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Controversy trails FG’s special funds for states

By Muyiwa Adeyemi (Ekiti), Mohammed Abubakar, Mathias Okwe, Adamu Abuh, Azimazi Momoh Jimoh (Abuja) and Kamal Tayo Oropo (Lagos)
08 July 2015   |   2:12 am
CONTROVERSY now trails the Federal Government’s bailout package for cash-strapped states as widely reported in the media yesterday.
Buhari

Buhari

• APC, PDP trade words
• Ekiti got legitimate earning, not bailout, says Fayose
• Presidency denies drawing funds from ECA
• Okonjo-Iweala claims ‘missing $2bn’ was for subsidy

CONTROVERSY now trails the Federal Government’s bailout package for cash-strapped states as widely reported in the media yesterday.

While the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the National Council of Muslim Youth Ornanisations (NACOMYO) commended President Muhammadu Buhari’s reported release of N713.7billion to bail out states, Governor Ayodele Fayose said Ekiti got N2.1billion legitimate earning, not bailout.

Fayose argued that Ekiti State’s share (N2.1bn) of the N413.7 billion ($2.1bn) from the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) was legitimate earning to the state and not bailout from the Federal Government.

The governor said it was necessary to correct the erroneous impression created by some newspaper reports that listed the state among those that got bailout from the Federal Government.

Fayose, who said the N2.1billion being expected could not pay the N2.6billion wage bill for June, however assured workers in the state that he would strive to raise the balance to ensure June salary would be paid next week.

Apparently elated by the gesture, the APC described the President as a father for all for coming to the aid of suffering workers by approving special intervention funds to bail the states out of their precarious financial conditions.

In a statement issued by APC National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said it was particularly delighted that the President has shown that he is truly the father of the nation by eschewing partisanship in approving the intervention fund for all the states. “We say this because when states were financially handicapped during the tenure of the last Federal Government, opposition states were hung out to dry while states belonging to the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) got generous bailouts.”

However, Fayose, who spoke at a media parley in Ado Ekiti said the N2.1billion being expected could not pay the N2.6billion wage bill for June. He, however, assured workers in the state that he would strive to raise the balance to ensure June salary would be paid next week.

In the same vein, PDP declared that “the N804 ‎billion released to bail the states” out of their present financial trouble was part of the funds saved by it when in power.

The PDP, in a statement issued in Abuja yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, said the party “notes that a significant amount of the bailout came from savings accumulated in the Excess Crude Account handed over to the Buhari-led APC administration by the past PDP-led administration.

“This development is in clear contradiction to the earlier impression given by President Buhari to Nigerians and the international community that they should not expect much from his administration in its first 100 days because, according to him, upon assumption of office, he met a virtually empty treasury.

“We want to believe that given the President’s release of such huge amount, he may have realised that he was earlier misdirected on the actual financial state of the nation at the time he took over. In this regard, we expect the President, as a respected statesman to do the needful to correct that erroneous impression.”

PDP, therefore, charged the APC as a party in government to put its house in order, desist from injecting confusion and distracting the President from settling down to form a government and face the enormous challenges of governance, especially the implementation of his long list of campaign promises to Nigerians.

It said Nigerians are no longer interested in insults, tirades and propaganda but in actions and policies that would move the nation forward.

But the Presidency yesterday distanced itself from a statement credited to the Accountant General of the Federation (AGoF), Ahmed Idris, that Buhari ordered the sharing of money in the Excess Crude Account (ECA).

Idris had, while briefing State House correspondents on Monday, said the Federal Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting would share the $1.7 billion from the ECA among the three tiers of government.

A statement by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, however, said reports in sections of the media that funds would be drawn from the ECA for the relief package approved by Buhari for states and local governments were incorrect.

According to the statement, the President only approved “the sharing of the $2.1 billion dividend paid to the Federation Account by the NLNG; a CBN-packaged special intervention fund that will offer financing to the states, ranging from N250 billion to N300 billion as a soft loan available to states for the purposes of paying backlog of salaries; and a debt relief programme designed by the Debt Management Office, which will help states restructure their commercial loans currently put at over N660 billion, and extend the life span of such loans while reducing their debt-servicing expenditures.”

The statement added that the measures approved by Buhari did not include drawing down the balance in the ECA or the “liquidation” of the account as some media outlets have wrongly reported.

Also yesterday, the Accountant-General of the Federation noted with great concern that the information in the public domain was inconsistent with the details of the amount distributed at the emergency FAAC meeting on Monday, July 6, 2015.

