₦airaland Forum

manny4life: Dude, which one did you study - Finance or Economics? Abi, is it both?

I remember one thread they talked about stating what you studied, you claimed to have about 6 certifications in economics, now it's finance kwa? You know me I did not go to school, so please kowashiate?

Ezekwesili Reiterates Challenge of Federal Government To Debate Transparency and Accountability
Posted: January 28, 2013 - 20:23

By SaharaReporters, New York
Oby Ezekwesili, who at the weekend accused Nigeria’s governments since 2007 of “squandering of the significant sum of $45 Billion in foreign reserve account and another $22Billion in the Excess Crude Account,” today said she remains resolute “in demanding full disclosure and accountability by the Federal Government on the issues of poor management of oil revenues.”

The former World Bank Vice President for Africa made her original remarks during last week’s convocation lecture at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, following which the Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, accused Mrs. Ezekwesili of “misinformation” and “a surprisingly limited understanding of government finances.”

Although Maku made these sweeping statements, he did not provide any substance to his attempted rebuttal of Mrs. Ezekwesili, who was briefly the Minister of Education before her departure for the World Bank.
But Minister Maku did say of Mrs. Ezekwesili that she “collected” N352.3 billion as Minister of Education, suggesting that Ministerial budgets are normally “collected” by Ministers.

“I wish to reassure Nigerians that my integrity and transparent record in public office can never be tarnished by baseless allegations regarding my ten months as Minister of Education,” Mrs. Ezekwesili responded today.

She added: “Citizens who follow Education sector closely will know that the Education Sector budget which the Government spokesperson carelessly referred to represents the consolidated direct budgetary allocation by the National Assembly to the 22 parastatals plus all the Federal Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education in the country. At no time does a sitting Minister of Education have access to the Budgets of statutory bodies under her Ministry.”

During her lecture, Mrs. Ezekwesili said, among others, “Six years after the administration I served handed over such humongous national wealth to another one; most Nigerians but especially the poor continue to suffer the effects of failing public health and education systems as well as decrepit infrastructure and battered institutions. One cannot but ask, what exactly does Nigeria convey 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 plus the additional several hundred billions of dollars realized from oil sale by the two administrations that have governed our nation in the last six years? How were these resources applied or more appropriately, misapplied? Tragic choices! Yes. Our national dignity continues to be degraded by cycles of stagnation because of the terrible choices my generation and those before repeatedly make as a result of free oil money. The wealth and poverty of a nation never found a better Symbol!"

An apparently startled government, finding itself under such withering assault from a credible international figure, responded through Mr. Maku, who seemed determined only to inflict a personal attack on the speaker. Not once did he focus on the challenge offered by Mrs. Ezekwesili, which is on good governance on the grounds of transparency and accountability.

The former Minister, who was also widely-known for her leadership of the Due Process department in the presidency before she became a Minister, pounced: “I have already asked the Federal Government to a PUBLIC DEBATE of the FACTS raised in my speech,” she said in her response today.

“Such an open debate of facts and figures of oil revenue since 2007 would help situate public accountability as the centerpoint of our democracy. In accepting to publicly debate the questions raised in my speech, the Federal Government would model the democratic culture of responding to citizens' demands for accountability especially at a time when the general public is eager for improvements in the good governance records of the Administration.”

Shying away from the central issue, Mr. