Key points
- CBN, NDDC and NUPRC skipped Senate committee hearings on NEITI audit reports without sending apologies or representatives
- NEITI itself also failed to appear, joining the agencies it was set up to monitor in snubbing lawmakers
- One senator warned the absent agencies deserve no second chance, but the committee granted one anyway
The Central Bank of Nigeria, the NDDC and the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission have all ignored Senate summons to answer questions over NEITI oil and gas audit reports.
The reports cover the oil and gas industry between 2021 and 2023, and the no-shows have stalled a probe into how public funds and natural resources were managed over that period.
The Senate Committee on Oil and Gas issued the summons to get the agencies to explain issues raised in NEITI’s audit findings. None of the invited bodies sent a representative, wrote a letter of explanation or offered any excuse for their absence, according to lawmakers at the hearing.
NEITI joins agencies it was created to watch in snubbing lawmakers
The more striking development at the hearing was NEITI’s own failure to appear. NEITI was set up in 2004 specifically to audit financial flows between extractive companies and the government, publish what it finds and report to the National Assembly for action.
Its decision to skip the Senate session placed it alongside the very agencies it was established to hold accountable.
Senator Patrick Ndubueze of Imo North called out the pattern directly, saying the no-show was deliberate and calculated on the certainty that nothing would follow.
“This reflects the level of commitment of government agencies in this country. No letter was written. No excuse was offered. No representative was sent to explain why the chief executives could not attend. To me, they don’t deserve to be given a second chance,” Ndubueze said.
The rest of the committee, however, voted to give the agencies another opportunity to appear. Critics say that decision reflects a wider pattern in which federal agencies routinely ignore legislative summons with no consequences, knowing that lawmakers will back down.
A pattern stretching back decades, costing Nigeria trillions
The refusal of government agencies to respond to audit queries and legislative summons is not new. Since civilian rule returned in 1999, ministries, departments and agencies have treated NASS invitations as optional, with successive presidents and governors doing little to enforce compliance by agencies under their control.
NEITI was designed to be a watchdog for Nigeria’s extractive sector, with a mandate to disclose revenue flows openly, monitor how money is spent and prevent corruption in natural resource management.
However, the agency has no power to punish wrongdoers. It can only report to the National Assembly, which then decides whether to act. Repeatedly, it has not.
During the Buhari administration, NEITI reports were largely ignored, and the agency gradually scaled back its reporting activity.
Analysts say trillions of naira and millions of barrels of crude oil have gone unaccounted for across successive administrations as a direct result of the breakdown in audit enforcement.
The Senate committee said it would invoke its powers if the agencies failed to appear at the next scheduled hearing.