In a statement to provide further clarification about the outcome of the said emergency FAAC meeting, he said:

• the amount distributed was not from the excess crude account ECA but rather the accrued company income tax (CIT) realised from the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) N359, 374,355, 607.60;
• the amount that was distributed was less the cost of collection;
• the Federal Government got 56.68% amounting to N181,745,674,112.72
• the state governments got 26.72% amounting to N92,183,834,705.62;
• local government councils got 20.60% amounting to N71,069,872,564.96.

“The public is also invited to please note that no withdrawal was made from the Excess Crude Account (ECA) and that the current balance still remains $2.1 billion,” the statement read.

Meanwhile, former Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has explained that the alleged ‘missing $2 billion’ from ECA was actually not missing as insinuated, but was approved by former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan for payment of oil subsidy claims to marketers.

Okonjo-Iweala, who re-iterated this in a statement yesterday by his media adviser, Paul Nwabuikwu, was reacting to a claim by some state finance commissioners that the Federal FAAC did not authorise the withdrawal.

32 Comments

  • Author’s gravatar

    Can senile, illiterate certificate forger and perjurer Buhari share money that has not been appropriated by the National Assembly? Has the Islamic fundamentalist not committed an impeachable offence?

    • Author’s gravatar

      don’t they have respect in Ile-Ife anymore. how dare you insult an adult of the age of your father

      • Author’s gravatar

        My father is actually much younger than Buhari. Fact is I have no respect for criminals; old or young. And, Buhari is a criminal. I have more respect for cows than Buhari.

        • Author’s gravatar

          Some miscreants thinks d existent of social media gives them d opportunity to abuse anyone who do not share their myopic/tribalistic sentiment hiding behind freedom of speech.

    • Author’s gravatar

      Orafidiya, pls go to court and stop confusing nigerians. How could u say u have respect to cow than the president of ur country?

      If u have respect for cow than human being then u are from animal Kingdom with human face and animal mentality.

  • Author’s gravatar

    Besides the question of the withdrawal authorisation, is the ex-Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister for the (Dead) Economy saying she has no breakdown and digital trail of who and who were paid, when, where and and by what medium or media? Wonders will never cease. Please have her provide the digital trail, the source document covering the authorisation for the withdrawal from ECA, amount withdrawn, accounts credited, payment instruments, including copies of bank transfers, drafts, cashier’s cheques, telegraphic transfers and other items of evidentiary value to the transactions.

    • Author’s gravatar

      You were in this country when the APC governors took to her to Supreme Court to enable them have access to this fund. Now they have embezzled workers wages and you see or hear nothing wrong with that. It is the poor woman that was insisting on saving for the rainy day like now that you we criticising. Strange!

  • Author’s gravatar

    PDP IS A PARTY OF LIES AND DECEIT.

    THEY CANNOT ABSORB THE FACT THAT PRESIDENT BUHARI CAN ACT SO FAST AND SO QUICKLY TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT THE WELFARE OF THE NIGERIAN WORKERS WHOSE SALARIES REMAINED UNPAID BY PDP TREASURY-LOOTER GOVERNORS FOR THE PAST TEN MONTHS?

  • Author’s gravatar

    Whatever you call it whether bailout or otherwise and from wherever or whatever account of govt that it was drawn the most significant thing from this initiative is that workers and hapless pensioneers can now heave a sign of relief,, at least temporarily from this oxygen lifeline.And thanks be to GOD that there are some well- bred governors out there that will surely utilize these funds judiciously such that the greatest good for all prevails…

  • Author’s gravatar

    So, the President lied by telling the whole world that he inherited an “empty treasury” This President can no longer be trusted because of his many gaffe.

  • Author’s gravatar

    lai Mohammed, please grow above this petty lies/unreasonable propaganda. please i implore you tolist states that did not received their federal allocations from the past governmen, probably we nigerians will be able to pardon thiose governors that are owing their workers legitimate salaries for months. North every nigerians could be easily blinded and fooled for political power gains.

  • Author’s gravatar

    jesus christ, such confusion and misleading information, one wonders how anything is done. this is what you get when things are not open, things are not released to the public and there is no clear process for doing things. how can one state owe workers 2.6 billion naira for one month pay. the cost of governing and govt workers is too much.

