Rotimi Amaechi, minister of transportation and former governor of Rivers state, says governors demanded the sharing of money from the Excess Crude Account (ECA) under the last federal government because it was not properly managed.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former minister of finance and coordinating minister of the economy, has consistently maintained that governors lacked the political will to save during the tenure of Goodluck Jonathan, former president.
But speaking on One on One, an interview programme on NTA, on Wednesday, Amaechi said Okonjo-Iweala was only “partially correct”.
“I heard Mrs Okonjo-Iweala say that in the past administration, governors were unwilling to save; she is 30 percent correct and 70 percent incorrect,” he said.
Advertisement
“In 2009, we had an economic crisis so President Yar’adua put $1billion in the economy so no one felt the crisis. I can’t remember what was left in that account, the excess crude account.
“During Goodluck Jonathan, every month when the governors went for the economic council meeting, the amount in the account kept dropping. If we asked about what happened to the money, the response we got was that the president approved for it to be spent.
“So we said can we please share this money because the rate at which it was going, the president would have continually approved $1billion to spend and we won’t know what we are spending for and they won’t give us an account.
Advertisement
“So we told the vice president and the minister for finance that there was a need for us to share part of this money and we began to agitate. They now agreed to share part of the money and they did. In the first six months of Goodluck Jonathan, oil subsidy increased. Governors started complaining and then we had a meeting in the office of the president’s wife.
“At the meeting, we asked for assurance that the presidency would no longer collect for oil subsidy and he promised. It is not right for Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to say governors were not willing to save; governors were willing to save but we insisted on sharing the money when we saw that the money was not properly managed.”
The former member of the Rivers state house of assembly said he agreed to serve as a minister because he believes in the administration’s capacity to serve.
“Refusing to serve when the president invited me to serve would mean that I did not have confidence in him. I am serving under the president because I believe that he is the man to help us at this particular time.”
Advertisement
10 comments
Every comment Ameachi makes is either of Jonathan, his wife, or PDP. He has forgotten that he is a present serving minister. His ministry is in ruin, he has not achieved anything since made a minister. Recently I saw his portrait along side the president in a train couch; he is laying claims to this? He should please focus on his ministry, our roads are in ruins, airports in crisis and he is still talking about Jonathan.
Your hero GEJ did nothing from where he came from and I wonder why you spend your time defending him.
He’s the cause of the parlour state of the things you’re complaining about.
Amaechi performed creditably well in Rivers State as Governor.
We should bring development to our people,that should be our interest and nothing else
You missed the point…”He should please focus on his ministry, our roads are in ruins, airports in crisis and he is still talking about Jonathan”.Think about it
Loud mouth. Was OBJ also mismanaging ECA when governors wanted him to share the money?
READ: “State governors, who initially rose against the action, soft-pedalled when the Federal Government agreed to share the money with them. The sharing formula of the fund has, however, remained a riddle.”….http://205.234.252.102/~enownow/news/story.php?sno=367
AMAECHI is busy calling PDP names. He has forgotten that he has been PDP for 14 1/2 years of the 16 years.
lt is obvious that lack of accountability of federal allocated funds to state authorities that has enabled corrupt governors like former Gov. lbori and others to easily get away with stealing Billions of Dollars. Has anything changed since. The answer is capital ‘NO’. A government can have the best policies without prudent monitoring of the policy execution the good policies will fail. The fact remains that there is still no provision to monitor the state authorities especially, Governors
Confession of Amaechi!!!
What a sad and pitiable personality….
Its interesting that Amaechi is saying this, and its unfortunate for Nigeria that we have a crop of selfish and self-centered individuals as governors. They mislead a government so as to be celebrated in another, yet some sick individuals are still defending them. It was a collective failure, Amaechi and the rest governors presided over the fall of Nigeria long ago, and knowing well what they had done, quickly decamped to APC to safe their faces, but remember, for 20 years Lies will run… but the truth will catch up with it just in a day.
Congratulations to GEJ for being patient and quiet. We are getting to know the “wolf in the sheep’s skin.
