AT moments of high national tension, we have unintended ways of dousing it with high voltage drama that diminishes the import of issues. One such drama is on-going at the House of Representatives Committee investigating management of the oil subsidy.

Farouk Lawan, committee chairman, is having a tough time keeping the matter in focus with disclosures like unknown quantities of fuel that is consumed in the country daily, though there are records of the cost. Some things are coming to the open. Nigerians are not surprised. Hardly anything qualifies for a revelation.

We knew before the sittings that the annual N1.3trillion bill, government’s anchor for the subsidy removal, included arrears for other years. What we never knew was the seven-step process that led to approval of the money, which the Finance Minister Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala ably elucidated to prove she was not responsible for approving it.

The important thing is it has been spent. More importantly, government is resolute on subsidy removal and would re-visit the issue at a more opportune time. The seven steps to subsidy are:

•NNPC/Petroleum Ministry select and register oil marketers/importers

•NNPC/Petroleum Ministry submit selected importers to PPPRA for approval

•Certification of imported products by appropriate partners (checks at the ports)

•PPPRA inspects import documents

•PPPRA forwards checked documents to Finance Ministry

•Finance Ministry forwards documents to auditor

•Auditor forwards to Accountant General for payment

Clearly all that the Ministry of Finance did was “forward documents to auditor.” Anyone who knows financial matters would assume payments are never made before the auditor’s approval. What else did the Ministry of Finance do with those papers?

The close up on petroleum subsidy is a minor picture of how the national budget works. Budgets are laws, but almost observed in breach. Approved figures have little relationship with expenditure. The National Assembly watches the abuses.

Beneficiaries of the abuses are many. They are also well positioned to ensure the abuses continue. Is it new that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, operates above the law? Who does not know NNPC decides what it pays to the federation, contrary to Section 80 of the 1999 Constitution? The section expects all federal revenue to be paid into the consolidated revenue account of the federation.

Lawan and colleagues need to work harder to ensure the hearing is not a waste of resources. The more known about improprieties in government, the less done to punish culprits, the more impunity grows and the more dangerous precedents we set.

Nigerians expect the hearing will instil a departure from the past though they see it more as drama to relieve them of the tedium of life.