Abstract
That Nigeria was a corrupt society was no longer ‘news’, the problematic has been the complicity of public officials, its spill-over and destructive effects on state, society and the oil economy. Therefore, the endemic nature of corruption constituted a core conversation on the effective management of the sector. Corruption has hindered Nigeria’s capacity to transform its oil wealth to good governance and ensure the vibrancy of the downstream oil industry. This protracted crisis, occasioned by persistent fuel price increase under the pretext of deregulation or subsidy reform has engendered contradictions that deepened impoverishment of the masses. Corruption was at the root of the mismanagement, waste, institutional weaknesses and failures to restore stability and efficiency to the oil sector. Oil sector reform under the prevalent arrangement constitutes a mechanism for the devolution of corruption in Nigeria.
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Notes
- 1.
President Goodluck Jonathan was the Deputy Governor of Bayelsa state between 1999 and 2005 and had become the Governor in 2005 after Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, the erstwhile Governor was impeached under allegations that he had laundered $3.2m discovered in cash and bank account in London. He was later tried and jailed in London, returned to Nigeria and received a celebrated welcome by his loyalists and a Presidential pardon from President Goodluck Jonathan on March 12, 2013.
- 2.
He was a former military President.
- 3.
Prebendal politics justify the principle that public offices should be competed for and then utilized for the private benefit of the office holders and their supporters. Prebendalism manifests in Nigeria as the structure and nature of corrupt clientelism in which public resources are corruptly allocated to co-religionists, conspirators or ethnic-based beneficiaries in order to mobilise, channel and utilize religious, cultural, ethnic and political identities in Nigeria (Adamu 2013). It is the ‘spoils system’, of (bad) politics and (mis)governance in which the state becomes an extension of the ‘property’ of the President.
- 4.
Clientelism is operated under a state whose life has been commandeered by an oligarchy, both civil and military , and channeled towards the fulfillment of personal interests against that of the people. In such a society, power and authority is not derived from an election mandate, but from the manipulation of the peoples vote by the elite. For more information on clientelism, see Balogun, M. J. (1997) “Enduring Clientelism, Governance Reform and Leadership Capacity: A Review of the Democratization Process in Nigeria”, Journal of Contemporary African Studies, Vol. 15, No. 2, pp. 237–260.
- 5.
This is a state with high attributes of rent-seeking. Karl (2007, p. 2) refers to rent-seeking as the “efforts, both legal and illegal, to acquire access to, or control over opportunities for earning rents. In oil dependent countries, rent-seeking refers to a widespread behaviour, in both the public and private sector, aimed at capturing oil money through unproductive means”.
- 6.
On June 29, 2005, the Nigerian government and the Paris Club (a credit-granting institution) reached an historic agreement to write-off US$18 billion (60 percent) from the debt owed the credit institution.
- 7.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC ), was established in 2002. EFCC is to prevent, investigate and prosecute a range of financial crimes in the public and private sectors, including internet fraud, oil bunkering, terrorist financing and government corruption.
- 8.
Many Governors (Governor Njang of Plateau State and Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State) that allegedly fell out with President Obasanjo were hounded and blackmailed out of power by EFCC -sponsored impeachment processes.
- 9.
President Olusegun Obasanjo granted a Presidential pardon to deposed speaker of the House of Representatives , Salisu Buhari who was found guilty of using fake university certificates; President Shehu Yar’Adua shielded the former Governor of Delta State from prosecution for alleged corruption (he was later jailed in the United Kingdom for a related offence); and President Goodluck Jonathan extended a Presidential pardon and celebrated the return of his former boss, Governor Alamieyeseigha who was alleged of stealing state funds by the EFCC . He was smuggled out of Nigeria, arrested and jailed in the United Kingdom for a series of financial crimes (money laundering in particular).
- 10.
See This Day newspaper, June 11, 2013.
- 11.
Ore depot is one of the NNPC oil reserves located in Ondo State (Western part) of Nigeria.
- 12.
The House of Representatives Committee on Public Account requested the Inspector-General of Police to present the leaderships of NNPC, PPPRA, and DPR, to respond to the allegations levied against the institutions they headed.
- 13.
Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), through the National Stakeholders Working Group (NSWG), continued its statutory mandate of ensuring transparency and accountability of the oil and gas industry in Nigeria by the appointment of Sada Idris & Co. (Chartered Accountants) in March 2012, as Auditors for the 2009–2011 Oil and Gas Industry Audit.
- 14.
This is NNPC outlets/filling station for marketing distribution of petroleum products directly to consumers at the official prices.
- 15.
- 16.
For more information about the missing $50billion, see UPI ( 2014).
- 17.
- 18.
- 19.
By this, I mean the Nigerian working class and other individuals in similar socio-economic statuses.
- 20.
Strike actions in Nigeria are always driven by the civil servants and civil society groups and participants cut across class groupings. The long years of military rule and protest against such has integrated the middle and working classes in resistance to government policies, especially in the oil sector. Many individuals that lost to the ruling party (PDP ) during the election often see such protests as an opportunity to register their opposition to the government.
- 21.
Emphasis is mine.
- 22.
MOMAN officially claims that the federal government spent N685 trillion on kerosene subsidies during that period. MOMAN and the National Assembly presented contrary data on the subsidy payments during that period. This reinforces the earlier assertion that government institutions and players in the oil sector should coordinate their activities and reconcile their data to avoid presenting contrary information to Nigerians and the larger global community.
- 23.
Dr. Austin Nweze, a policy analyst who lectures at the Pan African University, Lagos Nigeria. The comment is available at http://issuu.com/thenation/docs/january_15__2012
- 24.
A sawmill industry comprises timber and plank processing factories, which harbours unused planks of wood and subsequently burn such.
- 25.
This is my personal observation as well as my analysis of multiple viewpoints on the reluctance of the public to use LPG .
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Akinola, A.O. (2018). Oil Sector Reform and the Scourge of Corruption. In: Globalization, Democracy and Oil Sector Reform in Nigeria. African Histories and Modernities. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70184-4_10
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