APC & PDP at War Over Source ofN804.7 Billion Economic Bailout for States Owing Salaries #Nekxfresh

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On Tuesday, BN brought you the news that President
Muhammadu Buhari approved the sum of N804.7
billion to assist states who have been unable to pay
salaries.

And now, Vanguard is reporting that the presidency
and the national leadership of PDP are sharply
divided over the sources of the N804.7 billion.
The report states:


While the PDP said that a significant amount of the
princely sum came from savings left behind by the
out-gone administration of Goodluck Jonathan, the
Presidency disagreed, arguing that the money came
from proceeds of Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas
(NLNG). The Presidency also denied some media
reports that the presidential relief package was
drawn from the Excess Crude Accounts, ECA,
stressing that the ECA is intact.

PDP National Chairman, Olisa Metuh, released the
following statement on the matter (excerpts):

“This development is in clear contradiction to the
earlier impression given by President Buhari to
Nigerians and the international community that
they should not expect much from his
administration in its first 100 days because
according him, on assumption of office, he met a
virtually empty treasury.

We want to believe that given the President’s
release of such huge amount, he may have
realized that he was earlier misdirected on the
actual financial state of the nation at the time he
took over. In this regard, we expect the President,
as a respected statesman to do the needful to
correct that erroneous impression.

Furthermore, we expect President Buhari’s APC
administration as direct beneficiary of this savings
initiated by past PDP administrations to
appreciate the strategic importance of always
saving for rainy days and as such guarantee
prudent & transparent management of the
nation’s resources now under its care.”

In response, Senior Special Assistant to the President
Buhari on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba
Shehu said:


“Let me say that no money was taken from the
Excess Crude Account. I was present two weeks
ago when the governors met with the President,
one of them (governors) called his attention to the
fact that he had heard that Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas, NLNG, had paid in some dividends to Nigeria.
Let me also add that in the course of their courtesy visit last week, the board of NLNG announced to the president that they had made the payment. So in a similar way, the President was just informed about this money last week.”

Special Adviser to the President on Media and
Publicity, Femi Adesina also stated:

“Reports in sections of the media today that funds
will be drawn from the Excess Crude Account for
the relief package approved by President Muhammadu Buhari for states and local governments, are incorrect. For the purpose of
greater clarity on the matter, the measures approved by President Buhari to deal with the
problem of unpaid public sector salaries in many
states are as follows:

*The sharing of the $2.1 billion dividend paid to
the Federation Account by the Nigeria Liquefied
Natural Gas Company (NLNG);

*A Central Bank-packaged special intervention
fund that will offer financing to the states, ranging
from N250 billion to N300 billion. This will be a
soft loan available to states for the purposes of
paying backlog of salaries; and

*A debt relief programme designed by the Debt
Management Office which will help states
restructure their commercial loans currently put
at over N660 Billion, and extend the life span of
such loans while reducing their debt-servicing
expenditures.

The measures approved by President Buhari
definitely do not include drawing down the
remaining balance in the Excess Crude Account or
the “liquidation” of the account as some media
outlets have wrongly reported. No such decision
has been taken or approved by President Buhari,
and last week’s meeting of the National Economic
Council clearly concluded that the Excess Crude
Account should be left untouched at this time.”