$1b Withdrawal from ECA: FG’s Explanation Untidy

For offering incoherent explanation, the federal government should take the blame for the controversy trailing the Nigerian Governors’ Forum’s decision authorising the withdrawal of $1billion from the Excess Crude Account to fight Boko Haram, writes Tobi Soniyi

When it comes to making policy announcement, the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration does not have a good reputation for getting it right.

After he was elected president, Buhari would make policy announcements while abroad to the consternation of the people at home.

The handling of the appointment of Ibrahim Magu as the Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has been anything but‎ competent.

No one should really be surprised that the government of the day has again chose to bungle ‎the handling of the authorisation by the Nigerian Governors’ Forum for the federal government to withdraw $1 billion from the Excess Crude Account (ECA) to fight Boko Haram and now for security generally.

When it was first announced, the impression conveyed was to the effect that the money would be used for the fight against Boko Haram exclusively.

After the 83rd monthly meeting of the National Economic Council meeting held on December 15, 2017, in Abuja, governors of the 36 states of the federation under the aegis of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) gave the federal government the green light to withdraw $1 billion from ECA to fight the insurgency in the North-east.‎

The Governor of Edo State, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, who briefed newsmen after the meeting said the chairman of NGF and Governor of Zamfara State, Abdulaziz Yari, made the offer on behalf of his colleagues during the meeting.
Obaseki said the governors mandated the federal government to take the money from the ECA as their own contribution to the fight against the Boko Haram terrorist group.
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Obaseki said: “The NEC also resolved through the chairman of NGF to support the effort of the federal government in the area of security.

“Pleased with the achievements made by the federal government till date in the fight against the insurgency, the governors of Nigeria through their chairman announced at the NEC meeting that the governors have given permission to the federal government to spend $1 billion in the fight against the insurgency. This money is supposed to be taken from the excess crude account.”‎

However, when Ekiti State governor, Ayo Fayose kicked and others kicked against the decision, the government at the centre sought to widen the scope of the security challenges the money would be used for.

Fayose said the ECA had already been overdrawn with barely $2 billion left in it.
He also argued that other states across the country had challenges that were nearly as severe as those afflicting the people of northeast.

Fayose also said the timing and the circumstances surrounding the $1 billion indicate that Mr. Buhari intended to warehouse it for his reelection bid in 2019, saying he was never a part of the discussion to earmark it.
The planned withdrawal has also been a subject of political bickering between the ruling All Progressives Congress and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party.

While the opposition party alleged attempted fraud on the part of the administration, the ruling party said all governors, including 11 from PDP, approved the fund.

While the controversies raged, the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo stepped in by providing further explanation about the decision to withdraw the money. Speaking at the retreat of secretaries to the government at state and federal levels in Abuja, Osinabjo said the money was not meant for Boko Haram war alone.

“It was on account of the security summit that the governors at the governors’ forum subsequently decided that they would vote a certain sum of money, which has become somewhat controversial, the $1bn, to assist the security architecture of the country.
“It was to assist all of the issues in the states, including policing in the states, community policing, all of the different security challenges that we have.” Many consider the explanation that the money would be used to take care of security challenges across the nation as an after thought. Had the government, at the formal announcement, stated that the money would be used to take care of security challenges across the nation, may be some of the controversies would have been avoided.

The Minister for Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed also had to step in to press home the message.
‎Like the vice president, the minister said the money would be used not only to fight Boko Haram but to tackle other security challenges including illegal oil bunkering, kidnapping and cattle rustling.
The minister also justified the necessity for the fund saying that $1 billion was not too much for the security challenges the country faced.

He said: “It is common knowledge that the annual budgetary allocation to the military is not commensurate with the internal security challenges we face, for which we have had to continuously rely on the military to assist the police and the Civil Defence Corps.

“When insurgents take over a chunk of our nation’s territory, we turn to the military. When the farmers/herders clash escalate, we turn to the military. When kidnappers up their game, we turn to the military, when illegal bunkerers and pipeline vandals are seeking to overwhelm our oil production and export, we turn to the military, when ethno-religious clashes occur, we turn to the military.
“But when it is time to give the military the resources it needs to function, we say it is a waste of scarce resources, we come up with spurious reasons to deny the military its due.”

Whipping up patriotism sentiment, the minister described as unpatriotic those criticising the approval of the NGF for the withdrawal of the $1 billion ‎from ECA. Their action, he said, amounted to a disservice to the nation’s service men and ‎women.

The minister also described the criticism against the decision to withdraw the money as unnecessary, uninformed and highly-partisan
‎He said: “Just because some people, under a different political dispensation, squirrelled away money meant to equip the military in the past does not mean the military should be left to its own devices, or that every allocation to the military will suffer the same fate.”
Mohammed said that the All Progressives Congress government is a disciplined government that would not allow allocated funds to end up in private pockets or spent on prayers.

He said: “We will always empower the military and other security agencies to be better able to carry out their tough tasks.
“The controversy over the approval of 1 ‎billion dollars by the NGF is absolutely unnecessary and unhelpful.‎‎”

The minister said $1 billion was not too much for the military to tackle the security challenges facing the country.
“Security of lives and property is at the core of the existence of any government, and the NGF understands this quite well, going by its action in approving the withdrawal from the ECA”, he added.

According to him, had the military been better equipped to tackle Boko Haram in the early days of the insurgency, thousands of lives, including those of service men and women, could have been saved and that the war could have been over a long time ago.
He also said that if the funds meant to equip the military had not been diverted into private pockets, there might be no need today to withdraw any money from the ECA for that purpose.

It is becoming clearer that this government came into power with an attitude to pay little or no regards to public feeling otherwise it would have been proactive in its handling of issues of public interest. The government is simply reactive.

Rather than blame those who opposed the withdrawal of the money, the government should look inwards and ask itself if it could have handled the issue better.

This obviously is not the first important policy issue to be mishandled by this administration. It certainly will not be the last. The Office of the Vice President has to issue several statements to state its case in the allegation by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resource, Dr Ibe Kachikwu’s allegation that the Group Managing Director, Dr Maikanti Baru did not follow due process in the awards of contract. The same scenario is playing out again with regard to the plan to withdraw $1 billion from ECA to tackle security challenges.

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When it was first announced, the impression conveyed was to the effect the the money would be used for the fight against Boko Haram exclusively.

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