The issue of CBN Letter implies
that there are fundamental problems on the pattern and processes of governance
in Nigeria. Current news hovering over the Nigeria political space are issues
concerning letters written to Federal Government by individuals and or
government institutions without reply by the government. For the purpose of
this article, I will concentrate on the implication of the letter written by
CBN Governor to the Government on misappropriation of a whooping amount of 49.8
billion dollars by NNPC.
On September 23, 2013, CBN Governor
wrote a private letter to President Goodluck, notifying him on the continued
non-remittance of the complete revenue of NNPC to the CBN. After three months,
the letter found its way to the public raising many questions and defence from
the three parties involved (CBN, NNPC, Government). While NNPC defended their
figures, CBN said that they are not ready to join issues with NNPC. In the
light of the foregoing therefore, I will highlight some implications of the
letter.
The action of CBN insinuate a disconnect
on the knowledge of the process of day-today handling of revenue between NNPC
and CBN; furthermore leads to questions on the level of communication between
CBN and Government. If after 3 months, complain sent by CBN Governor to the
president has not been attended to, something must be wrong somewhere. Maybe the
presidency did not find it worthy to investigate the content of the letter. But
how can alert on misappropriation of 49.8 billion dollars of the nation fund
not attract prompt attention of the president?
Must letters privately sent to
the president come to public domain before it will attract the required attention
it needs? This is because it is expected that after 3 months, even if the
letter eventually get into public domain, the parties should have come out to
tell us that the issue has been resolved. This reveals that there is no
cooperation between government agencies…… if not, how can you explain this.
Must CBN write to the president
when it has unlimited access to information on NNPC? Writing letters should
have been a step after utilizing other means of negotiation. This tells us that
either CBN has problem with NNPC or that the letter has other motives.
From the figures presented by NNPC
on their defence reveals that either the CBN do not take appropriate records of
NNPC transaction or that NNPC is economical with information. However, the
continued silence of CBN on this issue is not helping matters. They should know
that they are not there for themselves but to serve the people. Therefore I
urge CBN to come out publicly and defend their stand. If actually such huge
amount is missing from out common wealth, then there is need to intensify
pressure on all parties involved in order to bring any person or group that are
manipulating the future of Nigerians to book.
