The Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, on Tuesday accused the Rivers State governor, Chibuike Amaechi, of being economical with the truth about the status of the Excess Crude Account, ECA, and the situation with the loan the state government sought from the African Development Bank, ADB.

Governor Amaechi had on Saturday, during the executive retreat by the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, NGF, in Sokoto State, claimed that he did not understand what happened to the savings in the ECA, which had a balance of about $9billion (N1.43 trillion) in January before being depleted to less than $4 billion (N635 billion) by November – an allusion that about $5 billion (N794 billion) may have been mismanaged.

The NGF Chairman had also accused Ms. Okonjo-Iweala of politicizing her official decisions. He cited the application by the Rivers State Government for approval of the bid to secure a $200 million loan facility from the ADB for the execution of some water projects, which, he said, was turned down by the Minister, because of his political feud with President Goodluck Jonathan.

However, the Minister, in a response to enquiries by NWS expressed shock at the governor’s claims. She said that, with Rivers State being the second biggest beneficiary of the several withdrawals from the ECA to augment the shortfalls in the annual budget estimates, Mr. Amaechi could not deny knowledge of the status of the account.

“Rivers State has received N56.2 billion from the Excess Crude Account between January and September 2013,” the Minister said in a statement by the Federal Ministry of Finance, adding that this amount included N43 billion for shortfalls, plus N12 billion released for SURE-P.

Also, she said, Rivers State along with other states, earlier in November, also benefitted from the sharing of $1 billion (N158.9 billion) withdrawal from the ECA to augment the statutory revenue allocations to the three tiers of government for October.

While describing claims that $5 billion was missing from the ECA as ”absolutely shocking and false”, the minister said Mr. Amaechi was closely involved and actively participated in making requests to the presidency for the account to be shared for the purpose of augmenting the regular allocations from the Federation Account whenever there was a shortfall.
“The $5 billion in the ECA, which Governor Amaechi referred to, has been shared to the three tiers of government to make up for the revenue shortfalls during the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee process,” she said.

She added that it was curious that the governor did not to know the whereabouts of the N56.2 billion, which Rivers State received from the ECA this year.

Part of the fund, the minister said, also went for the Subsidy Re-investment and Empowerment Programme, SURE-P, payments and the balance for subsidy payments to petroleum products marketers.

Ms. Okonjo-Iweala dismissed the claim that she refused to sign the document giving approval for the ADB loan for a water project in Port Harcourt, describing the claim as wrong and misleading.

She said, although the loan in question had since been appraised by the Federal Ministry of Finance, it was yet to be negotiated by all the parties involved. She pointed out that before she could sign the document giving the final approval, the loan application had to go through the negotiation processes, considered and cleared by both the Board of ADB and the Executive Council of the Federation, FEC.

“So the issue of the minister refusing to sign it (the application for the loan) simply does not arise,” the statement said, adding”Dr.Okonjo-Iweala handles issues concerning the states on the basis of professionalism and equity.”
http://www.weeklystandardng.com/8-headline-news/1612-gov-rotimi-amaechi-is-a-lair-okonjo-iweala-says

Thank u Mr minster 4 Sharing d money. Amaechi keep exposing there secrets so that they will become accountable.

Is either NOI is lying or Ameachi is economical wt d truth.

Okada abeg stop me let me read this post.

Gov Rotimi Amaechi thinks Nigerians are suffering from amnesia and cannot remember events properly.
I personally remember that in January 2013 Rotimi Amaechi led other Governors to demand for the release of $1B dollars from the excess crude account. According to the Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, the Governors have been drawing from the excess crude account to shore up revenue shortfalls.
There is also documentary evidence suggestive that Rivers alone has received over N56b within 8 months from excess crude account.
After all these withdrawals in his favour, Gov Rotimi Amaechi still went ahead to declare $5 B missing. What kind of hypocrisy is that?

I love her explanation for not signing the loan yet. They want her to sign the Liam when it hasn't gone through due process so they can have a loophole to attack her for not following due process. God pass them.

ikennaoma: Thank u Mr minster 4 Sharing d money. Amaechi keep exposing there secrets so that they will become accountable.

It is your ignorance that encourages people like Amaechi to play politics with our sensibilities. Here is a man who seriously lobbied and pressurized the president to share from ECA and after the president bowed to his pressure, he turned 360 degrees to accuse the president of misapprioprating the same funds. it is on record that He(Amaechi) has collected over 56 billion from ECA.

