THE QUESTIONS OKONJO-IWEALA COULD NOT ANSWER BY OSHIOMHOLE

Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State has said that
there is nothing ‘personal’ between him and former Minister
of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.


in a press statement signed by Prince Kassim Afegbua,
Special Adviser, Media and Public Affairs, to the Edo State
Governor, on Thursday said the questions asked were: how
come those accruals into the Excess Crude Account got
depleted without the knowledge of the National Economic
Council?

Sea full text below

BLACKMAIL WON’T HELP YOUR CASE, OSHIOMHOLE TELLS
OKONJO-IWEALA
It is instructive at this point in time to state categorically
without equivocation that there is nothing “personal”
between Okonjo-Iweala and Comrade Adams Oshiomhole in
terms of the request by the Edo Governor that Okonjo-
Iweala should come clean on the issue of revenue that
accrued to the Excess Crude Account.
As much as her Spokesman tries to dramatize his response
in defense of his boss, he has shown a manifest uninformed
disposition to issues of simple economics of naira and kobo.
Here is a former Minister who has changed her position four
times in the last forty days; each position exposing her
dubiety of facts and inherent contradictions in the concocted
tales she has been weaving on one simple issue: what
happened to t5he $2.1b ECA funds?
PERTINENT QUESTIONS.
The simple questions which the Comrade Governor asked
were: how come those accruals into the Excess Crude
Account got depleted without the knowledge of the National
Economic Council?
Okonjo-Iweala and Oshiomhole
Okonjo-Iweala and Oshiomhole
How come monies that were supposed to accrue into the
said account cannot be found in it going by the balance
sheet provided by the former Minister? How come the
Minister unilaterally dipped her hand into the Excess Crude
Account to spend money in defiance of the constitution and
the laws of the land?
How come that the Minister finds it convenient to publish
allocations to States and Local Governments, but refused to
publish accruals into the same account for us to know the
status of the account at any point in time; how much was left
from where she was distributing from?
What the Comrade Governor stated was that; it was
interesting to note that by December 2012, the ECA had a
balance of over $10billion. This had been depleted to
$2.07billion by May 2015, according to the former Finance
Minister. Between January 2013 and May 2015, not more
than $4billion was shared among the three tiers of
Government. Indeed, the last time any money was shared
from the ECA was in May 2013.
Flowing from the above statement of facts, the Comrade
Governor then asked a very pertinent question; how come
there was no accretion to the ECA even when Crude oil
prices averaged between $100 to $108 within the three years
period of 2011 to 2014, aware that the National Budgets
were based on $77 and $79 benchmark?
That gives an average of $30 per barrel gains. In fact, based
on rough estimates, Nigeria should earn not less than
$30billion accretion based on the official oil exports of 2.3
million barrels per day. The question which Okonjo-Iweala
could not answer is; how come Nigeria did not make any
savings during those three years of unprecedented oil price
boom? Simple question that should ordinarily elicit simple
response.
Without a scintilla of numerical reference, Okonjo-Iweala
went into a voyage of storytelling like an intellectual
raconteur, leaving out the real substance of the Comrade
Governor’s salient questions.
First, she responded on May 28, 2015 where she denied the
allegations describing them as “baseless”. Among other
things she claimed that the 36 State Governors who are joint
owners of the Excess Crude Account [ECA] with the Federal
Government were in full picture of how the ECA was
managed.
She stated inter alia; “how can Governor Oshiomhole claim
that State Governors were not properly briefed on the status
of the ECA when his Commissioner of Finance attends all
FAAC meetings where decisions are taken and
communicated to the nation?”
On June 29, 2015 exactly a month after, at the inaugural
meeting of the National Economic Council [NEC] presided
over by Vice President Professor Yemi Osibanjo, and with 36
states in attendance deliberated on the status of the ECA.
After a critical scrutiny, it was discovered that indeed Dr.
Okonjo-Iweala spent $2.1billion from the ECA without
authorization by the NEC.
That money was neither distributed to states nor paid to the
three tiers of government. This was the rationale for the
setting up of the four-man Panel to look at what accrued,
what it was spent for, when and by whom and who
authorized the spending, so that Nigerians will have full
picture of all the transactions as regards the much talked
about Excess Crude Account.
SHIFTING THE GOAL POST.
On June 30, 2015, Okonjo-Iweala was once again reported as
categorically denying unauthorized expenditure from the
ECA under her purview, describing the findings of NEC as
“false, malicious and without foundation”.
According to her, decisions on such expenditure and sharing
were discussed at meetings of FAAC attended by Finance
Commissioners from the 36 states.
In her words; “it is curious that in their desperation to use
the esteemed National Economic Council for political and
personal vendetta, the persons behind these allegations
acted as if the constitutionally recognized FAAC, a potent
expression of Nigeria’s fiscal federalism, does not exist”.
Is FAAC superior to NEC? Does FAAC have the constitutional
powers to give approval for withdrawals from ECA?
On June 30, 2015 the Comrade Governor stated during his
Live Television interview with Channels Television that the
power to take money from ECA was vested in the NEC, an
institution created by the Constitution and not State Finance
Commissioners who were members of FAAC, an
administrative arrangement that was not known to the
Constitution.
Rather than open up, giving full disclosure, she was opening
