A committee is a group that keeps minutes and loses hours- Milton Berle
At the last count, the Jonathan administration has set up at least 5 committees and task forces to address Nigeria's petroleum issues. The way committees on this oil palava have sprang up brings to mind the joke that if you want to kill an idea, set up a committee. At the last count, there is the Subsidy Reinvestment Board, chaired by Dr Christopher Kolade, Special Taskforce on Governance and Controls in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and Parastatals under the ministry of Petroleum, chaired by Mr Dotun Sulaiman. Others are Petroleum Industry Bill task force and technical committee chaired by Senator Udoma Udo Udoma; National Refineries Special Taskforce- chairman- Dr Kalu Idika Kalu and the Petroleum Revenue Taskforce- chairman- Nuhu Ribadu. Nigeria's petroleum issues have moved beyond setting up task forces and committees. There are probes concluded and ongoing in the House of Reps and the Senate on this oil production and subsidy issue.
This proliferation of committees with duplicate functions and terms of reference shows the lack of willingness to tackle the rot in the petroleum industry.
Can the government please take concrete steps and address the country's oil production issues?
It is safe to conclude that the President doesn't know what to do about this Petroleum issue.
ReplyDelete