By Simon Ebegbulem, Benin-City
“I don’t know if the Federal Government is broke, but I know there is a serious financial crisis and it is unprecedented in the history of this country. That, for the first time since 1999, allocations can no longer come as and when due to states is shocking.”
With these words, Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State painted a gloomy picture of the nation’s financial situation. He added: “I have been involved in trying to understand what the reasons are and I have not seen anything yet. Two years ago, it was about the kind of money we were spending on subsidy. In no time, following series of probes and enquiries by the National Assembly and by the Presidency, they have since discovered the kind of money they stole as regards subsidy, all the people that conspired with them and I believe the EFCC is dealing with that. But just as we are dealing with that, now we begin to hear about the theft of our crude oil such that what is accruing to the Federation Account is not enough to meet budgetary provision.”
Oshiomhole spoke in an interview just as the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAN), on Friday, reconvened to share a total statutory revenue of N1.196 trillion among the three tiers of government for August and September.
The money in the account has been a contentious issue between the federal and state governments for several weeks, with the state governments unable to get their share in full. See Oshiomhole’s full interview here