Mohammed Shosanya
The Publish What You Pay (PWYP), Nigeria and the Community Outreach for Development and Welfare Advocacy (CODWA) working on transparency and accountability in the Nigerian extractive industries has implored President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to urgently implement key recommendations contained in the 2023 EITI Valudation Report on Nigeria in the implementation of the EITI Process in the country.
The validation exercise, conducted by EITI is a quality assessment mechanism for measuring progress in implementing EITI standard and ensuring compliance to its requirements by member countries.
Comrade Taiwo Otitolaye,National Coordinator Publish What You Pay (PWYP), Nigeria and Adebayo Titus,Community Outreach for Development and Welfare Advocacy (CODWA),conveyed this in a statement made available to Premium News.
Some of the recommendations the global EITI madd in its recent validation report are:
1. Greater government oversight of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) Secretariat, its financial management and recruitment practices.
2. The EITI called on Nigeria’s government to ensure active participation and effective engagement of extractive companies in the EITI process in Nigeria.
3. That the government should ensure that civil society is fully, actively and effectively engaged in all aspects of EITI process.” This is a critical component of the global body to ensure free and independent participation of civil society.
4. The report further recommended that government should ensure that the Stakeholders Group (MSG) overseeing the EITI process is consistently constituted in timely manner and that there is sufficient opportunity for the broader industry and civil society consistencies to freely and independently nominate their representatives into the National Stakeholders Working Group (NSWG), among others. And that more CSOs inclusion on the NSWG is highly recommended.
5. The global body is of the opinion that the “NEITI 2007 ACT” should be amended to reflect the current reality.
According to the report,Nigeria achieved a moderate score of 72 points in implementing the global EITI standard. The overall score is an average of three components scores on: stakeholders engagements; transparency; outcomes and impacts.
On outcomes and impacts component, Nigeria achieved a high score of 92 points. The country scored moderate 71.5 points on transparency component, and recorded fairly low points of 52.5 on stakeholders engagements component. Nigeria was awarded 2 additional points for effectiveness and sustainability of its EITI implementation.
The global body said Nigeria will have to implement all recommendations and corrective actions identified in the report before the next validation exercise, commencing January 2026 or face suspension.
The groups said,the current EITI ranking of Nigeria has negative implications on the economy and the drive for foreign investments into the country’s oil, gas and mining sectors.
The current EITI ranking of Nigeria is actually a backsliding from where the country was before the recent validation exercise,they said.
They added:”The last validation exercise was conducted in 2019 when Nigeria was adjudged “Satisfactory Progress” which represented the highest ranking any member countries of the global EITI can attain at the time.
“This unfortunate backsliding by Nigeria in the global EITI ranking is a reflection of weak institution, poor stakeholders engagement, low transparency and accountability process. All these have negative implications for investors’ confidence and growth of the extractive sector.
“The EITI validation report is taken very seriously by foreign investors, multi-lateral institutions and development agencies when making investments decisions.
“The Nigeria’s fairly low score in stakeholders engagement component, particularly the extractive companies, indicates their lack of confidence in the EITI process in Nigeria, with implications on investment decisions.
“The Presidency and other agencies with oversights functions needs to act swiftly and implement these key recommendations and other reforms to enable effective EITI implementation in Nigeria”
