During the oil boom of the early seventies, former military ruler, General Yakubu Gowon famously said something about Nigeria’s problem not being money, ‘but how to spend it’.
This development mirrors the present state of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) as the state-owned company spent a sum of N13.4 billion on ‘entertainment Expenses’ within two years.
Data gleaned from the firm’s latest financial statements showed in 2021, Entertainment Expenses gulped the sum of N11.831 billion in NNPC’s book, while the sum of N1.636 billion was spent in 2020 (perhaps COVID-19 reduced the need for entertainment in 2020).
This would mean that every month, the NNPC Ltd spent an average of N561.125 million on entertainment between 2020 and 2021, it would also mean that N18.447 million was spent on entertainment every day between 2020 and 2021.
For every hour of 2020 and 2021, the NNPC spent N768, 664 on entertainment.
With high unemployment and overstretching of inadequate and poorly maintained infrastructure, many Nigerians struggle to fathom how NNPC Ltd could live an extravagant lifestyle in a country with over 95.9 million people living in extreme poverty — that is, people living below the poverty line of $1.90 per day.
From a lack of jobs, down to failing health care, failing education, bad roads, insecurity in various parts of the country and an epileptic power supply, Africa’s largest economy is tottering on the brinks, and the situation appears not to be getting any better.
In healthcare, Nigeria has a doctor to patient’s ratio of one per 5,000 people, drastically below the WHO-recommended one doctor per 600 people.
But it is not like it doesn’t have enough trained doctors churned out from its Universities every year. The country’s health sector has suffered massive brain drain with many of its best doctors practicing abroad due to poor remuneration and a lack of infrastructure.
A similar scenario is also playing out in the educational sector, with Nigerian tertiary students having to spend long years in universities due to failure of the Federal Government to meet with the demands of the Academic Staff Union of University (ASUU).
What NNPC’s entertainment spree of N13.4 billion can fix in Nigeria’s economy
N363.972 million for 36 states Plus the FCT
The amount spent on entertainment would have meant that a sum of N363.972 million would be available to each state of the federation plus the FCT, if the money was shared to these states across the two years.
It would also mean that each of the 774 local governments in the country could have gotten the sum of N17.399 million, if this money was given to them.
673 Numbers of a Block of Three Classrooms
The amount NNPC Ltd spent on entertainment could also build 673 numbers of a block of three classrooms across the country, this is as the Federal government budgeted the sum of N20 million to build a block of three class classrooms across different locations in the country in its 2021 budget document.
Renovation, Upgrade and Equipping of 332 PHCs
The NNPC Ltd spent the equivalent of the capital expenditures of twelve federal hospitals in the 2021 budget on entertainment.
The Nigerian government budgeted the sum of N40.470 million to ‘renovate, upgrade and equip PHCs’ in the 2021 budget, meaning that the money spent on entertainment by the NNPC Ltd if disbursed to the federal government, could have assisted in ‘renovating, upgrading and equipping’ 332 Primary Health Centres across the country.
1683 Boreholes Across the Country
The Nigerian government budgeted N8 million to construct a new borehole, this would mean that the NNPCL expenditure on entertainment could have provided 1683 boreholes across the country.
Free Healthcare for 224,450 Families
A Dataphyte report had earlier noted that it cost a family of four N60,000 per year to benefit from the National Health Insurance Scheme. If the money spent by NNPCL on entertainment was disbursed by the government to assist it in getting healthcare for families, 224,450 families would have benefited from free healthcare for a year.