up to 2007, Mr Cameron said that “last year Nigerian oil exports were worth almost $100 billion, more than total net aid to the whole of sub-Saharan Africa. Put simply, unleashing the natural resources in these countries dwarfs anything aid can achieve – and transparency is critical to that.”
Speaking at G8 Economic Summit in Davos, David Cameron said, “a few years back a transparency initiative exposed a huge black hole in Nigeria’s finances – an $800 million discrepancy between companies’ payments and government’s receipts for oil. This is leading to new regulation of Nigeria’s oil sector – so the richness of the earth can actually enrich the people of that country. And the potential is staggering.
“So we’re going to push for more transparency on who owns companies, on who’s buying up land and for what purpose, on how governments spend their money, on how gas, oil and mining companies operate, on who is hiding stolen assets and how we recover and return them.”
Recall that at the 42nd convocation lecture of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, on the same day, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, former minister of education threw up a challenge, not only to government but to oversight bodies including the national assembly, the media and civil society, when she stated, that a total of $67 billion (made up of $45 billion in foreign reserves and $22 billion in excess crude account) in direct savings by the Olusegun Obasanjo government from oil boom revenues up to 2007, has been frittered by the Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan government.
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