The transparency of the Federal Government in the oil, gas and mining industries is irrevocable, the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), stated on Thursday.
Buhari stated this as the newly inaugurated 15-member Governing Board of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative and vowed to intensify the drive for increased revenue from the country’s extractive industries.
Speaking at the inauguration of the board in Abuja, the President, who was represented by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, said, “Let me renew the commitment of the Nigerian government to the implementation of the EITI under the provisions of the NEITI Act 2007 and the global EITI standards.
“The present administration is passionate about the EITI process because it serves two key agendas of this administration.
“First, the extractive industry is very strategic to Nigeria’s economy and hence central to my administration’s economic agenda.
“Second, transparency and accountability in the management of our natural resources is equally central to the anti-corruption agenda of this government.
“Nigeria is therefore irrevocably committed to the implementation of EITI in the oil, gas, and mining industries.”
Buhari observed that over the years, NEITI had demonstrated competence, integrity and commitment to the values that the country required to achieve economic growth and development in the extractive sectors.
This, he said, was through availability of reliable information and data required for national planning and reforms.
He advised the new board to ensure that NEITI continued to preserve these virtues for the benefit of the citizens.
He explained that the appointment and inauguration of the NEITI board was a demonstration of the Federal Government’s commitment to transparency and accountability in the management of Nigeria’s economic resources.
The President charged the new board to be non-partisan as NEITI was non-political and had maintained neutrality all through almost two decades of its existence.
Responding, the Chairman of the Board, Olusegun Adekunle, thanked the president for the opportunity to serve, stressing that his team would work hard to increase Nigeria’s revenue from extractive industries.
“We will work hard in raising revenue for the country through the oil, gas and mining sectors. And this will be done in accordance with the law,” he told journalists on the side-line of the board’s inauguration.
Adekunle assured the president that his team would push the boundaries of transparency and accountability in Nigeria’s extractive industries and would be committed to strengthening the ongoing reforms in the country’s extractive sectors.
