When not to politicise economic council

Buhari

THE inauguration of the National Economic Council by President Buhari on the June 29, 2015 and appointment of Governor Adams Oshiomhole as a member of the committee set up to investigate alleged revenue shortfalls is significant in an odd way.

That special Committee appears from every indication to have given the Governor and some governors  an ‘official’ platform and executive mandate to finally execute with fiat what is clearly a long-drawn personal vendetta against the former Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

And Oshiomhole is clearly not even showing any pretensions at all. It is to this end that he has of late deliberately dominated headlines in the electronic and social media, hurling scurrilous claims and accusations against the former Minister under the guise of promoting transparency.

It is not surprising that his voice, long silenced by the last response of the Minister to his diatribe couple of months back, has suddenly found new gusto.

He is churning out unsubstantiated figures and illogical statements. From accusing her of unilaterally making deductions from the Excess Crude Account to playing with figures and granting unjustified waivers, Oshiomhole appears determined to inventing just about anything to tar Okonjo-Iweala. But the lack of logic and evidence of history appear to be his greatest undoing.

First, Oshiomhole’s claim that $2.1billion is missing from the ECA has no basis whatsoever. Anybody who understands the workings of the government would know that it is absolutely impossible for $2.1billion to go missing from the ECA.

The fact which most Nigerians know is that every month end, commissioners of finance of states congregate in Abuja for the FAAC Meeting to share the revenues that accrue to government coffers.

As at the last time, the Minister had published what each state has received from the Excess Crude Account for the period 2011 to December 2014 complete with a statistical analysis of what came into the account, what was spent and what was left.

On the list, Edo State ranked the 18th state with the most receipts totalling N67 billion with over N15 billion as monies received from the same ECA between May 2013 and December 2015. In 2014 alone, the total amount that was shared from the ECA to states alone amounted to over $1.7 billion. That is not considering what the Federal Government received. Therefore, Oshiomhole is making this accusation in denial of verifiable facts made public by the former Minister.

Beyond the tedious rhetoric and legalese of who had the authority to approve what, all governors including Oshiomhole received their respective shares of monies from the Excess Crude Account as agreed with their Commissioners of Finance at the FAAC meetings. These meetings are held publicly and amounts shared published in the newspapers. The monies are also clearly delineated and state clearly how much is from taxes, ECA, etc and the information made available to the respective Commissioners of Finance who should ordinarily communicate their governors.

How can Oshiomhole explain his haste to make categorical judgments on a matter that is a point of reference for a committee that has not even sat and listened to all parties regarding the issue they are to ‘investigate’? In spite of several transparent explanations from Okonjo-Iweala to issues he has consistently raised concerning the ECA, he accused the former minister of distorting revenue statistics. What further proof does one need to conclude that Oshiomhole nurses a very strong prejudice against the former minister?

Oshiomhole and his ilk have no legal right to be part of this investigation. If the present Government is really interested in getting an objective understanding of the management of the Excess Crude Account (ECA) via an institutional body of enquiry, Oshiomhole cannot possibly be made part of it. He is an interested party whose prejudice is already so evident. He cannot be the accuser, the judge and the jury at the same time. Only a neutral party should be allowed to conduct this enquiry.

In addition, the inconsistency in the figures that Oshiomhole and his cohorts have been bandying around only lends credence to the lack of substance in their allegations. In December 2014 Oshiomhole had alleged that $30 billion was missing from the Excess Crude Account. This was followed up again in May 2015 by Amaechi who asked Okonjo-Iweala to explain $20 billion oil revenue alleged missing from the ECA. Also in May 2015 Oshiomhole via a lengthy article widely published in the media again asked that Okonjo-Iweala explain $30 billion missing oil revenues. Today the new figure Oshiomhole has claimed is missing is now $2.1billion.  What this shows is that the governors do not have any sound basis and are just manufacturing figures and throwing them around to spite Okonjo-Iweala at all cost.

Even though waivers were for long abused by previous governments, under Okonjo-Iweala, they became very strong strategic tools for national development as was done by the Asian tigers. The progress that has been recorded in the agriculture, manufacturing sectors and the provision of some critical infrastructure were to some extent facilitated by the provision of those waivers. Also, the fact that Nigeria has become a net exporter of cement is also tied to the provision of those targeted waivers. Oshiomhole is also not unaware of the fact that it was Okonjo-Iweala that actually stopped the practice of giving waivers to individuals. His attempt linking Okonjo-Iweala to the problem that existed before her and which she has helped to reduce considerably is in the least very malicious.

No matter how long a lie is told, it will never become truth. Okonjo-Iweala as the Finance Minister never spent any monies from the Excess Crude Account without due authorization and there is no money missing from the ECA. The former minister has shown unprecedented forthrightness in the handling of public finances. Her critics should come out clearly and tell Nigerians what personal score they are trying to use institutions of government to settle with her.

• Ajayi is a public affairs commentator.