Former Minister of Education, Obiageli Ezekwesili, has called on President Bola Tinubu to launch an independent audit of transactions between Dangote Refinery and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
Ezekwesili emphasized the need for public scrutiny and transparency, citing evidence of murky dealings that warrant investigation.
In a statement on her X handle, Ezekwesili highlighted the controversy surrounding the project, which she described as having national interest significance.
She questioned how a project of such stature could be embroiled in controversy, attracting negative attention from both local and international investors.
She stated, “I kept from commenting on the Dangote refinery-NNPC saga to stay true to my mantra that evidence should always inform our opinion.
“However, as more and more information filtered out from both parties, we can reasonably conclude that something seriously murky has gone on and needs to be fully unraveled for public accountability. And urgently too.
“How can a project that by all definition attained the stature of a ‘national interest project’ be marred in this depth of embarrassing controversy that is playing out in the full glare of the local and international investing community?
“Did the @NigeriaGov not tell us it borrowed $3.3 billion from AFREXIM Bank to take a stake in the Dangote refinery?
“When we were in government, I often told the @nnpclimited leadership that they cannot carry on as though there is a ‘Federal Republic of the NNPC’ just because they think of themselves as ‘the goose that lays the golden egg’.
“The opacity of the NNPC was the reason we took great delight in designing the Multi-Stakeholders Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative @nigeriaeiti in those early 2000s that I pioneered as Chairperson. We went above global minimum voluntary standards of transparency requirements by entrenching ours in an Act that established NEITI as the Transparency Regulator of the Oil and Minerals sector.
“The @NGRPresident owes a duty to Nigerians to immediately use the instrumentality of NEITI to launch an independent audit of the Dangote Refinery-NNPC transactions in order to offer the public the true state of play. It is in the national interest to do so,” she stated.
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