$20,000,000,000 (N3,600,000,000,000) Missing! NNPC, Where Is Our Money?

PART 1

Several Nigerians have come up with varying theories, essays, and interpretations with regard to the ubiquitous vacuum left by the unreconciled $20 billion over which the NNPC and CBN are at the centre of blamestorming, and I felt it was time I chipped in my own 2 kobo.

First off, it would be necessary to state that the President of a democratic Nigeria cannot hire or fire a CBN Governor. What he actually does is to suggest to the Senate, and they confirm it by 2/3 majority. If the Senate should reject, nothing can be done. There is a very important reason why the people who write Constitutions in most parts of the world made it so. The aim of democracy is to ensure that at no time will one person have the whole nation in their grip. Offices like the CBN Governor, EFCC and INEC Chairmen cannot be controlled by the President. Imagine after having our Valentine Presidential Election on 14/02/2015 and then Goodluck Jonathan suspends Attahiru Jega just before he announces the results.

Central Bank Headquarters, Abuja, Nigeria.

NNPC Towers, Abuja Nigeria

Now to Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the man said $49.8 billion of oil revenue was UNREMITTED by the NNPC to the CBN, and Andrew Yakubu, the NNPC Managing Director, managed to explain away $39 billion which they claimed to have remitted to other Government agencies, without providing adequate evidence. That $39 billion of the $49.8 billion still was not remitted to CBN, just as Sanusi declared from the beginning, but supposedly other Government agencies.

Then the $10.8 billion is what NNPC, during their first meeting to reconcile accounts with CBN, could not explain yet. Then they later went to cook up this story about Kerosene Subsidy and sundry (pipeline repairs, crude losses, strategic reserve), forgetting that there was already a Presidential Order removing subsidy. The other monies which they claimed to have remitted, especially the $6 billion to NPDC (Which NPDC has denied), the $2 billion claimed to have been paid to "other 3rd parties" with no documents to prove it, then also, the $1.2 billion being the N180 billion claimed to have been added to 2011 kerosene subsidy is all what Sanusi is adding to the $10.8 billion to make a total of $20 billion unaccounted for in the entire $49.8 which was unremitted. Meaning that of the $39 billion tried to explain away, he can actually prove that he paid $29.8 billion to other government agencies.

$49.8 billion - $29.8 billion = $20 billion
Or if you prefer: $10.8 billion + $6 billion + $2 billion + $1.2 billion = $20 billion.

'So therefore':

TOTAL UNREMITTED TO CBN = $49,800,000,000 (N9,000,000,000,000)
TOTAL UNACCOUNTED FOR/MISSING/STOLEN = $20,000,000,000 (N3,600,000,000,000)

Fairly decent infographic by budgIT (they can do better)

All of a sudden, on the 18th of February, Diezani Allison-Madueke gathered together a band of Kerosene suppliers, IPMAN, launching Kero-Direct. They brought camera-men and journalists from all over the country, to show they were selling kerosene to the masses at N50/litre, unfortunately, the gargantuan crowds at those fuel stations, and the unending queues they formed was stronger proof that the masses had not seen a litre of kerosene for N50 in years. (http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/02/ipman-flags-kero-direct-n50-per-litre).

As much as the NNPC and the Ministry of Petroleum are fighting tooth and nail to prove the $10.8 was rightfully spent mainly on kerosene subsidy, they have made contingency plans to replace the 10.8 billion from elsewhere. On the 27th of January, Shell was fined N1.84 trillion by NIMASA and NOSREA for the Bonga oil spill (http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/01/shell-pay-n1-84trn-fine-bonga-spill-incident/). Bring out your calculators, the types that can handle figures with the number of zeros only Nigeria Government officials can have the courage to purloin. Now, divide 1,840,000,000,000 by 10,800,000,000 and that magic number, ladies and gentlemen, was the Naira/Dollar exchange rate on 27/01/2014. ABRACADABRA!

I end this beautiful expose on the day-to-day runnings of the Nigerian economy by bringing to view our country's more recently befitting anthem past:

NIGERIA, WE HAIL THEE!




PART 2

These are the amounts Nigerians are being robbed of annually. We talk of the Boko Haram insurgency, which General Owoeye Azazi publicly told Nigerians that originated from a faction of PDP before he hurriedly "died".

