Again, Stakeholders Seek Transparency, Accountability In Oil Sector

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YarAdua panelistsBy Adam Alqali

Stakeholders in Nigeria’s oil and environment sectors have advocated the need for transparency and accountability in the management of the country’s environmental as well as natural resources, particularly the petroleum resources. This call was made by panelists and citizens at a town-hall meeting on resource governance organized by the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Foundation in collaboration with Stakeholders Democracy Network (SDN) on Thursday in Abuja

Speaking at the town-hall meeting, the lead panelist, Senator Bukola Saraki who is the chair of the Senate’s committee on environment and ecology said there was a need for the environmental degradation in the Niger Delta to be brought to an end. “The story of the Niger Delta communities which have been affected by oil spillage,” he said “is that of communities with nowhere to run to; they cannot even grow crops. As such, there is need for concerted efforts to stop oil spillage, for the sake of not only our generation but those yet unborn. And for oil spillage to be ended, oil companies must replace aging pipelines as well as introduce technical instruments like leaks detection systems.”

Country director of Stakeholders Democracy Network (SDN) Mr Inemo Samiama, also a panelist, called on the need for Nigeria to value not only its oil resources but also human and environmental resources as well, describing the current practices in the oil sector as ‘unacceptable’ and ‘unsustainable’. “We have to encourage the use of human, oil and environmental resources in a good way. Oil is not the only resource Nigeria can rely on; we have a vitally productive land for agricultural production,” he said.

National growth LS

Another panelist, Zainab S Ahmed, the executive secretary of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) said her organization was set up to improve transparency in the extractive industries (oil, gas and mining sectors) urging the NNPC to stop remitting its sales (of crude oil) to the federal government in naira whereas the transactions were being made in dollars. “They sale the oil in dollars but remit to the federation in naira in the process of which the country loses a significant percentage of the money,” she said.

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