Buhari vows to recover stolen funds; warns governors against impunity, financial recklessness
President Muhammadu Buhari has vowed to do his best to recover monies stolen by government officials running into billions of dollars in the coming months.
The President who also assured that he will ensure that the loopholes through which these funds are looted are blocked, warned that the days of impunity, lack of accountability, and fiscal recklessness in the management of national resources are over.
Addressing Governors of the different states of the country in the Presidential Villa, President Buhari noted that financial and administrative instructions in government parastatals and agencies had been thrown to the dogs in the past, but insisted that his government would reverse the trend. “The next three months may be hard, but billions of dollars can be recovered, and we will do our best.
“We will try and put the system back into the right position. What happened in the 2nd Republic has apparently happened again, and even worse, but we will restore sanity to the system,” he stressed.
Expressing surprise that the governors had tolerated the atrocities allegedly committed with the Excess Crude Account since 2011, President Buhari promised to tackle the issue decisively.
According to a statement issued by the President’s spokesperson, Mr. Femi Adesina, the President pointed out that the payment of national revenue into any account other than the Federation Account amounts to abuse of the constitution, insisting that what he had heard was going on in many agencies and corporations, particularly the NNPC, was clearly illegal.
The statement also said that a comprehensive statement on the economic and financial situation inherited by the President would be made public within the one month.
On the issue of a bailout for states that are owing workers several months salaries, the President said a committee headed by Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, will review the state of the Excess Crude Account with a view to determining what could be shared immediately.
The governors were led to the meeting by the Chairman of the Governors Forum, Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara State and made some demands of the President including:
“Obedience of extant Supreme Court ruling that all monies go into the Consolidated Federation Account; An order from the President that all revenue generating agencies must pay into the Consolidated Federation Account; Review of the Revenue Allocation Formula; Refund of the monies expended by states on federal projects; A special consideration for the three states of the North East under Boko Haram infestation; Full details of the amounts that accrued into the Excess Crude Account from 2011, and how the money miraculously shrank without official sharing.”
