The Executive Director, Africa Network for Empowerment and Economic Justice (ANEEJ), Rev. David Ugolor on 27th April, 2017 presented the book titled “Fatality of Nigerian Oil Subsidy”. The book launch attracted Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Justice Reform, Barrister Juliet Nwagu, the Media and concerned members of the public.
The book which was launched by the Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Justice Reform, Barrister Juliet Nwagu, noted that digital technologies offer new opportunities to strengthening reporting mechanisms by expanding the ways citizens can report cases of corruption, efficiently pooling information from wide range of sources, and speeding up the authorities’ ability to analyze and act on complaints data.
One of the salient questions that the title of the book threw up was “whether there is still oil subsidy in the country?”. Continuing, the book calls on the “international community to explore the scope to use unexplained wealth orders and non-conviction based confiscation procedures. This has the potential to make it easier to confiscate the proceeds of corruption and return them to their countries of origin.
In her remarks, Barrister Juliet Nwagu however, said that there should be a debate on whether there is still oil subsidy in Nigeria. She said “I can’t answer that question, I think the person who can answer that question is the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources and of course the GMD of NNPC will be in a better position to answer that question”.
According to her, what is now critical is that Nigerian’s are not happy the way the oil and gas sector is managed but they have to ask questions. Nwagu revealed that government is looking into the improvement of the freedom of information act to enable the citizenry to ask questions about the things that bother them. She said people have to ask questions about the delay of the cases concerning oil subsidy theft.
The Executive Director, Africa Network for Empowerment and Economic Justice (ANEEJ), Rev. David Ugolor told the Federal Government that one of the ways to end oil subsidy corruption in the country is by bringing suspected thieves of the subsidy to justice.
It was part of the recommendations that he made for ending oil subsidy in Nigeria in his book titled: “Fatality of Nigerian Oil Subsidy”. He said for a country to make meaningful progress for the overall development of its people, it must sustain the fight against corruption and ensure transparency and accountable governance system.
According to him, “In prosecuting the war against graft, it is important to ensure that those involved in grand corruption cannot continue with impunity. They must be brought to justice through active enforcement of anti-bribery laws, and/or that they face restriction ps on their ability to travel, invest or conduct business overseas. They should be immediately dispossessed of the proceeds of crime.”
The Executive Director said that the citizens must report instances of corruption with the confidence that actionable information will be out to appropriate and effective use by law enforcement agencies and governments.
The book launch which lasted for two (2) hours came to a close with the unveiling of the book titled: “Fatality of Nigerian Oil Subsidy” by the Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Justice Reform, Barrister Juliet Nwagu. Each attendee were given a copy of the book and group photograph were taken which captured all attendees present at the book launch.
The programme which was moderated by Mr. Mohammed Attah, a leading stakeholder and partner to ANEEJ in the fight against corruption in Nigeria, generated active interactions, contributions and questions and answers from the attendees.
