Hehehe....Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, says the Federal Government’s financial standing is worse than the states’.
Oshiomhole said this during a programme on Channels Television titled, “View from the top”.
About 18 states owe workers salaries
while many others have stopped all capital projects, following the drop
in federal allocations caused by the drop in global oil price.
However, Oshiomhole said the Federal Government’s was also struggling.
He
said the only reason why that of the Federal Government was not
noticeable was because of the Federal Government’s easy access to funds.
He noted that the Federal Government controls the Central Bank of Nigeria and can approve any amount of money for itself.
The governor said the immediate past
Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, was largely to blame for
the current financial crisis besetting the country because she failed to
save for the rainy day.
He said, “When analysts and commentators
allude to the facts which everybody can see that many states, maybe as
much as two-thirds of the states, are not up to date in payment of
salaries, allowances and other obligations to their work force, what is
not often stated is the fact that the Federal Government is just in the
same bad shape.
“The only thing for us is that under the
immediate past minister of finance, they have borrowed rather recklessly
in trillions of naira to meet the wage obligation of the Federal
Government.
“For example, Jonathan can be said to pay
wages, only to the extent that Okonjo-Iweala borrowed from CBN, from
various bond instruments, including drawing down over N3 trillion from
pension funds. So, civil servant savings, what we call the workers’
capital in the trade union parlance, is what the former minister drew
from heavily to fund the wages of federal employees.”
The governor insisted that if Nigerians
say governors were extravagant in spending and did not save for a rainy
day, what about Okonjo-Iweala who was in charge of over 50 per cent of
oil revenue.
When asked to defend his statement in the
face of Okonjo-Iweala’s claim that governors did not allow her to save
for a rainy day, as they always wanted proceeds of the Excess Crude
Account, Oshiomhole said the minister was only making baseless
accusations.
He said, “That is one-quarter of the
truth. What you should have asked her is that if they assume that the
Federal Government is a responsible manager who believes a rainy day is
coming under Okonjo-Iweala and you have me and the 35 others who are
reckless, you should have asked her where are the federal savings meant
for a rainy day?
“All the 36 states plus Abuja share 26
per cent of the money. This means for every N100 that Nigeria earns, 36
state governors share N26 while N52.6 goes to the Federal Government
plus ecology and other deductions.
“There are other organisations whose
funds ought to flow directly into the Federation Account and they never
flowed there – Nigeria Ports Authority, various institutions, the health
sector, the maritime sector, NNPC, various agencies, the gas sector –
all of these ought to flow into the FAC and they never got there.
“The governors have control over their
share which is 26 per cent. Mr. Federal Government has control of 52.6
per cent. Where are Okonjo-Iweala’s savings of the federal portion? If
she can show where she saved it, then you can proceed to say she was
right. She didn’t save for the Federal Government for a rainy day.”
Oshiomhole, who served as the President
of the Nigeria Labour Congress from 1999 to 2007, said the call for an
increase in wages was legitimate.
He said since the naira had been devalued
by about 25 per cent, it would be unfair for Nigerian workers to
continue to earn the same wages despite the rise in the rate of
inflation.
The governor urged the President to stop the importation of rice and other foods grown in Nigeria
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