By Sunday Etuka, Abuja
President Bola Tinubu has inaugurated the 6th National Stakeholders Working Group, otherwise known as the Board of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) with the charge on members to be non-partisan in carrying out their duties.
Inaugurating the Board on behalf of President Tinubu on Tuesday in Abuja, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume said, the job of the Board is to support NEITI Management and the Secretariat to continue to implement its activities smoothly without any distractions or interference.
“As members of this Board, your job is clearly and specifically evolving strategic policy direction and oversight that supports NEITI Management and the Secretariat to continue to implement its activities smoothly without any distractions or interference.
“It is also very important that the board supports NEITI to preserve its corporate values, remain focused and committed to its values of transparency and accountability for the benefit of all of us present here today and our future generations.
“In order to achieve this, I must remind you that your assignment is non-partisan because NEITI itself is non- political and has maintained dignified neutrality all through its two decades of existence”, he noted.
He stated that the members of the Board were carefully selected based on individual merits, diverse competencies, skills, knowledge, integrity and track records of service in their previous assignments.
According to him, the inauguration of the Board was another positive statement of President Bola Tinubu’s open support, commitment to transparency and accountability in the extractive industry and management of nation’s economic resources, given the mandate and objectives of the Nigeria EITI.
Senator Akume declared that “the present administration is passionate and remains fully committed to the global Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), the work of NEITI and the visible impacts which the EITI process has achieved so far in Nigeria, noting that “the extractive industry is very strategic to Nigeria’s economy. For this administration’s economic agenda, the sector holds the future”.
Secondly, he said, “transparency and accountability in the management of our national resources is equally central to the anticorruption agenda of this government. Nigeria is therefore irrevocably committed to the implementation of EITI in the oil, gas, and mining industries”.
He maintained that the nation’s “faith in the EITI process is not just because it is central to these two key government agendas, but also because, over the years, NEITI has demonstrated a high degree of competence, integrity and commitment to the values that the country requires to achieve economic growth and development in the sector through availability of reliable information and data required for national planning and reforms”.
While acknowledging that NEITI has also supported phenomenal revenue growth in the sector through meticulous application of EITI principles, SGF noted that the agency’s is so important to country and particularly this administration in helping it to define the country’s engagement strategy on the energy transition debate through consultations, constructive engagement driven by reliable information and data.
He stressed that the appointment is a part-time one. “Your appointment as a member of the NSWG is not a fulltime job and as members, please note this very carefully to avoid getting involved into issues of day-to- day management which is the work of NEITI management under the leadership of the Executive Secretary. You are therefore advised to conduct yourselves in accordance with this requirement.
“Your mandate as the Board of this organisation, I once again restate is to ensure effective policy direction and oversight required to deepen EITI in Nigeria”, he emphasised.
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