Let us make an assumption that the Federal Government and PDP are not responsible for Boko Haram, with $20,000,000,000 (N3,600,000,000,000) they can pay every single one of our 450,000 policemen a salary of N8,000,000/year (N670,000/month). Do you believe policemen receiving a salary of N670,000 per month will be disgracing themselves and their families for N50 from bus drivers? Or dollars from returnees. Please watch this most degrading and dehumanising video, and tell me if this policeman was earning N8,000,000 per year he would be hassling little boys for dollars?



 Merely looking at him you may want to laugh, but if you put your father in his place, working a high-risk life-on-the-line job for N50,000 a month, you'll understand how sad this man's state is. Our policemen don't have to be professional car pushers, disgracing their profession and belittling themselves in the eyes of criminals if our government spent $20,000,000,000 on brand new Innoson IVM pick-up trucks. At N3.5 million each ($20,000) that will give the Nigeria Police 1 million brand new trucks in a single year. Lo, here are our security officials ready to give a Robust Response to crime in the nations capital city, Abuja:

If we decide not to invest in the police, let;s talk about our army who we have heard are about the best in the world, except for proper equipment. Using $20,000,000,000 to equip our army of about 120,000 highly trained men and women will translate to N30,000,000 each. We're talking about dollars here! Every year, enough money to equip every Nigerian soldier with equipment worth N30,000,000 per soldier is stolen. Imagine a single already well trained Nigerian soldier equipped with N30 million of weaponry and technology storming an entire Boko Haram camp alone. He/she would be armed with:

- 1 unit 2006 Heckler & Koch HK417 (http://www.militaryfactory.com/smallarms/detail.asp?smallarms_id=577) $15,000

- 1 unit Portable General Electric XM214 Gatling MiniGun (10,000 RPM) (http://www.kitsune.addr.com/Firearms/Machine-Guns/GE_XM214_Minigun.htm) $25,000

- 1 Audio-Visual-Satellite Communications Set Comprising:
(a) Astronautics 10.4" C-MAN GPS CDU/RDU tactical computer (http://www.army-technology.com/contractors/navigation/astronautics1/astronautics13.html) $500

(b) BOSE Military TriPort Tactical Headset combo (http://www.army-technology.com/contractors/navigation/bose-corporation/bose-corporation3.html) $300

(c) MicroView 35 Helmet Mounted Display (MV35) (http://www.rockwellcollins.com/sitecore/content/Data/Products/Displays/Soldier_Displays/MicroView_35_Helmet_Mounted_Display.aspx) $200

(d) Full body heavy Kevlar armour (http://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/article/2013/09/26/new-body-armor-women-military) $10,000

That's N8,670,000 on each soldier with a leftover of N21,330,000 to spend on ammunition, supplies, transportation, evacuation, reconnaissance, and intelligence acquisition. Remember we're still talking about just 1 Nigerian soldier in just 1 year.


Now, let's assume security was not even a problem in Nigeria. Look at the problem of Power. It costs $1 billion to build a 1,000 MW gas powered electricity plant (http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/14/utilities-tva-coal-idUSL2N0IZ20120131114). Meaning that $20 billion would have increased power generation by 20,000 MW, bring us to a total of 23,000 MW, alas we're back to struggling even below 3,000 MW as at today. We would virtually have the capacity to produce the same amount of power as the biggest power plant in the world once we recoup our $20 billion

22,000 MW Three Gorges Dam in China cost $22.5 billion (180 billlion Yuan)

Fellow Nigerians, this is not the time to think of selfishness or cowardice. Too many of us have died already on bad roads, in bad hospitals, poor security and bad governance. They are now trying to use Boko Haram to kill so many Nigerians so that we will remove our attention from the $20,000,000,000 and beg government to focus instead on securing lives. WE WILL NOT! 

They did the same thing during Occupy Nigeria when on Friday January 21st, 20 bombs were detonated by Boko Haram during the protests against fuel subsidy. more than 160 people were killed, including policemen, protesters, and even a Channels TV journalist, Enenche Akogwu was shot dead (http://www.jaguda.com/2012/01/21/death-toll-of-kano-attacks-at-162). 

20 bombs detonated in Kano State on Friday 20-01-2012 ended Occupy Nigeria

Channels TV Reporter Enenche Akogwu Who was reporting on Occupy Nigeria in Kano was shot dead at bomb scene

The question you should ask yourself is why Boko Haram gets the most aggravated, and murder Nigerians the most viciously whenever NNPC is being asked to give account of the collective wealth of Nigerians. Pray tell.

This time around, let us not relent, let's not fear. Let us keep screaming it in their ears; 


WHERE IS OUR MONEY?!