As there were preparations this week for President Muhammadu Buhari to meet with  the head of the leading global corruption watchdog Clare Short this week, a new claim is out.
According to Dailytimes, a credible source has revealed how the Jonathan administration  had sold an oil bloc for $1.85b but made available a meager amount of $100m. This, which topped the agenda of the meeting will be probed to know what exactly went wrong.
The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) Clare Short is a world body committed to enthroning transparency, accountability and prudent management of revenues from oil, gas and mining to support even development and reduce poverty in resource rich countries like Nigeria.
However, the executive secretary of The EITI in Nigeria, Zainab Ahmed, said over $7.5bn between 1999-2011 have been unaccounted for in the oil and gas sector in the country.
“The amount represents clear cases of underpayments, under-assessments of taxes, royalties, rents… which have not been adequately addressed in the past. “NNPC was unable to provide any evidence that the funds were remitted to the federation as required by law,” she said.
Recall that the central bank governor, Lamido Sanusi, was sacked by Goodluck Jonathan after raising an alarm about unrequited $20bn by the federal government in oil revenues between 2012 and 2013. It is an open secret that government rely heavily on proceeds from bulk oil sales but there has been little oversight of how these are handled.