The Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has described as baseless and diversionary, allegations by the Edo State Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, that there was no transparency in the management of the Excess Crude Account (ECA).
The governor had also alleged in a published article captioned “Economy: Okonjo-Iweala’s Hidden Figures” that the minister’s recent publication of the sharing of ECA accruals in the last four years was “full of gaping holes, both in facts and logic.”
Reacting to Oshiomhole’s allegations via a statement issued by her Special Adviser, Mr. Paul Nwabuikwu, the minister said it was no surprise that a few days after the Federal Ministry of Finance published the details of what the federal and state governments received from the ECA over the past four years, Oshiomhole decided to launch an attack against her.
The statement titled: “Oshiomhole’s Baseless Diatribe Against Okonjo-Iweala”, said: ”Obviously, for daring to publish how the ECA was shared and showing that governors who cannot pay salaries have no excuses, Okonjo-Iweala is being targeted. It is noteworthy that several of their colleagues have been able to manage their finances reasonably well under these same difficult circumstances.
“The release of the ECA details has also demonstrated very clearly that there is no substance in the wild allegations that any money is missing from the account or that finances of the country under Okonjo-Iweala watch have not been well managed.
“Like previous baseless allegations by some Governors, the motive behind Oshiomhole’s attack is clear: to deflect public attention away from the manner in which they have run the finances of their states and make Okonjo-Iweala the scapegoat. If it was meant to intimidate the Minister, it has failed abysmally.
“How can Governor Oshiomhole claim that state governors were not properly briefed on the status of the ECA when his commissioner of finance attends all the FAAC meetings where decisions are taken and communicated to the nation?”
This diversionary tactic, Okonjo-Iweala pointed out, “will not succeed because Nigerians are too smart to buy into this fiction. Secondly, the Finance Ministry under Okonjo-Iweala, the Minister who started the practice of publishing details of allocations from the Federation Account to all the three tiers of government, has regularly furnished Nigerians with information on the country’s finances.”
She added: “Governor Oshiomhole’s statement that Okonjo-Iweala ‘must disclose to the nation the full details of subsidy payments made to oil marketers in the last four years’ is therefore astonishing given the fact that EVERY payment made to the marketers has been published in the media and widely disseminated through all news channels.
“Oshiomhole’s allegation that Okonjo-Iweala has not been transparent is ridiculous and totally lacking in merit. Apart from the monthly publication of allocations to the federal, state and local governments, the Federal Ministry of Finance under Okonjo-Iweala also publishes SURE-P receipts and distribution to different tiers, details of payments to oil marketers and other information.
“Has Governor Oshiomhole demonstrated the same level of openness in his management of the affairs of Edo State? Can Oshiomhole also go public with ALL the information showing what he has received from various sources and the uses to which he has deployed them?
“Equally incomprehensible – for a supposedly smart Governor - is Oshiomhole’s claim that the CME has “just woken up from her slumber to realize that oil marketers have been all along falsifying subsidy claims and defrauding the nation of billions of Naira.”
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