Follow Us on Google
The Senate has resolved to summon the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), and 39 other Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) over their failure to honour invitations to appear before its Committee on Finance investigating revenue remittances and compliance with extant financial laws.
The decision followed a motion by the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, Sani Musa, who, during plenary on Wednesday, accused several revenue-generating agencies of frustrating legislative oversight by refusing to appear before the committee or submit requested financial records.
Leading the debate, Musa said the committee, acting pursuant to Sections 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), was investigating the financial operations of government-owned enterprises and MDAs, including internally generated revenue, stamp duty collections, operating surpluses, and statutory remittances into the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF).
He said that despite repeated invitations, many agencies had either ignored the committee or claimed they were under no obligation to appear before it. According to him, such actions undermine the constitutional oversight powers of the National Assembly and weaken fiscal accountability and transparency in the management of public resources.
Musa also alleged that several agencies had consistently violated the Fiscal Responsibility Act and the Finance Act 2022 by retaining revenues that ought to have been remitted to the federal government.
“Most of them don’t comply. Instead of remitting what is required by law, they retain the larger percentage of the revenue and remit only a fraction. We need to call them to order,” he said.
He added that some of the affected agencies had withheld government funds since 2020, stressing that the committee would work with the Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) to reconcile their accounts and ensure that all outstanding funds were refunded.
Contributing to the debate, Senate President Godswill Akpabio dismissed claims by some agencies that Senate committees lacked the authority to summon them.
Other News
“The Senate has the power. The National Assembly has the power. We have the powers enshrined in the Constitution to invite them,” Akpabio said.
He directed the Finance Committee to present a substantive motion empowering the Senate to compel the attendance of all defaulting agencies.
“Come with a substantive motion. One of the prayers should be to compel them to appear before the National Assembly through your committee,” he said, warning that the Senate would take appropriate constitutional measures against agencies that continued to disregard its summons.
The motion was adopted by a voice vote.
The agencies to be summoned include the CBN, NNPCL, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, the Nigerian Railway Corporation, the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), and the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).
Others are the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), the Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Corporation (NAIC), the Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM), the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), NNPCL Retail Limited, the Nigerian Commodity Exchange, the Institute of Agricultural Research and Training, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), the Nigerian Agricultural Quarantine Service (NAQS), the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI), the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), the Sokoto Rima River Basin Development Authority, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), the National Examinations Council (NECO), and the Federal Medical Centre, Jabi.
Also included are the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), the National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA), the Veterinary Council of Nigeria, the Computer Professionals Registration Council of Nigeria, the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), the Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited (NIGCOMSAT), the Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA), the Nigerian Shippers’ Council, the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet), the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), and the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA).
