The NORTH WEST GUILD OF EDITORS (NWGOE), a coalition of professionals and stakeholders committed to transparency and the defense of public institutional integrity, hereby issues a formal rejoinder to the claims made by the Chairman of the Senate Public Accounts Committee, Senator Ahmed Wadada, regarding an alleged ₦210 trillion discrepancy in the accounts of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).
While we respect the Senate’s constitutional mandate for oversight, the Forum is deeply concerned by the mathematical impossibility of the figures being brandished and the subsequent threat to issue arrest warrants for former officials, including the immediate past Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Umar Ajiya.
The “Trillion Naira” Fallacy
Senator Wadada’s claim of ₦210 trillion “unaccounted for” funds is not based on forensic reality but on a fundamental misreading of corporate balance sheets.
National Budget Context: Nigeria’s entire 2024 national budget stands at approximately ₦28.7 trillion. To suggest that a single entity “lost” ₦210 trillion—an amount nearly eight times the size of the national budget—is to engage in economic fiction.
The Revenue Reality:
The total crude oil revenue of the Federation over the seven-year period under review (2017–2023) does not aggregate to ₦210 trillion. Demanding a “refund” of money that was never earned by the state is an exercise in futility.
Deconstructing the Accounting Entries
The Forum wishes to clarify the two figures that the Committee has erroneously “netted” together to create this sensation:
₦103 Trillion (Accrued Expenses): These represent the cumulative, multi-year obligations for Joint Venture (JV) Cash Calls. These are not “cash outflows” that have vanished; they are accounting entries of liabilities for production costs, royalties, and technical fees shared with international partners.
₦107 Trillion (Sundry Receivables): By definition, a receivable is money owed to the NNPCL, including massive subsidy debts from the Federal Government. Labeling a debt owed to a company as “missing funds” is a professional travesty.
Defending Professional Integrity
Mr. Umar Ajiya served as CFO during a period of unprecedented transparency, during which the NNPCL published its first audited financial statements in over four decades. His leadership was instrumental in the transition of the NNPC from a statutory corporation to a commercial entity under the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA). To characterize the ₦5.9 billion transition cost—a complex, international legal and corporate restructuring—as a “mere name change” is to undermine the very reforms the National Assembly passed into law.
Our Position.
The Ajiya Solidarity Forum warns that using “phantom numbers” to inflame public passion does not constitute effective oversight. It instead damages Nigeria’s reputation in the eyes of international investors and devalues the professional contributions of public servants like Mr. Ajiya.
We call on the Senate Public Accounts Committee to:
Engage in a sober, technical reconciliation of accounts rather than media-led ultimatums.
Withdraw the threats of arrest against officials who have already provided 19 detailed responses to the committee’s queries.
Focus on the reality of the PIA framework, which distinguishes between “accrued liabilities” and “revenue discrepancies.”
Signed:
USMAN HAMZA
National Coordinator,
NORTH WEST GUILD OF EDITORS
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