all the clauses as stipulated in the signed Local Content Act right from the pre-qualification stage through the Bidding stage and during the awarding and execution stages, because the Local Content Policy is to regulate, evaluate, monitor and effect the day to day implementation of every operation in the Oil and Gas industry which stipulates that Nigerians must be encouraged to be major players in the industry.

“This, the Nigerian Government believes will help in capacity building and also enhancement of all necessary opportunities. But ironically, this noble innovation of Government, because it has not been properly handled, has not yield the required results and as such, in a very disappointing way, quenched the apprehensions which are serious sources of worries to all operators in the Oil and Gas Industry.

“In addition to the above, effective monitoring and evaluation of projects are essential and pivotal means of guiding and accelerating the economic growths. However, evidence has shown that the practice of monitoring and evaluation / enforcement during construction projects in the Oil and Gas industry is grossly deficient since it has not been effectively extended through the necessary apparatus of Government to the Grassroots operational areas and as such led to the wastage of resources and leakages which negates project programmes designed to impact positively on the poor suffering people of this country.