\
• Atiku faults $1.5b for
renovation of refinery
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), yesterday,
condemned alleged $2.5billion arms purchase scandal “in which officials of
President Muhammadu Buhari-led All Progressives Congress (APC) administration
were named.”
The party urged Buhari to immediately speak up and
provide explanations to Nigerians on what it described as “another ugly
testament of the stench of corruption oozing out from the Buhari Presidency and
the APC, as a party.”
PDP also called on National Assembly to conduct a
joint open inquest into the funds and other monies drawn purportedly for
security of the nation under President Buhari’s watch.
The opposition party
alerted Nigerians to the fact that “with this fresh $2.5 billion arms scandal,
allegedly involving the National Security Adviser (NSA), Gen. Babagana Monguno,
who had earlier revealed that $1 billion also for arms could not be traced, an
alarming $3.5 billion (N1.3 trillion) meant for purchase of weapons to secure
our country under the Buhari administration has not been accounted for”.
According to the PDP, “the exposed barefaced
contract scam in the $2.5 billion scandal as well as the outright disappearance
of the $1billion as earlier revealed by the NSA, showed that the level of
corruption is high.”
“In fact, the unending exposure of sleaze in the
security architecture of the Buhari-led administration has further heightened
apprehensions in the public space that the security situation has been turned
into a huge racket for corrupt enrichment of a few.”
The party demanded that the Buhari Presidency
should come clean and offer explanations on both the $2.5 billion and $1
billion.
PDP made the demand as former Vice President,
Atiku Abubakar, faulted Federal Government’s budget of $1.5 billion for
renovation of Port Harcourt Refinery.
Atiku described the move as an unwise use of
scarce funds, particularly at this critical juncture and for multiplicity of
reasons.
To him, the cost appears too prohibitive,
especially in view of the fact that Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC)
last year sold its Martinez Refinery in California (USA), which is of a similar
size as the Port Harcourt Refinery, for $1.2 billion.
Atiku raised issues about whether or not due
diligence had been done, particularly in respect of public tender, before the
cost was announced.
“Was due diligence performed? This is because we
are certainly not getting value for money. Not by a long stretch.”
The former vice president, advised: “We must bear
in mind that the Shell Martinez Refinery is more profitable than the Port
Harcourt Refinery.
“First of all, our
refineries have been loss-making for multiple years. At other times, I have
counselled that the best course of action would be to privatise our refineries
so they can be run more effectively and efficiently.
“At this critical period, we must as a nation be
prudent with use of whatever revenue we are able to generate, and even if we
must borrow, we must do so with utmost responsibility and discipline.”
According to Atiku, it is a well-known fact that
Nigeria’s economy is in dire straits with unemployment reaching an all time
high of 33 per cent, while inflation has hit another record high of 17 per
cent.
“We cannot as a nation expect to make economic
progress if we continue to fund inefficiency, and we are going too deep into
the debt trap for unnecessarily overpriced projects.
“Our national debt has grown from ₦12 trillion in 2015 to ₦32.9 trillion today. Surely that
is shocking enough to cause us to be more prudent in the way we commit future
generations into the bondage of bonds and debt,” he said.
Comments
Post a Comment