Relationship between I and NNPC officials was most stressful challenge – Okonjo Iweala

A former Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has revealed the most stressful task she encountered while working under former President Goodluck Jonathan.

She made the revelation in her book entitled ‘fighting corruption is dangerous.”

She said the disdain relationship that existed between her and officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, was her most stressful challenge.

According to her, the hostility was largely because of the lack of transparency in the operations of NNPC and the Ministry of Petroleum Resources – a problem that for long bedevilled the country.

Okonjo-Iweala said that at the heart of this were the discrepancies in revenue numbers.

She wrote, “In 2012, in addition to the serious issues of the oil subsidy fraud, tensions began to rise in FAAC meetings over the lower-than-projected disbursements of oil revenues to the Federation accounts.”

The former Minister stated that investigations by the finance ministry showed an average shortfall of N160 billion per annum, which according to NNPC’s explanations was due to oil theft and pipeline vandalism.

Okonjo-Iweala revealed that her attempts to get accountability for the development put her at crossroads with NNPC officials.

She described “trying to bring transparency and accountability to this sector” as “probably one of the most stressful and dangerous tasks of my job as finance minister!”

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