The Group Managing Director of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mele Kyari and the Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dakuku Peterside, on Tuesday failed to honour the invitation extended to them by the National Assembly.
The joint National Assembly Committee on Local Content, Petroleum Downstream and Legislative Compliance had invited the duo to be part of its public hearing investigating the breach of Nigerian laws by foreign vessel owners in the coastal region of the country.
Kyari and Peterside not only shunned the Assembly’s invitation but also failed to give reasons for their inability to be part of the public hearing.
The joint committee also walked out top officials of NIMASA from the public hearing and vowed to sanction its Director General, Peterside, if he failed to honour another invitation to be extended to him by the committee.
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Local Contents, Senator Teslim Folarin, and his House of Representatives counterpart, Hon. Legor Idagbo, frowned on the decision of Peterside to shun the invitation despite several reminders.
Senator Folarin described the action of the NIMASA DG as unfortunate and did not allow
the leader of the NIMASA team to introduce himself before he was asked to take his leave.
Folarin said: “It is very unfortunate that men in position of authority would flagrantly shun the invitation of the Assembly. I spoke with Peterside about this event. He was supposed to come three weeks ago but he didn’t come. We rescheduled this event because of him. I called him and asked him to pick a date and he picked today, only for him to write the Clerk three days ago that the Senate Committee was coming to see him.
“This is an investigative hearing which supersedes any other engagement. We won’t sit here and be wasting our time. We will give him one more chance, just one chance. If he failed to honour the next invitation, we know what to do.”
Also speaking, Hon Idagbo, while corroborating the position of Folarin, berated the behaviour of the NIMASA boss saying: “I think we should be ashamed of ourselves as Nigerians. A situation where invitations are sent out and all we get are excuses. I’m aware that Senator Folarin had conversation with the DG of NIMASA and he picked this date.
“The DG went through his calendar and picked this date only for him to send representatives to us today. This committee’s invitation got to him first before that of the House but he chose to ignore us.
“What the DG of NIMASA should have done is to explain to the House Committee that he already had an invitation to an investigative hearing from this joint committee. He could even honour our invitation and still meet up with his appointment with the House committee.
“We cannot continue like this as a country. We sit down at the comfort of our offices and live large. We copy what happens in other countries yet we failed to do what they do there. We fail to respect constituted authority.
“You people (NIMASA) should be ashamed of yourselves. How do we move forward as a country if we continue like this? What engagement is more important than this type of investigative hearing. This type of attitude is unacceptable.”
Source: THISDAY
