With the economic hardship biting harder, and some of them across parties lamenting shortfall in revenue, and struggling to pay their workers, Governors are busy bickering over comments by one of them, Governor Godwin Obaseki.
The Progressive Governors’ Forum (PGF) debunked claims by Obaseki of Edo that the Federal Government printed between N50 billion – N60 billion in March.
However, PDP Governors Forum in its reaction contended that the Federal Government should accept economic advice proffered by Governor Obaseki to salvage the nation, instead of politicizing it.
The APC Governors forum in a statement by its chairman, Gov.Abubakar Bagudu of Kebbi on Sunday in Abuja, said Obaseki’s claims did not reflect the true position of things.
Obaseki had claimed that the Federal Government printed the amount to bridge the shortfall in the distribution of federation revenues to the three tiers of government in March.
But Bagudu said at first, the impression the forum got was that it was an off-the-record remark made in a private meeting by Obaseki.
He, however, said the forum was shocked to see yet another response from Obaseki to the rebuttal by the Finance Minister, insisting that the March 2021 FAAC was augmented via the printing of currency.
“Given the significance of the statement from a sitting governor and the possible negative impact it has brought to the credibility of both the Federal and State Governments in managing government finances.
“The forum is obliged to put a statement out to set the records clear, and to the best of our knowledge, the total distributable statutory revenue for the month of March 2021 was N596.94 billion,” he said.
Bagudu explained that due to the shortfall in gross statutory revenues by N43.34 billion compared to the previous month, an augmentation was made in the sum of N8.65 billion from the Forex Equalization Fund Account.
He added that this brought the total distributable revenue to N605.59 billion.
He further added that federation revenues distributed monthly primarily consisted of mineral revenues from the sales of oil and gas, as well as non-mineral revenues from customs and excise duties, company income tax and value added tax.
He, however, admitted that there were periods when the country experienced significant fiscal shocks in federation revenues, but said the shocks were offset by other savings.
These, the PGF chairman said were serviced from the federation account, including distributions from the domestic excess crude proceeds and the foreign excess crude savings account.
“These payments started since 2008 when the country first experienced fiscal shocks from the fallouts of the global financial crisis of 2008 to 2009.
“As a trained economist who has been a governor since 2016, Obaseki is aware of all the support states have received from President Muhammadu Buhari,” he said.
This, he noted was especially in coping with the shocks that had resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic and the resultant economic recession.
He added that not only had states received budget support from the Federal Government, but they had also received bail-out support to meet salary obligations and infrastructure refunds.
He said this was implemented in the overall interest of Nigerians without discrimination on the basis of party affiliation.
“This is why it’s unfortunate and disingenuous to allege preferential treatment of APC states when Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governed states are even greater beneficiaries of all the support,” the PGF chairman said.
He said there was nothing
exceptional in this current review of economic orthodoxy because almost every Central Bank in the world had taken steps to support their governments in coping with the effects of COVID-19.
“This unfortunate and inaccurate assertion by Gov. Obaseki becomes even more worrisome when juxtaposed with the official statement released after the meeting of PDP governors last week,” he said.
He recalled that the PDP governors at its meeting had called for restructuring and greater devolution of powers to the states.
He said it appeared that matters that required collective resolve of all leaders had been turned into purely partisan affairs.
Bagudu said while the right to criticise and hold alternative views was acknowledged, all state
governments had been equitably treated by both the Federal Government and national institutions, particularly the CBN.
He said the CBN had designed and implemented various interventions which helped in stimulating economic activity in all states and had contributed to the country’s quick emergence from recession in 2016 and 2021.
“Such interventions include the Anchor Borrowers Programme, Accelerated Agriculture Development Scheme, Small and medium scale enterprises support scheme as well as expansion of pre-existing Programme such as Commercial Agriculture Credit.
“The world economy had been challenged in the last few years with fiscal and monetary authorities responding in various ways to support their respective economies.
“In all situations the Central Banks had responded to ease credit and in a number of cases where interest rates were near zero, quantitative easing measures were undertaken to expand money supply to the economy.
“Given the constraints faced by the Nigerian economy, the CBN had responded commendably well while still working hard on exchange and interest rates,” Bagudu said.
He urged the CBN governor, management and staff not be distracted and expressed gratitude to President Buhari and his team for the support and partnership extended to all the federating units.
He noted that in addition to occasional meetings with President Buhari, the National Economic Council, chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, meet monthly to discuss all issues transparently and exhaustively.
“It would therefore be helpful to admonish ourselves as leaders to work collaboratively in tackling these challenges rather than resort to cheap and demagogic point scoring in our quest to rescue the economy,” he said.
On their part, the PDP Governors Forum maintained that Governor Obaseki merely offered a patriotic advise.
The full text of the forums response reads:
The PDP Governors Forum is alarmed at the partisan slant a patriotic advise to the Nigerian Government by His Excellency, Governor Godwin Obaseki, on its monetary policies has assumed.
It is unhelpful for the Progressive Governors Forum to join the fray in the manner it did by its recent statement attacking the bona fides of
Governor Obaseki who merely warned the monetary authorities about the danger of uncontrolled use of Ways and Means, that is, the printing of Naira, to support government’s expenditure.
Governor Obaseki has a background in economics and finance and is a very responsible Governor who talks in a measured way . His advise, which by the way has been corroborated by none other than the Governor of the CBN himself, and the international ratings agency FITCH, should be heeded rather than being crucified for sounding a note of caution.
No doubt the Nigerian Government has been supporting the States in the area of agriculture, budget, refund of Federal Government executed projects by States and a few other areas of intervention. Is CBN trying to be vindictive and vengeful by recalling its loans to the States because of an informed advise by a Governor?. It is unfortunate that governance has plummeted to this level.
The Nigerian Government should plug financial leakages in the system and curb wasteful expenditure of billions of Naira on projects that can be executed by the private sector and save a lot of money in the process, thereby relying less on Ways and Means by the CBN , which brings pressure on the Naira with its inflationary consequences. Inflation in Nigeria is currently at 18.2 % , the highest in recent years. We should all be concerned to find ways of stemming t
he tide.
We are all involved in the urgent task of rescuing the economy of Nigeria and nobody should indeed play the OSTRICH .
Hon CID Maduabum,
LL.M Director General,
Official PDP Nig Governors Forum
▪︎ Additional reports by NAN
