Arewa

Arewa's NNDC, Northern Governors & Accountability

Bashir Ibrahim Hassan, ANIPR

For the interest of the non Hausa speaking readers of this news paper, Arewa, within the Nigerian context, means the Northern part of Nigeria. For those who may not know, the New Nigerian Development Company (NNDC) is solely owned by the 19 Northern States of Nigeria. The company was established in the year 1946, out of the desire of the then Northern Regional Government to have a company that would lead in the economic development of the poor North- poor in terms of petroleum resources which the North never had. The company was incorporated as a limited liability company in the year 1966 with sufficient grant from the then Northern Government, under the visionary and farsighted leadership of late Ahmadu Bello (Sardauna).

NNDC was said to have lived up to its expectations in the early years of its establishment. But, now things seem to have changed going by the way the company is run by it management and lack of accountability on the part of its shareholders, the Northern States Governments. NNDC claims to be a conglomerate with spanning interest in many fields of economic endeavors: Agriculture, Hospitality, Mining, capital market, Oil exploration and recently Telecommunications. The question here is, what has this so-called conglomerate done, at least in the last nine years, in moving the North forward through these chosen economic endeavours? Is very clear to those, especially who value and cherish all the legacies of Sardauna, among which the NNDC is one, that the company has not made any remarkable success in all its areas of business focus as mentioned above despite the huge investment of the Northern States amounting to several billions.

Most recently, the Northern Governors at Northern Governors Forum meeting in Kaduna reached an agreement with NNDC to invest five billion naira in order to further strengthen up the capital base of the company. There is nothing wrong in Northern States Governors pumping in more money, if the Company is performing as well as it should be, and its shareholders, the Northern State are benefiting. Unfortunately, the entire North, has remained absolutely backward in all the areas the NNDC claims to have invested and done well, e.g. Agriculture, Mining, Capital market, Oil exploration, etc.

For instance, the NNDC was said to have set aside hundreds of millions and also used for Oil exploration and harnessing in the North, but this mere dream is yet to be transmuted into the realities. The question is, is the NNDC capable in terms of expertise and other requirements to explore oil in the vast land of the North? If yes, how long will it take the company to do that and at what cost? It can not be a sensible business idea for the Northern States to continue to channel public resources into the company for this project without any meaningful progress made for a long time. The North should not ride on the influence of sentiment: the South has Oil, thus the North must have. The North can, if feels proper, invest through the NNDC heavily into the Agricultural sector, the sector the North was generally believed to have performed wonderfully well before the emergence of Oil resources in Nigeria. What ever may be the defense of the NNDC for not abusing the public funds on its Oil exploration project, the fact remains, so much resources were expended on the project and the oil is yet to be found.

I would like to remind all the Northern States Governors, as a concerned Northerner that NNDC is a company, and company is for business, and business is for profit. NNDC should be made to account for how much money it has invested into all its areas of business focus and how much profit was made from the investment, at least in the last nine years of Nigeria's fairly stable political system. The public, I mean the masses of the North, are entitled to know the shareholding base of each Northern State in the company, profit made annually, the profit sharing formula used in sharing the profit to its owners, the nineteen Northern states. Equally, the profit sharing should be based on the share holding strength of each share holder.

For nearly nine years, I have been following, but I have never read in any of the national dailies or hear from any other means of communication, how much was ever realized as profit by the NNDC and also shared to the Northern States, its shareholders. NNDC should not be made to be seen as tunnel through which public resources are diverted by the Northern States Governors for personal interest not public business interest.

Personal efforts were made by my humble self before writing this piece to know the shareholding base of my home state, Kano, through the Director General of Kano's Directorate of Research and Documentation, Kano Governor's Office, Ado Kurawa, but without success. He said, when he contacted the kano ministry of finance, he was told by the ministry that they are not in possession of such record. Also made another effort, through the Director of Press to the Kano State Governor, Sule Ya'u. The story is as good as that of Ado Kurawa: he couldn't get it from the Kano State Investment and Properties Limited (KSIP). This action on the part of the Kano State Government, to me, is either a clear sign of inefficiency or lack of accountability. That, for the Kano State Government to say it is not in possession of the records of its investment worth billions in the NNDC. I learnt from a reliable source that, Kano State Government is the largest shareholder in the NNDC.

Now, I must agree and withdraw my defense for the NNDC with regards to one Abdullahi Musa's article published sometime in September last year describing the NNDC as "Arewa's Bermuda Triangle" for poor performance and lack of accountability on the part of its shareholders, the Northern States Governments.