trangling the truth is a Nigerian pastime; it is done to save face, to mislead the unwary, to tell naked lies and, sometimes, to defend the indefensible. Truth is held in high contempt by the average Nigerian leader, businessman, and public servant. The political class and their benefactors are also very guilty of this. The structure of the federal government and NNPC itself makes it very easy to play hide and seek with truth and debase transparency. I do not think anything has ever been done in a very direct, honest and transparent way in Nigeria. Nobody can tell for a fact how much is spent at the National Assembly in a year, for example. No one knows for a fact how much is made from crude oil sale by the Federal Government and how much crude oil is exported from Nigeria. It is all about the Nigerian way of dodging, manipulating, avoiding and ignoring the truth wherever possible.

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The most recent issue that has successfully demonstrated this fact is the financial position of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), a state-owned and terribly managed organization. The revelation by the Minister of State for Finance, Mr. Remi Babalola that the NNPC is insolvent started the strangulation of truth. Is NNPC solvent? Babalola said no, it is not. What did the NNPC has to say about the matter? Its Group General Manager for Public Affairs Levi Ajuonuma said the minister of state was wrong - his corporation is solvent and doing well. The whole issue is further complicated up by the Minister of Finance and his Information & Communications counterpart with the claim that the NNPC "… is a going concern and does not have solvency issue as a corporation. Therefore, categorically, the NNPC is not insolvent"! How true is that? At the moment everyone is confused and perplexed about what to believe and who to believe and/or trust. Oil and gas are the only sources of the nation's wealth and foreign exchange earner and the NNPC is the state owned corporation responsible for managing these resources, and this is why the affairs of NNPC ought to be well managed and carefully co-ordinated by professionals.

The one glaring fact is that the Minister of State has not withdrawn his statement that NNPC is insolvent; he is standing by it. The man has no reason to withdraw that claim any more since the Group Managing Director (GMD) of NNPC Mr. Austin Oniwon has confirmed to the Senate Committees on Petroleum Upstream and Downstream (why have two committees for oil?) that the organization he runs is insolvent. So who do we believe - Oniwon or Ajuonuma? If we must believe Ajuonuma, then we would like to know from him if he cleared his statement with the office of the Group Managing Director and if he is privy to the financial books of NNPC. It is troubling that Ajuonuma has not been forthright with the claims he made about the solvency of the NNPC and the facts relating to those claims. His claims were widely reported in Nigerian newspapers and several online blogs and some oil and gas magazines around the world. The issue of the insolvency or otherwise of the NNPC has again brought ridicule to the Nigerian nation in the international arena. I visited the website of NNPC to see what was posted by Ajuonuma and his department. He said in part, "We cannot be classified as insolvent when we have a healthy cash flow and we can pay for our crude and product importation obligations. While it is true that the national indebtedness to the NNPC is putting pressure on our operations, nonetheless we are able to meet all our obligations. We therefore cannot be said to be insolvent." (http://www.nnpcgroup.com/public-relations/news-a-update/354-nnpc-is-not-insolvent-)

There are inconsistencies in the claims made by Ajuonuma. On one hand he declared NNPC healthy and with good cash flow, but on the other he said national indebtedness is putting pressure on NNPC's operations. What is the true position of NNPC? Why is this Public Affairs staff running away from the truth and why is he saying the very opposite of what his boss is saying? How did this man get into NNPC? I knew Oguefi Nwokedi, a seasoned public affairs man, but this fellow who spoke from both sides of his mouth about the situation of NNPC is trying to prevent the truth from getting out; he wants to mislead the nation and he surely does not mean well for that organization. It is a simple rule in strategic planning and management that the acknowledgement of a company's true situation is the first true step to recovery, so why is this fellow misleading the nation? His Group Managing Director told the Senate Committees in clear terms that NNPC has problems financially and the problems are traceable to the use of NNPC as a piggy bank by previous administrations. Mr. Oniwon told the committees that NNPC was asked to release N651 million for the take off of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR). That should be around 1988 when Ibrahim Babangida was military president, a time when direct request for funds from the Central Bank of Nigeria and NNPC started and was made into a rule of practice. Another $18 million was also taken from NNPC to set up a sugar company by the same government. The GMD said the Federal Government owes NNPC N 1.5 trillion and added that NNPC is incapable of repaying N450 billion it borrowed from the Federation Account.

According to the Group Managing Director the NNPC is "facing severe hardship in effecting payments to products suppliers (over $5 billion outstanding as at June 30, 2010)." The GMD added that some bills are even over nine months overdue. Is Mr. Ajuonuma aware of this financial situation of the NNPC? Did he consult with anyone in the finance and accounts department of the Corporation to verify the true position of its finances and obtain the facts and figures? From where did Ajuonuma source his facts, the same facts he bandied around and presented to the world? Ajuonuma's job is shoddy at best and unbecoming of anyone holding such a huge responsibility. Then there was an item 5 under 'Notations' where the NNPC stated that "NNPC is insolvent as current liabilities exceeded current assts by N754 billion as of December 31, 2008," and item 6 which noted that "NNPC is incapable of repaying the N450 billion owed to Federation Account unless it is reimbursed the N1.15 trillion requested from the Ministry of Finance." These facts should not be news to a public affairs officer of a corporation like NNPC, so why was there this dispute over the true position of things at the NNPC? The GMD said NNPC has been unable to pay its products suppliers and as such in a bad cash crunch position, which is contrary to the claim made by Ajuonuma in his press release and his press statement to reporters. I just hope the newspapers did not misquote him as Nigerians are wont to claim.

I think it is simply criminal and unprofessional to ignore facts and figures and begin to twist things around where the financial situations of corporations as large as the NNPC are concerned. It will be inappropriate for Ajuonuma to continue to spin the truth out of control and his separation from NNPC will be in the best interest of the nation and the corporation.