The United Kingdom’s Deputy High Commissioner in Nigeria, Peter Carter, has stated that Nigeria’s oil, gas and mining sectors have the potential to drive transformational change in the country, but warned that revenues from these industries have often become a source of corruption and conflict.
Carter made the remarks at a one-day workshop titled ‘Extractive Industry Dialogue on Corruption,’ organised by the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) in collaboration with the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
Speaking at the event, Carter noted that oil and gas mining can deliver transformational change not only in Nigeria but globally, if revenues are judiciously utilised for the benefit of the people. He said: “Last year, Nigeria’s oil export is over total net aids to the whole of Sub-Saharan Africa. Giving information about the sale and purchase of these valuable natural resources is vital to ensure that they are properly managed and to build open economies and society.”
“As we all know today, if people can see how much their governments receive from selling the resources that rightly belong to them, they can question how that money is being spent,” he added.
Carter was lending his voice to other speakers at the workshop who urged Nigerians to exploit existing legislations, including the Freedom of Information Act, to demand answers on revenue and expenditure from their government.
Ms. Olajobi Makinwa, head of Transparency and Anti-Corruption Initiatives at the UNGC, said: “Huge revenues from these industries have often fuelled corruption, economic stagnation, inequality, conflict and so on.”
She noted that while oil multinational companies continue to record global profits, governments in resource-rich nations such as Nigeria struggle to stay solvent. “Discrepancies in reporting has led to host governments (including many African countries) not receiving full payment from the extractive and logging industries operating in their territories,” she said.
“Many resource-rich countries are not receiving benefits from the extraction of their natural resources; wealth is not distributed evenly and local citizens are not feeling the positive and developmental impact from foreign investment in the extractive industry,” Makinwa added.
Mr. Ledum Mitee noted that global rules alone cannot stamp out corruption in the sector. He said for global legislations to be successful, local laws and systems must cooperate with them and go ahead to deal with local circumstances.
Mr. Foluso Phillips, chairman of the NESG, said the oil industry is prime to transparency, adding: “It is the root of a lot of things we express dissatisfaction with as long as corruption is concerned.”