Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala Spent $1bn on GEJ’s campaign - Oshiomhole

The Edo state governor, Adams Oshiomhole has accused the immediate past minister of finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, of expending $1 billion on the re-election bid of her former boss,president, Goodluck Jonathan.


The governor who has been attacking the former minister in recent times was speaking on Monday in Benin during a seminar organised by the state government for permanent secretaries, directors and deputy directors in Edo.

“You will soon begin to hear when all the numbers are published,” he said. “Last week, I complained aloud that Edo state lost about N10 billion over a four-year period from only one source, the NLNG remittance to the federation account. “How did I arrive at the figure? I used my 4-figure table and I asked myself at $2.1 billion remitted by NLNG as taxes and Shell, and by the way, Shell is not the only oil operative, we have Chevron and several others.

“They shared the $2.1 billion based on the revenue allocation formula, Edo state got about N2.27 billion. So I said, thank God this money came after the departure of Okonjo-Iweala and President Jonathan. If the PDP were still in charge at Abuja, this money would have been taken. 

“That is not the only money Edo state government has lost. You have heard of the last installment of $4.1 billion that was in the excess crude account as of November, 2014, and from that time till today, we have not; when I say we, federal, states and local governments have not touched that money. We have not agreed to take anything out of it, and yet it has been drawn down to about $2 billion, which means $2.1 billion disappeared. 

“If you listened and followed the conversation, when I made this allegation after the national economic council meeting that the former minister of finance and coordinating minister, Dr Okonjo-Iweala took $2.1 billion without approval and spent it in a manner that was never accounted for, she replied that I lied and said that it was the commissioners and herself who agreed to distribute that money to the three tiers of government and that FAAC is the most visible expression of our true federalism. And that we shouldn’t claim that FAAC is unknown to us. That FAAC is a creation of law and so on and so forth. 

“I’m going into this, because, as public servants, you need to understand not just the finances of Edo state but also the finances of Nigeria, particularly as they affect our state. 

“Now the commissioners of finance met and they looked at themselves and they looked at Okonjo-Iweala and they submitted to Okonjo-Iweala that ‘madam, you lied’, not Oshiomhole because in truth, we have no powers to decide withdrawals from the excess crude account and that the power is vested in the state governors at the level of the national economic council.’ But whether vested or not, we never, ever resolved to share money from that account. 

“Now the former minister of finance was confronted with these hard facts, she shifted the argument that ‘oh no it is not FAAC that approved it, it was the former President Goodluck Jonathan that approved it’. 

“President Jonathan, as far as the law of Nigeria is concerned, or any president, his approval is limited to funds of the federal government, not funds of the federation. Funds of the federation can only be approved by governors and representative of the president as reflected in the composition of the national economic council, which is made is made up by governors and chaired by the Vice President, with the CBN Governor and Minister of Finance and others as members. But there’s so much confusion now that Okonjo-Iweala can say one thing in the morning and tomorrow she will say I never said so. If she were a witness in a court of law, she would be declared a pathological liar whose evidence is of no value.

“Now that she claimed she used it, between herself and the last president, they agreed to take the money to pay oil marketers. But if you talk to those oil marketers, they will tell you that within that period, they were paid $1 billion not $2.1 billion. So in truth, about $1 billion was taken for election purposes and Edo state’s share of that should have been about N4.6 billion from that $2.1 billion that Dr Ngozi-Okonjo
Iweala, the former minister of finance illegally took
from excess crude account.” the Governor said.

Meanwhile,the former minister has said she is confident that Adams Oshiomhole, will fail in his latest “public campaign of falsehood” against her while reacting to the allegation that she spent $1 billion on the re-election bid of former president, Goodluck Jonathan.
In a statement issued on her behalf by Paul Nwabuikwu, her spokesman reads.

“The statement is just another example of the numerical diarrhoea that seems to have afflicted his excellency in recent times in his effort to damage the reputation of the former minister. 

“He has, within the last few months, asked Dr Okonjo-Iweala to explain all kinds of totally wild and unsubstantiated figures, ranging from $30 billion, $20 billion, $2.1 billion, N720 billion and now $1 billion. 

“To say the obvious, the accusations are totally lacking in credibility. “Governor Oshiomhole’s published comments also contain other falsehoods. For instance, he quoted Dr Okonjo-Iweala as saying that she and the finance commissioners of the 36 states approved the spending of $2.1 billion out of the excess crude account, adding that the commissioners had disowned the statement. This is also a complete distortion. 

“Dr Okonjo-Iweala never said the federation accounts allocation committee (FAAC) approved spending out of the ECA. Rather as the commissioners themselves stated, the former minister of state finance informed them that former President Jonathan approved the expenditure to end the debilitating fuel queues across the country. 

“As Nigerians know, the finance ministry under Okonjo-Iweala regularly published details of revenue allocations from the ECA in national media. So Oshiomhole’s tortured ‘calculations’ based on his ‘four-figure tables’ are mere political numbers conjured to achieve a political purpose. Nigerians can see through the elaborate antics. 

“Governor Oshiomhole’s latest statement, like earlier ones, labours to give the impression that the entire FAAC process which involves the federal government and the 36 states of the federation is a personal monopoly of Dr Okonjo-Iweala. 

“This is, of course not true. FAAC is a long standing national platform for allocating revenues chaired by the minister of state finance. The governor’s insistence on pushing this clearly fictional narrative underscores his desperation.” The statement said rather than concentrate on the task of investigating the ECA spending as saddled by a committee which Oshiomhole belongs, the governor was focused on reckless utterances capable of undermining the credibility of the committee. 

“It is instructive that Governor Oshiomhole is a key member of the committee set up by the National Economic Council to investigate the ECA spending,” the statement read. “His continuing attacks against Dr Okonjo-Iweala seem to suggest that he has lost confidence in this platform which he deployed to make some of his initial false and baseless allegations. The Governor does not seem to appreciate that he is undermining the very credibility of the committee. “Once again, we ask: why are Oshiomhole and his cohorts so ready to sacrifice truth, precedent and decency in this political witch hunt against Dr Okonjo-Iweala?