For our lawmakers, it is easier to probe than reform

Our lawmakers have found their favourite pass time. Probe anything that catches their fancy. They have mastered the trick of carrying out high-profile probes that attracts a lot of media attention but does not really achieve anything.

First, they raised allegations against an innovative indigenous firm, Systemspecs that developed a very innovative technology, helping the government track and capture over three trillion naira of public money into the Treasury Single Account (TSA). You would have thought such a company should receive the highest honours in the land.

Not so with our lawmakers. Without any appreciation for the intellectual capital that has gone into achieving such a feat, and with absolute disdain for facts, Dino Melaye (Kogi West) made some wild allegations against Systempecs, claiming that the company was going to earn N25 billion illegally. So, a technology that could have become a model for the world has been tainted by the wild allegations of senators that should have been passing laws that will make that company prosper.

From the company, they moved on to MTN Nigeria, one of the most successful foreign investments in Nigeria. Once more, we are hearing wild allegations of how a company that has invested about $16 billion in the Nigerian economy, and paid billions in taxes over the last few years, illegally moved out of the country $14 billion. Yet the whole case hangs on a technicality that the senate could have easily called on the concerned regulatory authorities to correct.

Is it practicable in today’s Nigeria, where it takes at least three months to get a company registered, to be issued a Certificate of Capital Importation (CCI) within 24 hours? If it is possible, what needs to be put in place to make it practicable? Rather than ask the critical questions and seek for a way to fix it, our lawmakers would prefer the drama of a probe because it attracts attention and makes them appear to be working.

The latest probe that has caught the attention of our lawmakers is the planned concession of the railway system. Now their concern is that the federal government is not following laid down procedure and so they plan to launch a probe. Yet, still going through the slow grind in the legislature is a National Railway Bill that could free the sector for private sector investment and unlock one of the most viable and critical sectors that could drive economic growth in Nigeria. A government agency recently complained that they have been invited to the house 57 times in the last two months. In other words, they could as well be working from the national assembly than in their offices.

While our lawmakers love the probes, they have displayed an absolute lack of urgency in passing the critical laws that could help drive economic growth. For 16 years, the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) has been stuck in the legislature.

Even the version of the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB) initiated by the Senate just passed the second reading after almost two years of the 8th senate. Passing the PIB could unlock billions of investment in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector, yet our senators and House of Representative members fiddle while investments are diverted to other oil and gas destinations like Ghana, which passed its own oil bill in a record time despite being relative a baby in the global oil and gas business. Imagine what could be achieved if the PIB is passed in the same haste as the recent amendment to the Code Conduct Tribunal Act was achieved.

The Deputy Minister of Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu has been busy signing MOUs from China to India, yet many of the multi-billion dollar investments signed by Kachikwu will not happen unless we get the regulatory framework for the oil and gas industry right. There are several other laws, which have been gladly identified by the legislature that needs urgent passage. These include; National Development Bank of Nigeria (Establishment Bill); Nigerian Ports and Harbours Authority Act (Amendment) Bill; National Road Fund (Establishment) Bill; National Transport Commission Act, 2001 (Amendment) Bill; Warehouse Receipts Act (Amendment) Bill; Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) (Amendment) Bill; Investment and Securities Act (ISA); Customs and Excise Management Act; Federal Competition Bill and National Road Authority Bill.

 

Yes, we have heard the Senate President, Bukola Saraki say that the senate is working hard on getting these bills passed. Sadly, we have not seen much action to match the talk. Our dear lawmakers need to understand and understand urgently that the probes may attract media attention, but it is not positive media attention. It is the type of local and international media attention that destroys rather than build confidence.

 

If they want the type of media attention that will build the confidence desperately needed in the Nigerian economy, they should concentrate on the bills that they have already identified and give it the much-needed urgent attention. Passing the identified critical economic bills is what will help the Nigerian economy and reverse the current recession. The media circus that the probes create is only damaging to investor confidence and that is what Nigeria cannot afford now, mostly probes that are launched from a lack of understanding of the underlying issues especially when bills that could move the country forward are gathering dust on their desks.

 

Anthony Osae-Brown

 

Anthony Osae-Brown is the Editor of BusinessDAY.

Twiiter @osaeB