  • Author’s gravatar

    This National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, is indeed a funny character. Now he wants credit to his PDP for making a savings while in power. Where was he when the coordinating and Finance Minister stated that Nigeria has been borrowing since January, 2015 ro pay for salaries? Was the savings not there or it is just that the PDP is so large-hearted that it saved for the opposition despite paying billions to hire executive jets for the untouchable Minister)(s)? Your party has emptied the Public Treasury and lets not waste time over that, surely we will overcome that just as we voted out the incapable party out pf office.

    • Author’s gravatar

      How much does your state and indeed entire zone contribute to National treasury. You contribute nothing and want salary without loan. How possible?Answer please.

      • Author’s gravatar

        The issue is neither about me, where I come from. By this. therefore, your answer is a simple Silence!

        • Author’s gravatar

          Yes, keep silent because you and your people contribute nothing but take share. Parasitic!

          • Author’s gravatar

            What exactly is a parasite, is it the one bookworm steals the Public Treasury empty because as you claim “it is our own> or the blood suckers who cannot ind a living without blaming others for whatever deficiencies they have?

          • Author’s gravatar

            You weren’t clear but the definition of a parasite in human context is simple. A relationship in which two or more are involved. While one contributes the source of living the others merely take out without contribution. That is the context the Hausa Fulani lives with the South South today. Prove me wrong if you think otherwise

          • Author’s gravatar

            Its a pity that people like u are still in existence!!!. U are an hypocrite and a sycophant. u go about antagonizing people wen u dont know anything about nothing. What does ur state contribute to the Nation? I am not from the North, but i know they are good farmers, and that provides the nation with food.

          • Author’s gravatar

            Why are you angry against an incontrovertible truth. There is temporary relief in the country because tax from gas produced from 4 states have just been shared. Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers and Akwa Ibom. Am from Delta, there are many farmers here. So how does farming contribute to National revenue? It is a pity you picked up your salvo against me with little knowledge.

          • Author’s gravatar

            the Bible says “though shall not live on bread alone”, so also will Nigeria not leave on Oil accruing from the South South alone. I am also from that region that u are from, and i know from what i was told and read from books that Agriculture was our major source of revenue before the influx of oil. We both know what the land in Niger delta is not too pleasant for farming, owing to oil spillage and the rest of it. The north provides most parts of the nation with grains and all sort off commodities. We should be mindful of the way we criticize others, and if we are to, it should be positive and constructive.

          • Author’s gravatar

            Just have it clearly that farmers sell their proceeds for their living while oil is for oil. It was never the same before. The fiscal allocation was 50%, now it is 15% through struggle. Be fair while asking for carefulness

  • Author’s gravatar

    AND GOODLUCK JONATHAN AND HIS GANG NOT ONLY DEPLETED THE TREASURY, THEY ALSO VANDALISED IT, MASSIVELY LOOTED IT AND STOLE ALL OUR MONEY. IF THEY THINK THAT THEY WILL GET AWAY WITH THIS UNHOLY ACT OR MURDER, THEN THEY ARE NOT IN THIS PLANET EARTH AS THERE WILL BE NO HIDING PLACE OR PLACES FOR THESE VERY GANG OF LOOTERS AND THIEVES. WE WILL SMOKE THEM OUT AND MAKE THEM PAY VERY DEARLY FOR THEIR VERY SERIOUS CRIMES AGAINST NIGERIANS AND HUMANITY.

    • Author’s gravatar

      What is Buhari’s value of assets? He has been stealing and beefing up his assets before declaring it publicly contrary to his campaign promise. The goat thinks he can terrorise Nigeria by distributing Boko Haram all over Nigeria. His time will soon be up.

      • Author’s gravatar

        CAN YOU JUST HEAR YOURSELF? SHAME ON YOU AND YOUR LIKES

        • Author’s gravatar

          I ask you a question, what can be shameful about that. The president promised to publicly declare his assets as soon as he is voted to power but has secretly sneaked in his documents. Isn’t that 419? Where is the moral grounds to fight corruption? Majority of those that have stolen workers wages are the governors of his party and rather than asked questions he is sharing funds and telling lies about the source of the funds. Who then should be ashamed? Pity!

          • Author’s gravatar

            PLEASE STOP INDULGING IN WHAT IS CALLED WEDNSEBURY IN LAW, WHICH IS SIMPLY PUT DWELLING ON IRRELEVANT MATTERS AND AT THE SAME TIME IGNORING EXTREMELY VERY RELEVANT MATTERS. HAVE A VERY NICE DAY.

          • Author’s gravatar

            We aren’t in your type of law court. Reserve legal vocabulary till you find yourself in one. Just respect those providing you resources to be surviving on. Enjoy your weekend.

  • Author’s gravatar

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