administration of former President, Goodluck Jonathan illegally refused to transfer
funds remitted to it by the Nigerian Liquified Natural Gas, NLNG, into the
federation account.
He said that with the renewed transparency being returned to the system by
President Muhammadu Buhari, Edo State would have gotten N10 billion
consecutively in four years of the Jonathan administration.
The governor stated this while speaking with journalists after meeting with
President Buhari at the presidential villa, Abuja.
He regretted that his state lost N10billion under the former accounting order of
Jonathan and former Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
According to him, Nigerians have always been happy with President Buhari
because he had been very clear from day one on his campaign promises “about
putting an end to impunity and fragrant disobedience of law and order”.
Oshiomhole further explained that the NLNG was not just starting to remit, as it
had been doing that every year plus taxes paid by Shell, amounting to about
$500 million.
He added that the $500 million added to the amount of $1.6 billion from NLNG
was what totalled to the amount of $2.1 billion that was shared last week.
While noting that the remitted NLNG funds were not been transferred to the
federation account, Oshiomhole said: “For example, all the noise that have been
generated over what happened last week, there was nothing extraordinary.
“What was extraordinary is that the NLNG has over the years been remitting
funds to the federal government. But the federal government illegally refused to
transfer these funds to the consolidated revenue fund which belongs to the three
tiers of government.
“All that President Buhari has done is in line with his commitments to ensuring
that all funds and monies accruing to the federation account are so remitted. He
has directed the CBN to transfer the funds to the consolidated account.
“And our commissioners along with federal officials met last week to share those
funds in line with the revenue allocation formula. If this money had come under
the last president, it will have gone the same way as in previous years.
“If what we got last week courtesy of this renewed commitment to transparency;
if we had gotten this these past four years consecutively, we would have made
about N10 billion. So, by the same token, Edo State government had lost N10
billion under President Goodluck Jonathan and under Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
“And this is the point we have been making when analysts just talk about states.
They do not really probe the specifics and because the federal voice is always
louder and people make assumptions that certain people are not likely to do
certain things.
“The truth is that so much was not paid to the federation account and that
explains the huge gap. That was why in some of my statements, I said it is not
just question of drop in price but it is also the denial of a lot of revenue that
ought to have accrued into the federation account. So, no state has gotten a
dime from what we called bail out or Excess Crude Account”.
On calls for minimum wage increase, Oshiomhole regretted that general, workers
in the country are poorly paid.
He said: “Let me be very clear, I believe the Nigerian worker is under paid.
Paricularly in the public sector. If you look at the wage trend now, you will find
out that what a graduate of level 8, step 2 in the public service earns, if the
same young man is to get a job in an oil company or some subsection of the
public section, his pay will be much more.
“If a worker is confronted with endless rise in costs of living and his wages are
stagnant, obviously whether you know it or not, he is already experiencing
pressures on his living standard.
“If you look at the minimum wage when it was fixed, the exchange rate was
about N140 to a dollar, so N18,000 is about $130 a month. Now at N200 per
dollar, N18,000 is about $90 and so you can see the only beneficiary in this kind
of inflationary environment are those who have fixed assets like building because
the more your naira is devalued, the higher the nominal value of your assets”.
Oshiomhole however boasted that his state government is not indebted to any
worker, noting that Edo is up to date in its salary obligations.
“We are up to date in our allowances. I believe that some states have made a lot
of progress in the area of internally generated revenue. But also some states are
better placed to make more money or raise more money from internally
generated revenue.
“For example, if you have the luck of number of industries being located in your
state, now the fact of those location of those businesses means that you have
people and organizations that are taxable.
“Now, if you are in a state where the private sector is completely absent, no
matter how hard you look inward, you are not likely to find much. So we have to
appreciate sometimes when people make this that state should look inward”.
Source : Daily Post
No comments:
Post a Comment