FAAC deadlock: Buhari wades into row between NNPC and governors

President Muhammadu Buhari has agreed to address the issues that led to a stalemate at the last Federation Accounts and Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting in Abuja.

Kemi Adeosun, minister of finance, disclosed this after meeting with Abdulaziz Yari, governor of Zamfara state; Abubakar Badaru of Jigawa; and Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi.

Abba Kyari, chief of staff to the president, also attended the meeting at the presidential villa, Abuja.

The committee members of FAAC had expressed reservations with some of the costs presented by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

Adeosun said before the president’s intervention, efforts had been put in place to address the issues.

“Well, as you know, the last FAAC meeting ended in deadlock and since then we have been having series of engagements between ourselves, the governors, the commissioners and of course the various stakeholders,” she said.

“Today’s meeting was for me to brief the governors and the chief of staff and by extension Mr. President on the progress we have made so far on our position. Mr. President has promised to take the next step and to that extent we are very satisfied.”

Asked the reason for the disagreement with the NNPC  and if the oil firm was exempted from the treasury single account (TSA), Adeosun said, “Every agency of government is in the TSA. You know FAAC is unique, FAAC is a meeting where all the revenue generating agencies make returns on net of their expenses.

“It is in the area of where we have disputes, the disputes is not on the gross revenue but on what has been deducted from that gross revenues giving us the net which is being brought into the FAAC. But I think this is a healthy process. We must be satisfied with figures before we sign of on them. We must as stakeholders make sure all our agencies are aligned with all the programmes of government in terms of getting this economy really moving.

“We are still very much dependent on oil, on NNPC for our revenue, so we do need to have sometimes, some of this, I see them more as reconciliations than standoffs. I’m very sure we will have the FAAC in the next day or so.”

Yari, on his part, expressed happiness that Buhari decided to step into to resolve the issues.

“There is headway because Mr. President and the minister of finance will meet with the NNPC official so that we can resolve the problem with the federal allocation accounts committee,” he said.

“Initially it was supposed to be private but has turned to be official. We were supposed to hold the Federation Allocation Account Committee (FAAC) meeting since last week which became deadlock. That is why came to discuss with the president.

“And in further discussion, the chief of staff decided to invite the honourable minister so that we can discuss further and to know how best we can deal with the issue at hand.”