The Missing Okigbo Panel Report

Punch Editorial
Tuesday November 18, 2003

At the beginning of this month, this newspaper made a startling revelation on the missing report of the Pius Okigbo Panel of Inquiry, set up by the late Gen. Sani Abacha junta in 1994 to probe how the $12.4 billion oil windfall earned by the nation during the first Gulf War in 1991 was spent. The newspaper arrived at the conclusion after a two-month- long search for the report at the relevant quarters, including the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and the Department of National Archives at the Federal Ministry of Information and National Orientation, could not provide a clue to the whereabouts of the report. The current SGF, Chief Ufot Ekaette, happened to be a member of the Okigbo panel.

A summary of the panel’s report submitted to the Federal Government revealed that Gen. Ibrahim Babangida’s regime conspired with top officials of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and squandered the entire fortune on unproductive or dubious projects. It was shown that out of the $12.4 billion, $12.2 billion was disbursed, leaving a balance of $206.037 million. The money, according to the summary, was frittered away through “Dedicated Accounts”, which were not accessible to auditors. It may be recalled that William Keeling, a Financial Times of London correspondent in Nigeria then, was hurriedly deported because of his incisive report on the windfall. Since the summary of the report was made public, many have called for the release of details of the findings to no avail. Okigbo, a renowned economist, passed on in 2000.

In response to the PUNCH’s publication on the missing panel report, the FG reacted last week, saying it was searching for the document. A terse statement which emanated from the SGF’s office simply said: “ The report is not lost. It’s with the Federal Government.” The PUNCH has since written the Presidency for assistance in locating the report.

Like its predecessors, this administration has routinely raised the public’s hope by setting up inquiries to investigate puzzling issues of national importance. The latest of such panels include the two separate committees reportedly inaugurated by the FG last week to investigate the N12 billion debt incurred by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and the contracts awarded by the establishment.

There are scores of others. Some prominent ones include the Christopher Kolade panel set up by the FG in 1999 to review contracts awarded by the Abdulsalami Abubakar regime between January and May 1999; the Oluwole Rotimi panel that investigated FG’s landed property nationwide and the Chukwudifu Oputa panel on rights violations. Others are panels on several air disasters, the January 27, 2002 Lagos bomb blasts, recent fire incidents at the local and international wings of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, the Idris Kuta panel on the Senate, which was later reviewed by the Oyofo Committee, et ce tera. Not a few Nigerians implicated by these probes still walk tall in the streets as free men, while some of them are holding or eyeing sensitive public offices. The FG has been implementing the 1994 Kayode Eso report on the judiciary most reluctantly.

The non-availability of a document of profound importance as the Okigbo Panel report is a tell tale clue on the contempt with which officialdom holds the anti-corruption campaign. It is tragic that probes in the country scarcely lead to punishment for culprits or the furtherance of justice and transparency in public life. The fate of past probes and the reports therefrom confirm the painful fact that inquiries have become tools used to divert public attention from official corruption, ineptitude and other crimes, or to intimidate and blackmail political opponents. The authorities concerned owe the nation a duty to produce the report by whatever means possible. For, even if the FG lacks the political will to implement it, the public have the right to preserve the report for posterity.