In saner climes, Amaechi would have been held by the masses to account for the expenditure of the billions that accrued to Rivers State from excess crude Account but this is Nigeria where emotions and sentiments thrive. He will not Be asked. Rather he will be heroinised and praised for telling blatant lies against FG.

alakara: Is either NOI is lying or Ameachi is economical wt d truth.

Amaechi is economical with the truth. Ngozi Iweala has her records and spoke through them. She can't just make wild statements like that. We are talking about monetary disbursements here. The records are there for anybody who wants to verify. Of course, the money was not released in cash or Ghana must go. It passed through verifiable accounts. We are talking of billions here.

Zutchy:

Amaechi is economical with the truth. Ngozi Iweala has her records and spoke through them. She can't just make wild statements like that. We are talking about monetary disbursements here. The records are there for anybody who wants to verify. Of course, the money was not released in cash or Ghana must go. It passed through verifiable accounts. We are talking of billions here.

Trust Amaechi. If the woman was lying against him, he would have come out publicly since Tuesday to debunk the press's statement.
Since then, Amaechi has kept mum because he knows it's very true. He shared from the account

Mekusnwa: Gov Rotimi Amaechi thinks Nigerians are suffering from amnesia and cannot remember events properly.
I personally remember that in January 2013 Rotimi Amaechi led other Governors to demand for the release of $1B dollars from the excess crude account. According to the Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, the Governors have been drawing from the excess crude account to shore up revenue shortfalls.
There is also documentary evidence suggestive that Rivers alone has received over N56b within 8 months from excess crude account.
After all these withdrawals in his favour, Gov Rotimi Amaechi still went ahead to declare $5 B missing. What kind of hypocrisy is that?

Oga Amaechi dey crase shaa. After choping all the money inside the account, he cleaned his mouth and came out to raise a false alarm that the money was missing. That's a new corruption alibi.

Dollarman101:

That's a new corruption alibi.

Of course Ameachi knows that the money is being shared to augment for the shortfall. His attack is simply meant to bring out the fact the gej's incompetent leadership has led to a shortfall in oil revenues at a time when Brent crude has being selling for about $110 and is bench marked at less than $80. That is About $30 per barrel should be entering the excess crude account every day.

If GEJ's benefactors like alams can come out to say Nigeria should make bunkering legal business, shouldn't GEJ be held accountable for the shortfall in crude revenue?

Left for me, I will advice that Jonathan should completely close excess crude account and transfer all funds therein to the Soveriegn wealth fund. I now see reason why Governors protested the establishment of SWF ab initio. Thanks to Ngozi Okonjo Iweala who stood her ground to ensure that SWF was passed by NASS. Let them go a notch higher to transfer all the funds in ECA to SWF.

These governors want to milk our oil revenue dry without any commensurate development to show for it. Imagine that Governors have shared upto $5B from excess crude account this year alone. Rivers state alone received 56.2b between January to September 2013. What have they done with the money. Internal roads in Port harcourt are still a hideous eyesore. Let them close ECA and damn the governors.

trillville: Of course Ameachi knows that the money is being shared to augment for the shortfall. His attack is simply meant to bring out the fact the gej's incompetent leadership has led to a shortfall in oil revenues at a time when Brent crude has being selling for about $110 and is bench marked at less than $80. That is About $30 per barrel should be entering the excess crude account every day.

If GEJ's benefactors like alams can come out to say Nigeria should make bunkering legal business, shouldn't GEJ be held accountable for the shortfall in crude revenue?

You easily forgot that it was GEJ that built back the excess crude account from about $3 billion in 2009 to $10b dollars in 2013.
GEJ was the one who fought and established SWF for savings and investments for the rainy days. You would recall that $1 billion dollars was withdrawn from ECA as seed capital for SWF. If not for the greed of Amaechi and co, nothing would have happened to ECA.
If they could shun politics and allow excess revenue from oil flow into SWF, it would help the future.

why is there shortfall in revenue?

fyneguy: why is there shortfall in revenue?

I think it has to do with oil theft. It has cut short revenue drastically. But things are improving after Gej set up the Uduaghan committee to work out modalities to address the crude theft. The Nigerian Navy has also increased their surveillance of the waterways so less crude is stolen.

God I love dis woman she may or may not be GEJ stooge but she's f*uck brilliant. I wish he had 10 more like her APC n d rest wuld have cried. Anytime she's being accused by dem primitive SOBs she comes out with facts and figures n u just can't help but believe her. The people fight to get rid of her have finally giving up I don't know why Ameachi wants to open his own closet. 56billion n u still open ur month to ask questions. ☺ĸ make em bring out his own documentation on how 56billion was spent maybe den we can listen to him.