part of the book and not the entire book. According to
Comrade Oshiomhole, the logic of transparency is that every
Minister must publish in full what is accruing to the
Federation Account month-to-month basis and what is
distributed to them.
On July 7, 2015, barely a week after Okonjo-Iweala claimed
that FAAC was involved in the unauthorized spending from
the ECA, members of FAAC under the aegis of Forum of
Finance Commissioners in a public statement, denied
approving any withdrawal of the said $2.1 billion.
The 36 Finance Commissioners categorically described the
former Minister’s claim as “misleading, and far from the
fact”. Hear them; “the Law setting up FAAC, which pre-dates
the ECA did not empower the Commissioners to approve
such withdrawals, and that there were records of
Committee’s meetings to show that they had always queried
the activities on the ECA, particularly on withdrawals.
FAAC did not and could not have approved or took the
decision to withdraw the sum of $2billion from the Excess
Crude Account”.
On July 8, 2015, Okonjo-Iweala opened up a bit of the real
gist when she admitted that $2billion was indeed withdrawn
from the ECA this time, on the directives of former President
Goodluck Jonathan.
She further confirmed that the money was used to pay
petroleum subsidies and not shared to the 36 states as she
earlier declared.
The former Minister was quoted as saying; “payments made
were used for paying for petroleum subsidies for the
Nigerian people and were approved by Mr. President”.
She then made a volte face saying she did not claim that
FAAC members approved the spending but that they were
informed of the decision, “if monies were used to pay for
subsidies for the Nigerian people and duly approved, why is
Okonjo-Iweala’s name being battered in this way? She
wondered, adding that “this persecution should stop”.
In fact, she is the one that is persecuting herself.
Subjecting this position to the crucible, one is prompted to
ask Okonjo-Iweala if in all her experiences at the World
Bank and elsewhere whether, the President has the right
and powers under our laws to give approval for the
withdrawal of $2billion from the ECA?
Whether the President has the power to usurp the powers of
NEC with respect to withdrawals from the ECA? Whether the
President has the powers to touch any money that belongs
to the States and Local Governments?
It may interest Okonjo-Iweala to note that when the
$5billion Power Intervention Fund was approved by NEC
with all the 36 states Governors in session, due process had
to be followed before the money was withdrawn from the
ECA. Indeed, each of the 36 Governors had to seek the
authorization of the Houses of Assembly, the 774 Local
Government Chairmen and their Legislative Councils.
Just waking up in the morning to declare that “Mr. President”
gave the approval and it was used to pay subsidy claims flies
in the face of logic, common sense, due process and law.
Was payment for subsidy not captured in the Appropriation
Law?
Why would a Minister that is worth her salt dip her hands
into our collective patrimony to take that much, a whopping
$2billion on the directives of one Mr. President?
Can any World Bank Chief Executive dip hands into the till to
take what belongs to all vide approval against what the laws
and rules guiding World Bank specify? Was the Federal
Government portion of the $2.1billion appropriated by the
National Assembly before it was used to pay oil marketers?
To the best of our knowledge, there was nothing of the sort.
We think very seriously that Okonjo-Iweala has more
questions to answer. She has shifted grounds on four
different scores. That tells so much on her integrity.
According to Brian Tracy, that celebrated author; “integrity is
more than a value.
It is the one quality of mind that assures or guarantees all
the other values that you select. You cannot have a little bit
of integrity.
It must be all or nothing”. If Okonjo-Iweala truly
understands the whole essence of integrity, we had expected
her to come clean on these serious allegations of financial
malfeasance instead of allowing her ill-informed
Spokesman, such vend-able lick-spittle, to be vomiting
incoherent and inconsistent banalities on issues that border
on our collective patrimony.
This was the same attitude she put up when the issue of
misappropriated N19.5billion Aviation Fund was being
investigated under former President, Chief Olusegun
Obaanjo. Till date, she has not been able to clear the air on
the N6.5 billion loan she allegedly raised from Commercial
Banksto fix Control Towers of Four Airports.
That is a story for another day.
Her latest resort to blackmail using her refusal to grant Edo
State Government a loan request as the reason why the
Comrade Governor is asking her valid questions that border
on fraud and financial recklessness is completely at variance
with the real issues at stake.
What has the request for loans got to do with the claim that
someone dips her hand into the public till to spend what
was not approved by the collective? How does she expect
the states to survive when she refused to make full
disclosure on accruals and declined to give them their share
on a regular basis as required by law?
Because she plundered the resources with reckless
abandon, she is now running from pillar to post without
addressing the real issues. Please help us ask her; Madam
Okonjo; what happened to ECA withdrawals?
What is the meaning of “numerical diarrhea” in the context
of financial malfeasance and official sleaze that
characterized Okonjo-Iweala’s regime as Finance Minster?
From the records we have seen so far and the tantrums she
has been throwing rather than address the real issues, it is
appropriate to conclude that she was indeed Coordinating
Minister of Economic Fraud and Financial Malfeasance.
All the acclaimed World Bank experiences were just part of
the hollow rituals to hoodwink the Nigerian public from
addressing the real issues of mismanagement. We will
continue to insist that she comes out clean, no matter how
ostentatiously dramatic she chooses to go.