…… governors submit ‘wish list’ to Buhari
…… Buhari vows to tackle atrocities committed with ECA
President Muhammadu Buhari, on Tuesday, June 23, 2015, held a meeting with Nigeria’s 36 state governors.
The meeting, which held at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, was arranged for the purpose of finding a solution to the financial predicament of some of the states which had been unable to pay salaries.
The governors, led by Governor of Zamfara State and Chairman of the Governors Forum, Abdulaziz Yari presented a 6-item wish-list to the President.
The governors’ requests are:
1. Obedience of extant Supreme Court ruling that all monies go into the Consolidated Federation Account;
2. An order from the President that all revenue-generating agencies must pay into the Consolidated Federation Account;
3. Review of the Revenue Allocation Formula;
4. Refund of the monies expended by states on federal projects;
5. A special consideration for the three states of the North East under Boko Haram infestation;
6. Full details of the amounts that accrued into the Excess Crude Account from 2011, and how the money miraculously shrank without official sharing.
However, according to a statement signed by the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, Buhari told the governors “There are financial and administrative instructions in every government parastatal and agency. But all these were thrown to the dogs in the past. Honestly, our problems are great, but we will do our best to surmount them.
The next three months may be hard, but billions of dollars can be recovered, and we will do our best.”
Expressing surprise that the governors had tolerated the atrocities allegedly committed with the Excess Crude Account since 2011, President Buhari promised to tackle the issue decisively.
He declared that the payment of national revenue into any account other than the Federation Account was an abuse of the constitution, adding that what he had heard was going on in many agencies and corporations, particularly the NNPC, was clearly illegal.
On the request for the refund of monies spent on federal projects by state governments, the President assured the governors that the Federal Government will pay, but insisted that due process must be followed.
The President promised special assistance for the three North Eastern states badly affected by the Boko Haram insurgency.
He also said that a comprehensive statement on the economic and financial situation inherited by his administration will be made to the nation within the next four weeks.
“We will try and put the system back into the right position. What happened in the 2nd Republic has apparently happened again, and even worse. But we will restore sanity to the system,” Buhari assured.
It would be recalled that the 2nd Republic led by President Shehu Shagari was toppled in 1983 by the military junta led by Buhari on the allegation that the administration was riddled with corruption.