Louis88:

You easily forgot that it was GEJ that built back the excess crude account from about $3 billion in 2009 to $10b dollars in 2013.
GEJ was the one who fought and established SWF for savings and investments for the rainy days. You would recall that $1 billion dollars was withdrawn from ECA as seed capital for SWF. If not for the greed of Amaechi and co, nothing would have happened to ECA.
If they could shun politics and allow excess revenue from oil flow into SWF, it would help the future.

It is like you have also forgotten it was over $30 billion in 2007 when Obasanjo left. The ECA was meant to save money for Nigeria to use when oil prices drop. Oil prices did drop in 2008 to about $40 per barrel, hence the depletion of the ECA.

Again in 2008, there was a credit crunch so prices of food shot up and the Nigerian government had to subsidize the price of rice, this led to a further fall in the ECA crude account. Since 2010, oil prices have been above $90 so why hasn't our savings increased appreciably.

Before the 2011 elections, GEJ shared all the in the ECA to get the support of the governors. Should a leader share our collective wealth like that?

I wonder what our Governors do with money?
the Rivers Governor got 56 billion Naira and still wants to secure a loan to start a water project.
I like Ngozi. She is a stickler for due process and I want her to make sure that all T's are crossed and I's dotted before approving and signing the loan deal. She should not be moved by antics of politicians like Gov. Amaechi. They will make all the noise just to attract sympathy from the public.

diva_tosin: I wonder what our Governors do with money?
the Rivers Governor got 56 billion Naira and still wants to secure a loan to start a water project.
I like Ngozi. She is a stickler for due process and I want her to make sure that all T's are crossed and I's dotted before approving and signing the loan deal. She should not be moved by antics of politicians like Gov. Amaechi. They will make all the noise just to attract sympathy from the public.

he is playing G7 politics with the money

trillville:

It is like you have also forgotten it was over $30 billion in 2007 when Obasanjo left. The ECA was meant to save money for Nigeria to use when oil prices drop. Oil prices did drop in 2008 to about $40 per barrel, hence the depletion of the ECA.

Again in 2008, there was a credit crunch so prices of food shot up and the Nigerian government had to subsidize the price of rice, this led to a further fall in the ECA crude account. Since 2010, oil prices have been above $90 so why hasn't our savings increased appreciably.

Before the 2011 elections, GEJ shared all the in the ECA to get the support of the governors. Should a leader share our collective wealth like that?

As at 2010, when GEJ took over as President, the ECA stood at barely 5.4B. The 36 Governors asked for some money to be shared from the account and it was practically difficult for GEJ to refuse because he was still new in office. The end result was the further depletion of ECA to $3B. However, Between 2011-12, Okonjo Iweala was drafted to increase back the ECA from 3B to 10B. She also set up the SWF which was to replace ECA but the Governors fough against the move. As a halfway measure, Jonathan went ahead to establish SWF but retained ECA in the interest of the governors.

Hmmm

The truth is that Nigeria has been losing a lot of money to illegal bunkering which infact has the blessings of highly placed Nigerians like Ministers and executives. Nigeria has not been meeting up to the budget benchmark and instead of FG to come clean, they've been supplementing from the excess crude account. Amaechi is perfectly right because they've not even been receiving as much as they projected even though oil prices remain high.

Abagworo: The truth is that Nigeria has been losing a lot of money to illegal bunkering which infact has the blessings of highly placed Nigerians like Ministers and executives. Nigeria has not been meeting up to the budget benchmark and instead of FG to come clean, they've been supplementing from the excess crude account. Amaechi is perfectly right because they've not even been receiving as much as they projected even though oil prices remain high.

Amaech is right for lying that funds are missing meanwhile he is the looter of the so called money? What are you trying to say? Are you for real?

ubandire:

I think it has to do with oil theft. It has cut short revenue drastically. But things are improving after Gej set up the Uduaghan committee to work out modalities to address the crude theft. The Nigerian Navy has also increased their surveillance of the waterways so less crude is stolen.

Ummm... how is the bolded possible if GEJ gave out contracts to patrol the nation's waterways in that region to the Niger-Delta terrorists?

Dollarman101:

Amaech is right for lying that funds are missing meanwhile he is the looter of the so called money? What are you trying to say? Are you for real?

