State Governors have stated that as opposed to what is being bandied about in the news, Buhari did not, in fact, condemn them or rebuke them in any way.
There had earlier been reports that President Buhari was displeased with the way the Paris Club Refund was used and managed causing the NLC to condemn state Governors.
The Governors in a statement issued on their behalf by the secretariat of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, said that there was nowhere in Buhari’s statement where he condemned the state governors on their use of the money and that it was unfair for anyone to try and put them on the warpath with the President.
The statement said; “For the avoidance of doubt, there is nowhere in President Buhari’s statement where he mentioned Paris Club and it is unfair for anyone to attempt to bring the state governors and the Presidency on collision course.
“Moreover, there is, so far, no investigation known to any governor on the Paris Club loan refunds regarding non-payment of salaries, let alone any indictment.
“Furthermore, the Paris Club loan refund was not borrowed money but an over-deduction from states’ repayments of a loan which the Federal Government is repaying to states that were erroneously debited.”
“It is also not just saddening but painful that the NLC, a very respectable union, is being misinformed into casting aspersions on the person of the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Alhaji Abdulaziz Abubakar, who has respectfully fulfilled all promises he made to the Zamfara workers.
“For example, the reference to the strike currently going on in Zamfara State by the workforce is not only misplaced but uncalled for because it has nothing to do with the non-payment or non-judicious disbursement of the Paris Club loan refunds.
“It is important to state, without fear of contradiction, that the Zamfara State Government is up-to-date on the payment of workers’ salaries.”