A former Vice President (Africa), World Bank, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, has said the Umaru Yar’Adua and President Goodluck Jonathan administrations need to tell Nigerians how they spent the $45bn left in the foreign reserves account and $22bn in the Excess Crude Account by the former President Olusegun Obasanjo administration.

Ezekwesili, who was a former Minister of Solid Minerals and Education under Obasanjo, said at the convocation lecture of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, on Thursday, that Nigerians had lost dignity because of ravaging poverty arising from poor choices of the elite, corruption and lack of investment in education.

Noting that the country had enjoyed five cycles of oil boom, she decried the failure to convert oil income to renewable assets through training of human capital, development of other sectors and investment in foreign assets as other resource-rich countries did with their oil income.

Ezekwesili, a founding director of Transparency International, said, “The present cycle of boom of the 2010s is, however, much more vexing than the other four that happened in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and 2000s.

“This is because we are still caught up in it and it is more egregious than the other periods in revealing that we learned absolutely nothing from the previous massive failures.”

The former minister lamented the “squandering of the significant sum of $45bn in the foreign reserves account and another $22bn in the Excess Crude Account being direct savings from increased earnings from oil that the Obasanjo administration handed over to the successor government in 2007.”


http://www.punchng.com/business/business-economy/ezekwesili-queries-how-yaradua-jonathan-spent-67bn/

One cannot but ask what exactly does symbolise with this level of brazen misappropriation of public resources? Where did all that money go?

“Where is the accountability for the use of both these resources and the additional several hundred dollars realised from oil sale by the two administrations that have governed our nation in the last five years? How were these resources applied, or more appropriately misapplied? Tragic choices.”

The money is probably scattered all over the world in different banks; some might have been used in GEJ's campaign and the remaining for 2015; or Yaradua took it all to heaven.

The tragedy of a Nation led by grossly underweight; light-minded and lightfingered Squander Maniacs.
No wonder Jona refused to declare his assets.

The blame should be on OBJ for foisting the two on Nigerians!

Pls leave yar adua's name out of this shait pls. He publicly declared his asset. Whatever turai choose to do during his ill health should not be his fault. Beside, we all know that the real thief is Oga jona

Ezekwesili is saying all these 'cause she's И̣̣̣̥o longer in government,if she was she won't say all these......she's И̣̣̣̥o different,who doesn't know that funds are being squandered everyday

Oga Jona should be asked about the money,although I know his response will be "I don't give a damn".

Ask now, they will say the money was spent on power

OP. I thought you were going to tell us how the money was spent. Your title was not a question, or was it?

hmmm...

If una talk too much, Oga Jona go set up another committee to find the money o!

me i no go say anything before them say na Buhari ask me to talk... mumu govt!

nedu2000: Ezekwesili is saying all these 'cause she's И̣̣̣̥o longer in government,if she was she won't say all these......she's И̣̣̣̥o different,who doesn't know that funds are being squandered everyday

My mind exactly.

yes, ask patience and turai, they know better.

Demdem: Oby Ezekwesili is now with ACN / CPC, she is not being truthful

Why are you politicising the matter now? Are you also trying to embarrass the good government of GEJ? Is it because he is from the minority? Na Buhari send you or the cabal? Waiting for Okupe to reply you! Lol

So Naija get this huge amount of dollars, but eventually every kobo disappeared just like that under Jona/Yara.

They must tell us what they did with the money.
Jona must surely give a damn.

Jona go huge transformer we dey presidential villa.


Hey where is my calculator let me convert the hard currency into Naira asap.
Aah the thing pass my calculator ooo.., imagine money wey my calculator no fit calculate two dudes just squandered within some years.

Nevertheless, Obj my senior man, thumps up. Jona thumps down.

but Oby Ezekwesili was part of the repressive government, where was her voice then?

Fresh breeze everywhere
EFCC turned a blind eye on that one, but they had the resources to investigate a scam by a minting company outside africa.

The money disappeared during 2011 elections. Ask pdp delegates that came for their national convention.

