Senate Finance Committee Chairman, Ahmed Makarfi, has disclosed that the investigation of the alleged missing $20 billion from the Federation Account did not indict Petroleum Minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke, because there was no document to prove where she approved the expenditure.
Ahmed Makarfi
Makarfi, former Kaduna State Governor, also counselled that the agitation for power shift back to the North in 2015 should not be at all costs since democracy means that Nigerians are to choose whoever they want to rule them.
He spoke to TheNiche in an exclusive interview in Kaduna, where he explained that the investigation conducted by the committee did not indict any one or institution since it found no money technically missing.
He asked Nigerians to await the outcome of the forensic audit ordered by the committee.
Awaiting forensic audit
His words: “If you are to indict at this point, it is institutions you can indict. It is when the forensic audit comes out that you can indict individuals.
“That is why some of the recommendations say ‘subject to the forensic audit’. We said the National Assembly (NASS) should take further legislative action upon the receipt of the forensic audit if we find any reason to do so.
“So, we have not foreclosed anything in our report.”
Makarfi said for one reason or another, some people believe that Alison-Madueke and others should be indicted, “but we have not seen anywhere she made any approval. So, if you don’t see any particular thing she approved, how do you come to indict her?
“The forensic audit also covers payment on subsidy, and in that case, the people that could be indicted are many.
“In our report, we said we did not go into areas of oil contract. There is nobody who can do oil contract without several cadres of approval. So, our report should be seen in the context that it is and that it is not covering all issues, but purely accounting for money.
“Even in the area of accounting for that money, we have made conditional recommendations and when we receive the forensic audit we will take further legislative action based on what is contained in that forensic audit.”
Why kerosene subsidy remains
Speaking on other matters, Makarfi said it was right for the CBN not to remove subsidy on kerosene because the written directive the late President Umaru Yar’Adua gave on it was not implemented.
He absolved the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan of blame for not implementing the directive.
Asked whether former CBN Governor, Lamido Sanusi, now Emir of Kano got the statistics wrong, Makarfi said: “He did not miss the point in the area of subsidy on kerosene.
“Even before Sanusi raised the point about subsidy on kerosene, we had raised this matter with the NNPC (Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation) and so, it was not new to us because he was not the first person to raise it.
“We got to know that money was spent that was not appropriated and then, his letter came and so, it was nothing new. He was right in the area of kerosene subsidy being spent without appropriation.
“When he said that Yar’adua gave instruction to stop kerosene subsidy, we are not disputing that there was such an instruction.”
Makarfi reiterated that there was never a time even under Yar’adua that the government stopped paying subsidy on kerosene, so the continued payment of subsidy on kerosene is not limited to the present administration.
“It was an issue that continued even under Yar’Adua who gave the instruction in writing. So, inadvertently, the government must have given an instruction which it did not abide by.
“Who took the action? Some people feel that the NNPC on its own took the action or maybe the minister took the action. But we have evidence that [Jonathan] is aware and consents to it.
If Jonathan is aware and consented to it, Makarfi stressed, it is not right to pick one director or one individual and heap the blame on him.
He said that was why the committee recommended that since Jonathan is aware of kerosene subsidy and consents to it, the Constitution says he should prepare a supplementary budget and bring it to the NASS
He added that and if the legislature may decide to approve the supplementary budget or sanction Jonathan; the legislature cannot commence any action until he does that.
“The National Assembly feels that if it wants to take any particular action, our report is there and we have confirmed that some money was spent without being budgeted for.
“We have also confirmed that some money was not remitted and how much it was, but it is nothing near the amount he [Sanusi] was talking about and we have recommended what need to be done.
“That is not to say that because the amount of money involved is much smaller than the amount he stated, it is an issue you wave aside. No matter the amount, all money should be remitted to the Federations Account.
“In that respect, you can say he had a point. But if you are talking about scale, it was nowhere near the amount he talked about.”
Agitation for power shift
On the agitation for power shift, Makarfi said “those talking about it are saying power shift through democratic means, I never heard them saying by all means.
“Democracy means people will end up choosing, so, why do we worry about it? It is still the people who will determine what will happen. Politicians are exercising their fundamental human right by aspiring; nothing stops anybody from aspiring.
“Well, if they speak in one voice, people will also complain that they are out to slaughter us. Well, it is freedom of democracy. Let them be as many as they want to be, but one thing they must speak with one voice on is that we must all work together to address the problems bedevilling our country.
“If they differ on how that can be achieved, I am not so much bothered. At the end of the day certain things will come and unite them.”