- Says it was ignorant of phone taps of former officials
Omololu Ogunmade in Abuja
The federal government wednesday said it had set up an inter-ministerial committee to review Nigeria’s membership of 310 international organisations to save the country from the embarrassment of unpaid financial obligations and subscriptions and in order to cut down on cost.
Briefing State House correspondents at the end of wednesday’s Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting in the Presidential Villa, Abuja, the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, said the review had become compelling in view of the country’s persistent failure to meet its annual financial obligations to such bodies which was bringing its image to disrepute among the comity of nations.
According to Adeosun, the situation had prompted FEC to constitute an inter-ministerial committee with the responsibility of reviewing Nigeria’s membership of such organisations and also determining those whose membership should be retained or withdrawn.
She said an earlier committee had recommended that Nigeria’s membership of 220 out of the 310 bodies be retained, while the country should withdraw its membership of 90 others, adding that the first committee had put the arrears of Nigeria’s indebtedness to such organisations at $122 million but her ministry disagreed, insisting that the amount was more.
Adeosun also said the disagreement resulted in FEC’s directive that another committee should further investigate the exact amount and make its final report to the council in two weeks.
The minister also disclosed that following the trend, FEC had come up with stringent measures on the status of individuals who could make financial commitments on behalf of Nigeria, pointing out that some of those who had made such financial commitments on behalf of Nigeria in the past were directors and ambassadors.
She put Nigeria’s total financial obligations to such international organisations annually, which FEC now seeks to reduce at $70 million.
“Basically, Nigeria is a member of 310 international organisations and a committee was set up to actually review the rationale for our continued membership of such a large number of organisations particularly in the light of the fact that in many cases, we were not paying our financial obligations and subscriptions which was causing embarrassment to Nigeria and our image abroad.
“In particular, it was discussed that there were some commitments to international organisations made by former presidents which were not cash-backed and so, when our delegations turn up at those organisations, it becomes embarrassing and that was what informed the setting up of the new inter-ministerial committee.
“The initial committee made the recommendations that of the 310 organisations, 220 should be retained while membership should be withdrawn from the rest.
“But the council directed that more work should be done particularly since there was a dispute as to how much is owed.
“The first committee has a figure of about $122 million but we are clear from the Ministry of Finance that it is far more than that.
“So the directive of the council is that we should go and reconcile those figures and come back to council and have a payment plan and avoid Nigeria being embarrassed internationally.
“Also, a circular needs to be issued on who can commit Nigeria because what we identified was that in some cases, it might be a director or an ambassador attending a meeting who committed a subscription on behalf of Nigeria and of course the international organisations begin to chase us for the money.
“So we’ve tightened the procedure for committing Nigeria to donations to international organisations. The inter-ministerial committee is due to come back in the next two weeks with the final figures on the findings and the ministers will then look at those recommendations of international organisations that we want to withdraw from and we will finalise work on this issue.
“Basically, this is about prudence and value for money. Nigeria doesn’t have to be a member of every single organisation but those that we are members of, we have made the decision at FEC that we must pay our obligations.
“We must prioritise our obligations as regards the nation’s image… The subscription is $70 million per annum and there are lots of arrears,†she said.
Also briefing, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Geoffrey Onyeama who spoke on President Muhammadu Buhari’s address at the just concluded 72nd session of the United Nations General Assembly, said while having lunch with United States President Donald Trump, the president solicited Trump’s help in recovering illicit funds stashed in U.S. banks.
The foreign affairs minister further revealed that the current administration did not know that the U.S. was listening to the telephone conversations of members of the Goodluck Jonathan administration on some “suspicious†investments made in the country.
Onyeama said the government was making efforts to recover stolen funds stashed away abroad.
Asked to put a figure to how much had been stolen from the country, he said: “On the issue of how much is stolen from the country, it’s an ongoing thing, we have been discovering all the time because you see the sophistication that there is today in hiding money around the world is amazing.
“Even western countries themselves have a lot of problems and it takes them a lot of time and they discovered about the Panama papers, nobody knew about all those funds illegally stashed until you suddenly have the revelations under the Panama papers.
“So it’s really an ongoing thing and then new ones coming up all the time. As you saw recently we never knew about the U.S. eavesdropping on some telephone conversations of members of the previous government and those in the private sector talking about investments that were made in the United States, it just suddenly came out like that, so it’s an ongoing thing,†he explained.
Last July, an indicting telephone conversation between the former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, and her associates – Kola Aluko and Jide Omokore – was leaked
Alison-Madueke was heard chiding Aluko for being too extravagant and flamboyant, warning that he was attracting attention and scrutiny.
This followed the seizure of some assets allegedly belonging to Alison-Madueke and her associates.
