Ahmed Calls on EITI to Respect Sovereignty of Member Nations

•Urges next administration to fight corruption

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Dr Zainab Ahmed, yesterday called on the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) to respect the sovereignty and complexities of member countries.

Speaking during her visit to the permanent office of Nigeria’s version of EITI, called NEITI, in Abuja, Ahmed also charged the next administration to make it a duty to fight corruption and strengthen the anti-corruption war.

Having previously served as NEITI’s executive secretary, Ahmed who also launched the Gender and Environmental Reporting Frameworks of the organisation, noted that she was proud of all that the agency had achieved.

“The development of these frameworks are commendable, not just for the purpose of meeting Nigeria’s obligation to the global EITI, but to help resolving  the lingering negative impact of oil, gas and mineral exploration in our host communities, as well as reducing the widening gender disparity in our extractive industries.

“I wish to call on the international EITI to always consider and respect the sovereignty, peculiarities, context, uniqueness and diversities of each member’s state in the implementation of the global initiative in their respective countries, particularly during the validation exercise being conducted by the international body every three years.

“Let me also use this opportunity to appeal to the incoming administration to strengthen anti-corruption agencies and reform-minded institutions like NEITI in its economic policy agenda, considering the agency’s unique national and international mandates,” the minister said.

She added that through its regular oil, gas and mining audits, publications of timely policy papers, NEITI was well positioned to guide and shape government policies in the energy sector and contribute to robust economic and public finance management in Nigeria.

Executive Secretary of NEITI, Dr Ogbonnaya Orji, in his remarks, stated that the two reports being launched were direct responses to its readiness to move into the issues of gender and the environment in view of the strong connection and linkage to the EITI desired impact in the lives of its citizens.

“Host communities in the country today currently face complex challenges of environmental degradation. In these host communities, the girl child, women and children suffer the most environmental degradation in terms of deprivation of their livelihood, access to farming and petty trading.

“In most of these communities, most of the rural dwellers are women and children. They suffer the worst health challenges arising from emission and environmental pollution. The two reports you will launch centres on these issues,” he stated.

He added that the NEITI Act was currently being reviewed to seek ways and means of augmenting government support.

“ The tragedy that we face is that we incentivised revenue generation but while our reports may lead to revenue generation to sister agencies who also take some percentages, NEITI walks home empty handed.

“The review of the NEITI Act is focused on innovations that will enable NEITI operate with less government funding and dependency and function more effectively as the  watchdog of the extractive sector,” Orji said.