65M QUESTIONS FOR BARU

But as figures now show, it is even paying more now than the last government. And to rub salt into the wound, everything is done in secrecy. The methodology of payment is as opaque as the $25 billion contracts awarded by Baru without the approval of the Board of the NNPC, or the benefit of transparency or due process. As for that scandal, the Senate pretended that it would probe how Baru came to award those contracts but quickly backed off after the probe committee chairman was invited to the Presidential Villa for a meeting with the president.

Baru also invited “members of the National Assembly” who were supposed to probe him to a “special dinner” at the Congress Hall, Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja on Tuesday, October 31, 2017. The dinner was interpreted by concerned Nigerians as a bribe to derail the investigation. Well, if you ask me now, I would say, it worked because nothing has been heard about the investigation since then.

Now, let’s go back to the earlier referenced submission by Yari as it cannot be overemphasised. It contains important information that was shockingly lost on many Nigerians. It should have outraged our collective anger against those who think we are fools. But it did not. Not even a whimper of protest from our so-called anti-corruption crusaders and self-appointed custodians of public morality. Let me repeat it here for those who tell us that this government is not corrupt. This was how he said it: “Many of our international partners are saying that even if we are feeding Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana and Niger, we cannot consume more than 35 million litres per day. So, we are wondering where the 60 million litres is coming from.”

Every sensible Nigerian should be asking this government where the 60-65 million litres Baru now claims as the new daily consumption is coming from. By Baru’s preposterous claim, we are losing about the same volume which Kachikwu insinuated in 2015 was rigged. How can that be? Is Baru telling us that the smuggling of petrol spiked to such unprecedented levels as to double the national daily consumption? And is it not curious that this is happening at the same time the NNPC reintroduced the payment of subsidies? Interestingly, the NNPC accounts for more than 90 per cent of petrol imports consumed in the country.

Now, wait a moment, is Baru telling Nigerians that, the borders are more porous under this saintly, tough-talking government? Why is this purported rise in smuggling happening so close to the general election? Why is the government raising its hands in surrender to the problem instead of tackling it head-on? There is this suspicion in some quarters that elements in the government are using this “massive spike” in consumption to amass slush funds for the 2019 elections, and that they are merely using the smuggling narrative to fool Nigerians. You see, Nigerians must hold Baru to account. If we keep quiet, this guy would get away with murder.

Now, can someone compare what was spent annually on subsidy payments under the “very corrupt” government of President Goodluck Jonathan, and what we are spending today on the same subsidy? The federal government recently stated that its annual expenditure on fuel subsidies had risen to over N1.4 trillion and rising. So what did the last government do wrong on this particular score?