How much was squandered by the administration she was a part of?
*Logs out and continues watching DSTV channel 306*

nedu2000: Ezekwesili is saying all these 'cause she's И̣̣̣̥o longer in government,if she was she won't say all these......she's И̣̣̣̥o different,who doesn't know that funds are being squandered everyday

My friend shut ur dirty Mouth, even when she was a minister her nickname was madam " Due process" She is one three women masketeer from IGBO , she, dora and ngozi

Imagine!! The amount of money looted is almost or more than the networth of Bill Gates.
I don't care whether its politics or no GEJ should explain where the funds went to.
I don't seem to understand. Was it not Ngozi Okonjo Iweala that helped in accumulating the reserves? Now she has helped in squandering it

I thougt she was the "Joseph" of Nigeria and GEJ the pharoah. Remember how Joseph helped Egypt's economy ?

nedu2000: Ezekwesili is saying all these 'cause she's И̣̣̣̥o longer in government,if she was she won't say all these......she's И̣̣̣̥o different,who doesn't know that funds are being squandered everyday

Really? So when she spoke the truth at the World Bank, it was because she was no longer in government?
And what does transformation agenda mean?

Is it to let people "know that funds are being squandered everyday"?

Na when all of dem fall out of favour wit Government dem dey get gist wey we don sabi since. Craze pple. Thunder fire all of una.

Probably check the pockets of politicians, traditional leaders, "religious" leaders, tribal leaders, and regional leaders.

One nigeria is film trick.

Smh!

plz is seun back from mali for the peace keeping mission?

Yes OBJ left more than $60billion in our Foreign Reserves b4 he left (though he had negotiatd d removal of $10billion for the NIPP projects just b4 leaving). A huge chunck of d money (more than $20billions was removd during d 3 yrs of Yar'adua who didnt do much during his time as I hv always said here); to be fair to Yar'adua, it was during his time dat d 2008-2009 World economic crisis happend such that parts of d fund was usd to augment d Money shard by d Federation and also to defend d Naira by Sanusi's CBN, although he also allowd State Governors to pressurise him to 'share' out sm of d moneys for their own 'urgent state projects'. This trend continued unfortunately briefly unda GEJ until middle of 2011 when d decline in d Reserve's value was reversd and it began to increase again. The Reserves and the Excess Crude fund for instance both increasd from about $32billion and $4.5billion at d beginning of 2012 to about $44.6billion and $9.6billion respectively within dat one yr period and is still increasing ($1billion was also set aside for d critical SWF fund within d same period). Questns needs to be askd about what ALL d monies drawn from d Account during d 3 yrs of Yar'adua and the 1st yr of GEJ were usd for both in d Federal but also in d State and LGA levels, still this is d FULLER stori...

vislabraye: Imagine!! The amount of money looted is almost or more than the networth of Bill Gates.
I don't care whether its politics or no GEJ should explain where the funds went to.
I don't seem to understand. Was it not Ngozi Okonjo Iweala that helped in accumulating the reserves? Now she has helped in squandering it

I thougt she was the "Joseph" of Nigeria and GEJ the pharoah. Remember how Joseph helped Egypt's economy ?

Okonjo-Iweala is NOT 'squandering' anything, be sure of what you are saying b4 opening yr mouth in public. Since she returnd to govt as Finance Min mid-2011, d Reserves hv be INCREASING again just like it did when she was 1st there during OBJ's time...

Movingcoil: plz is seun back from mali for the peace keeping mission?

NO, he is not back. His platoon is actuali heading towards northern Mali as we speak now to engage those ruggd Rebels. Plz pray for him..

I foresee a scenario playing out. The oil thieves and the corrupt politicians capitalize on the weakness of the present administration to loot money, and convince the president not to probe them....and the same people join the next government with their money power and convince that government to prosecute the president (ex president). Jonathan had better be wise...This is the time to deal with corruption and get our money back, otherwise the same people you are protecting will turn their backs tomorrow and deal with you!