New NEITI boss vows to amend act

The Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) Executive Secretary, Hon Musa Sarkin Adar on Thursday vowed to amend the 2007 Act establishing the watchdog organisation to address its lacuna.

He said the inability of NEITI to get the required legislative powers to effectively police and monitor the oil, gas and mining industry is hindering the transparency needed in the sector.

He made this known at the NEITI House, Abuja, as the ex-Executive Secretary, Dr. Orji Ogbonnaya Orji officially handed over to him.

He recalled that the former Executive Secretaries, Dr. Waziri Adio and Ogbonnaya had once complained to him in the House of Representatives that there were some gaps in the Act that established NEITI.

He said since the watchdog is to oversight powerful energy firms, it needs adequate legislative power to act.

Adar said, “I looked at the act before it is handed over to me officially. I know it before I came here. I shared my opinion with Wazir Adio, equally with Orji Ogbonnaya Orji at one time in my office in the National Assembly, that there is lacuna in the act that established this institution.

“And it needs to be strengthened by an act of parliament. And that is going to be one of our major tasks.

“I wonder how an institution like this, who’s going to oversight very powerful mafias in the economy of this world, and you don’t have any teeth that you can bite. Lack of those teeth to bite is hindering our performance, our career performance.”

Meanwhile, Orji stated that the Federal Government was able to recover $3 billion and more than $6 billion in outstanding revenues and liabilities was identified through evidence-based reporting.

He said his achievements strengthened domestic resource mobilisation and fiscal transparency in the extractive sector.

“When I assumed office on 19 February 2021, NEITI faced a convergence of operational, governance, and institutional challenges—threatened eviction from rented offices, a vacant NSWG, strained stakeholder relations, inadequate tools and infrastructure, low staff morale, and a rapidly evolving extractive governance landscape demanding climate reporting, systematic disclosure, beneficial ownership transparency, and data-driven accountability.”

He stated that the institution was able to rebuild trust across government agencies, extractive companies, civil society, and the media and was able to maintain full global compliance with the consistent publication of Oil & Gas, Solid Minerals, and FASD Reports, advancing key reforms including PIA implementation, beneficial ownership transparency, contract disclosure, licensing accountability, environmental reporting, and subnational governance.

“Despite the complexities surrounding the 2023 Validation cycle, Nigeria achieved 92/100 in Outcomes and Impact and 90/100 in Transparency, reaffirming NEITI’s standing as a leading global reform institution.”

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He urged the staff to be loyal to the new Executive Secretary.