Okonjo Iweala, a woman that had seen it all could come out to say at an American conference that the SEED OF THIS RECESSION WAS PLANTED DURING THE JONATHAN REGIME DUE TO OUR LACK OF FINANCIAL DISCIPLINE, INABILITY AND LACK OF POLITICAL WILL TO SAVE. People should not blame jonathan alone for this because the profligate Nigerian Governors too are culpable. He attempted to save, but the governors demanded to take all the savings citing constitutional right. Money they took and Stole at the same time. Our case is pathetic.
Do you know that:
????Obasanjo’s administration earned # 17trn from crude oil sales within eight years and left behind 45bn dollars external reserves and 3.348bn dollars external debt.
????Yaradua grew the reserves to 64bn dollars within just one year and the administration was able to finance 15 months of imports despite the 2008/2009 world economic meltdown. Hence, Nigeria survived the melt down because of the political will by the administration to save(a great achievement by Yaradua which most Nigerians are not aware of). Despite the tough economic reality at that time, Yaradua left 47.7bn dollars in reserves and an external debt of 3.94bn dollars. Meanwhile, the administration earned only # 9trn from crude oil sales within that short period.
????Now, Jonathan administration witnessed an oil boom when Brent crude sold for over 100 dollars/barrel, with the regime earning # 51trn within a period of 5years. But because of corruption, the administration did not only squander the oil revenue but even depleted the reserves left by Yaradua, leaving just 32bn dollars and a huge external debt of 63bn dollars for Buhari. The same Brent crude sold for as low as 35 dollars/barrel at a point shortly after Buhari took over power and had only managed to climb to about 48 dollars just recently.
????These are facts that can be verified. So, it’s amazing hearing people criticize Buhari for the hunger in the land.
????According to Fashola, Buhari’s administration inherited 206 uncompleted road projects and contract arrears worth #2.1trn from Jonathan; and for about 2 to 3 years the contractors where not paid. This slowed down the economic activities, with most of the companies laying off their staff. This was when the seed of recession was sowed.
It’s obvious that Buhari came in to rescue Nigeria, because if Jonathan had continued in power, the nation’s economic crisis would have been worse, perhaps even the Federal government wouldn’t have been able to pay salaries of civil servants by now.
????According to Okonjo Iweala, Nigeria started borrowing money to pay salaries since October, 2014; but today Nigeria now borrow money for investment in capital projects.
????Those who blame Buhari for the current hardship do so either out of mischief (hatred) or ignorance. So, we shouldn’t join the bandwagon in criticising him. He may not have done much to save the situation, considering that he is not a perfect human being but he means well for the country and can only succeed with our prayers.
????May Almighty God continue to guide Baba Buhari.
????Why not share this piece with others for the sake of enlightenment and conscious prayers for our nation. We have the responsibility to enlighten others. Mischievous and the ignorant people/politicians should not drag us backward.
Shared as received.
Well, since GEJ mismanaged the ECA and Amechi and Co asked for the money to be shared because they were more prudent, where then is the monies shared by the States to save for a rainy day?
Why are we so gullible as a people. If Jonathan and Okonjo were sin ere and prudent.Obasanjo saved in his days. Where is the Federal govt own part of the shared money saved.A govt that was so corrupt and mindless that could not provide pipe borne water for Otuoke his village for the 6 yrs he spent as President. A man who abandoned all the started projects by his predecessors su h as the East/west road, Ogoni clean up report and all the roads across S/S & S/E we are busy defending g him for corruptly enriching criminals and vandals to the detriment of the majority of the peoples of the region yet people could still shamelessly defend him.It took the present govt for even Otouke right under his nose to have drinking water. Can anyone in all honesty point to one capital project executed by Jonathan in that region let alone the nation.Senseless sentiment will not take us anywhere. We saw how James ibori,Odili,Ighinedion,Alamaesia looted their state without caring for their peoplez welfare and development with the kind of oil money in their days. How have they change the economic narratives of their people and region.Rather they turned blind eyes to the sufferimg of their very people and region.It’s shameful that for whatever inclination we are bent on defending and projecting them as statemen.Shame shame shame.