Opposition party pressures former anti-graft tsar to turn down appointment
DAKAR (TrustLaw) - Nigeria’s former anti-graft tsar, Nuhu Ribadu, is under pressure to turn down an appointment as head of the country’s task force to improve accountability in the oil industry, local media reported on Wednesday.
Ribadu headed the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) from 2003 to 2007, and won international praise for his dedication to combat corruption. After years in Europe and America, he returned to Nigeria where he ran for president last year but did not win.
The West African nation’s minister of petroleum resources appointed him to the top position at the petroleum revenue task force on Tuesday. But his party, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), says it it does not want its members to accept government appointments.
‘’As a political party, we wish to reiterate our position barring any member of our party from taking any appointment whatsoever from the PDP-led Federal Government,” the ACN said in a statement.
“Any member of our party who takes such an appointment does so in his personal capacity,” it said.
Ribadu, quoted before his presidential bid as saying he was willing to serve his country, has yet to make a statement on whether he will accept the appointment, while his party fears the move could be a ploy by the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to benefit from - or ruin - his reputation, the Premium Times said.
“After all, one can never be sure – going by the deceptive nature of the PDP – that the kind of appointment now being offered to Malam Ribadu is being made in good faith, or just to get credible people to launder the government’s badly damaged image and credibility,” the ACN said.
“There is also the possibility that booby-traps will be deliberately set for such credible personalities to guarantee their failure in their stated assignment, after which they will be ridiculed and dumped like an ordinary chump!’’ the party added.
Nigeria is Africa’s biggest oil exporter but revenue has been managed in an opaque manner that has fuelled massive corruption, with billions of dollars-worth of the country's oil riches siphoned off, experts say.
A week of protests against the government’s plans to remove costly fuel subsidies this month revealed massive public anger at endemic graft.
The job of the 17-member task force is to verify all petroleum revenues, including taxes and royalties that are due and payable to the Nigerian government, the Nation newspaper said.
The body is expected to develop improved systems for effective tracking, monitoring and online validation of the income and debt of all operators, state-run corporations and petroleum ministry agencies.
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