“The governors’ (under the umbrella of the Governors’ Forum) antics of rushing to the press at the earliest opportunity of FAAC meeting is most unfortunate, using this as an unfortunate excuse not to pay salaries.
Ndu Ughamadu, Group General Manager Public Affairs, at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), says the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF), are using the Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC), standoff, as a ploy to turn the public away from the corporation. In a statement released on Sunday, he said the governors are seeking a convenient excuse not to pay salaries.
He said the antiques of the governor’s forum to run to the press anytime they had an impasse with the monthly sharing meeting is quite unfortunate. Ughamadu noted that the governors had approved the company’s plan to set aside funds for the exit of its Joint Venture cash call commitments to partner oil companies.
“The governors’ (under the umbrella of the Governors’ Forum) antics of rushing to the press at the earliest opportunity of FAAC meeting is most unfortunate, using this as an unfortunate excuse not to pay salaries.
“It is a ploy to set the public against the NNPC. Yet, it is the same Governors’ Forum that approved the cash call exit to restore investors’ confidence and boost crude oil production, thereby generating more revenue for them to share. Again, all crude oil sales proceeds go straight into the CBN and not to the NNPC accounts.”
In a text message received by Vanguard, Saturday night, Ughamadu had indicated that the corporation will meet with the Vice President who heads the National Economic Council (NEC), to try and break the deadlock.
“The issue will be resolved with the Vice President who chairs the National Economic Council, NEC,” the text read.
The Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, who heads the allocation committee, which is largely comprised of state commissioners of finance, had tabled the fraction between NNPC and FAAC to the NEC on Thursday.
While briefing journalists after the meeting, she said NNPC is a state owned business that is funded with public funds:
“For the purpose of this briefing, we operate NNPC as a business. We have invested public capital in that business and we have expectations of return and when that return falls lower than our expectations, then the owners of this business, which in this case is the federal government and states need to act.”
While NNPC and its owners bicker about how to share the proceeds of their investment, it might be expedient for the government to decisively take its much pronounced steps of reviewing the terms of its production sharing contracts and its oil corporation to exit its JV cash call obligations, before they become liabilities once PIB kicks in.