Widely regarded as a den of corruption, the NNPC is regarded as the bell weather of the Nigerian economy but currently has an identity crisis is it both an operator and a regulator. Under plans to introduce sanity into the sector, President Buhari intends to break the company into two separate entities.
According to President Buhari, the decision would form one of the key steps of his reform of the country’s oil and gas sector. In recent reports on Nigeria's troubled oil and gas sector, the NNPC is considered a cesspool of corruption and fraud, notorious for the non-remission of revenues from oil sale to the country's federation account.
There had been insinuations that President Buhari would unbundle the NNPC into four companies but the president said he will opt for the approach of creating a regulator and an investment vehicle. While one of the successor companies will be an independent regulator, the second would operate as an investment vehicle for the country.
President Buhari said: “I am reforming the oil and gas sector, breaking up the NNPC into two parts. The first will become an independent regulator for the sector, while the second will act as an investment vehicle for the country.”
In addition, he added that there would also be a new bid round for oil blocks in the country, adding that he favours a transparent auction process. According to the president, ministers would no longer have power to award contracts.
He lamented that none of the perpetrators of illegal deals in the corporation had so far been apprehended and brought to justice. In addition, President Buhari said that as part of the ongoing reform of several strata of the country, his administration would merge the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission into one strong and more effective anti-graft agency.
President Buhari said: “I have already acted to remove political control over awarding of contracts away from ministers who use them to get political favours and kickbacks. I will introduce a new system of plea bargain, that will allow those who have stolen assets and funds to return them but if they do not take that opportunity we will pursue them through the courts.”
In addition, President Buhari insisted that his administration would not relent in asking foreign countries, including the US, to help in returning stolen funds that are sitting in private accounts abroad but rightfully belong to the people of Nigeria. He lamented the fact that the country had become over-dependent on oil because of the incompetence and corruption of government that concentrated on how best to steal oil revenues instead of how best to use oil windfalls to invest in a modern, growing economy.
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