The Governor of Central Bank of Nige
ria (CBN), Mallam Sanusi Lamido
Sanusi, dropped another bombshell last week when he alleged that the total unremitted amount from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to the Federation Account is $20 billion, and not $10.8 billion as earlier believed.
Sanusi was reported to have made the allegation at a meeting organised by the Senate Committee on Finance to harness the views of all the parties involved in the transactions with a view to getting a better understanding of the issues at stake.
The CBN governor’s latest revelation is coming barely two months after he had accepted giving a wrong figure when top officials of the NNPC provided evidence that destroyed his earlier allegation in a letter to the Presidency.
He had said that the sum of $49.8 billion was yet to be remitted by the national oil corporation to the Federation Account for the period between January 2012 and July 2013. At the reconciliation of figures after the first allegation, $10.8 billion was reportedly arrived at the amount that was yet to be accounted for.
Having admitted making a false claim at the first instance it behoves him to be more thorough. To now allege that $20 billion is the actual amount “missing” is to take privilege to absurd ends. Indeed, it raises a credibility question on Mallam Sanusi and queries his intentions.
The effect of this kind of unverified statements on the government and the citizenry is regrettable. Surely, the unwitting display of lack of understanding of procedure and the accounting processes amounts to a national shame.
Incidentally, the NNPC had maintained that nothing was missing and that the CBN had not taken time to cross check the papers. Indeed, the admission of the apex bank to the  release of a wrong figure before tends to give the NNPC some credibility.
Again, the NNPC has said that the allegation that $20 billion is “missing” was borne out of ignorance. Even so, we think that as government departments, both the CBN and the NNPC ought to have taken time to reconcile  their  figures and tried to make good any error internally, rather than make wild, hurried and un-substantiated allegations.
The CBN’s allegation, though unverified has also exposed some excesses of the NNPC. To spend $10.8 billion an equivalent of N1.9 trillion on subsidy claims, repairs of petroleum pipelines and whatever else without recourse to due process is to celebrate illegality in the land.
On the other hand, another source has it that the whole confusion arose from the improper handling of the crude-for- product swap. Whatever the cause may be the bottomline is that Nigeria is being rubbished across the world. Sadly, not everyone that hears the damaging side would hear the part that sets the records straight.
It is equally troubling to recall that all this money was spent at the period State Finance Commissioners were staging walk-outs at the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meetings in protest against dwindling allocations to the States and Local Governments.
The Tide is not impressed with the hurry by officials of the same government to destroy themselves. Even if they can no longer work together, the worst thing to do is to attempt to reconcile figures on the pages of newspapers.
We insist that the CBN, NNPC, Finance Ministry and other relevant agencies should sit together and come to the same page with regard to these allegations and not to politicise what could ordinarily pass for simple accounting process.
In some civilised countries, someone ought to have resigned to protect what may be left of his or her reputation. The disregard for the ordinary Nigerian by those in authority is getting out of hands. The repeated suggestion that some people may be looting the national treasury from within is dangerous. This should never happen again, not now when the people will need to believe the government on every sensitive issue.