Does Amaechi have access to Nigeria's money? Is he the President or finance Minister? I clearly wrote that Nigeria is practically broke and you failed to reason and understand it well. The FG must have to pay the States their projected allocations based on the benchmark but they are rather cutting down the allocations. It is the duty of FG to protect our economy from oil thieves but they seem rather shy to stop it and hence deserve all the blames. Are you aware that Rivers Government at a stage requested to monitor security of oil activities in Rivers area so as not to get that excuse of oil bunkering but it was politicized probably because some highly placed people are involved in the bunkering business.

http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/rivers-acquires-choppers-to-check-oil-theft/129706/

http://www.punchng.com/news/amaechi-blames-ph-airport-neglect-on-rift-with-jonathan/

The South West should try, despite Nigeria's Federalism, to set up legislation that'll discourage migration into her Region. It could be in the form of higher taxation for indigenes of her non-allies/potential enemies i.e non-members of the Old Western Region. It could also come in the form of proposing mandatory identification/Social Security numbers for its residents---Primarily indigenes of the states party to the agreement--- (lack of which will earn you heavy fines and trips to Prison) with the objective of lawfully and systematically denying same to certain people. Linked Digital Fingerprinting of criminals (which can be shared by law enforcement in these states) should be encouraged with the aim of viciously prosecuting violators. A first time offense should carry a very heavy fine, a subsequent offense should carry a mandatory 10 yrs minimum sentences. The first wave of Prisoners should be housed on one of Lagos' deserted islands and as more are caught, they should be put to work building more Prison Units and complexes that would be needed to house the impending wave of violators that would undeniably be convicted. While incarcerated, they should be put to work for the benefit of their host Govts and its inhabitants e.g Farming. Only people that are financially and Professionally worthy to the Region should be issued these instruments of identification. This will kill two birds with one stone: First, the Region will be decongested of people useless to its development because you shouldnt be able to get anything done without the I.Ds (school, housing, medical care etc). Next, when hit with the reality that they cannot destroy their own homes then flee to others, they will do whats right and elect credible candidates that'll work for their own good and that of the country.

If its the law, it is right. This is how you fight fire with fire in the 21st century.

One thing I surely know is that the $5m is still missing until a detailed account of d money is been done. They should stop deceiving us. In rendering an account is one expected 2 hear that funds where shared without d exact figures? I don't just understand this country again. A country that keeps borrowing money at interval of 3months and God hv richly blessed us with enough mineral resources. I hv lost hope in this country. They Do anything d like with our funds

Amaechi is a dangerous man..

Most pipo just make comments for the sake of making comments..if you arent in the know, you listen and learn.

the benchmark for crude oil in our budget is 98USD per barrel but oil prices hav been trading at 110USD to 108USD per barrel and as such the excess shud be kept in the Excess crude account(ECA).

But we have a situation whereby because of the industrial-scale oil bunkering (loosing 100,000 barrels per day according to the report released by Chatham House - a UK based policy think-thank) taking place in the niger delta (obviously supported by the presidency), Nigeria is unable to meet up with its production capacity and as such they have to draw from that aacount to augument.

the money given to Rivers state and other states from the ECA is their monthly allocation which they deserve..

If the Federal Govt is incapable of arresting the industrial scale bunkering should the state govs refuse to collect their usual allocations

The alarm by Amaechi is not just about ECA, its about the economic soul of Nigeria.

there is more to that which meets the eyes.

kingoflag:
The South West should try, despite Nigeria's Federalism, to set up legislation that'll discourage migration into her Region. It could be in the form of higher taxation for indigenes of her non-allies/potential enemies i.e non-members of the Old Western Region. It could also come in the form of proposing mandatory identification/Social Security numbers for its residents---Primarily indigenes of the states party to the agreement--- (lack of which will earn you heavy fines and trips to Prison) with the objective of lawfully and systematically denying same to certain people. Linked Digital Fingerprinting of criminals (which can be shared by law enforcement in these states) should be encouraged with the aim of viciously prosecuting violators. A first time offense should carry a very heavy fine, a subsequent offense should carry a mandatory 10 yrs minimum sentences. The first wave of Prisoners should be housed on one of Lagos' deserted islands and as more are caught, they should be put to work building more Prison Units and complexes that would be needed to house the impending wave of violators that would undeniably be convicted. While incarcerated, they should be put to work for the benefit of their host Govts and its inhabitants e.g Farming. Only people that are financially and Professionally worthy to the Region should be issued these instruments of identification. This will kill two birds with one stone: First, the Region will be decongested of people useless to its development because you shouldnt be able to get anything done without the I.Ds (school, housing, medical care etc). Next, when hit with the reality that they cannot destroy their own homes then flee to others, they will do whats right and elect credible candidates that'll work for their own good and that of the country.

If its the law, it is right. This is how you fight fire with fire in the 21st century.

your delusion is astounding! The only reason why people migrate to your region is because the viable infrastructures we all have in common as nigerians are in your region.please dont forget that.