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From Adesuwa Tsan, Abuja
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 chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, Sani Musa, who, in the plenary yesterday, 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 the 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 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.
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Contributing, Senate President Godswill Akpabio dismissed claims by some agencies that Senate committees lacked the authority to summon them.
“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 through a voice vote.
The agencies to be summoned include the CBN, NNPCL, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, Nigerian Railway Corporation, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) and the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).
Others are Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Corporation (NAIC), Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM), Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), NNPCL Retail Limited, Nigerian Commodity Exchange, Institute of Agricultural Research and Training, Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Nigerian Agricultural Quarantine Service (NAQS), Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI), National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), Sokoto Rima River Basin Development Authority, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), National Examinations Council (NECO) and Federal Medical Centre, Jabi.
Also included are National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA), Veterinary Council of Nigeria, Computer Professionals Registration Council of Nigeria, Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited (NIGCOMSAT), Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA), Nigerian Shippers’ Council, Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet), National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) and the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA).
