NNPC’s GMD Harps On Transparency

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has
pledged to intensify synergy with relevant stakeholders to ensure efficiency
and transparency in the activities of the corporation.

Mr Andrew Yakubu, the Group Managing Director of the
corporation, made the pledge recently in Abuja when members of the House of
Representatives Committee on Treaties and Agreement visited him in his office.

Yakubu said that the NNPC was committed to transparency and
accountability in all its activities in line with the transformation agenda of
the Federal Government.

He reiterated the commitment of the NNPC to continue to
honour and respect all treaties binding on it.

In his remarks, Mr Yacoob Alebiosu, the Chairman of the
committee, said the visit was part of the committee’s oversight function.

Alebiosu stressed the need for the NNPC to refer all
bilateral or multilateral treaties or agreements “which place financial
obligation on Nigeria or require domestication to the National Assembly.

He observed that there was no clear-cut structure in place
for the effective implementation of treaties and agreements entered into by the
Federal Government.

The chairman decried the non-implementation of treaties and
agreements by Federal Government and called for a change of attitude.

Responding to the observation made by the committee, Mr
Anthony Madiche, the Secretary and Legal Adviser to NNPC, said the only
treaties the corporation was privy to, were the Joint Development Zone Treaty
with Sao Tome and Principe, and the Carbon Credit Treaty aimed at ending gas
flaring.

Madiche explained that the Federal Government was the
signatory to both treaties and that the NNPC was only involved as the agency
that oversees government’s investments in the oil and gas sector.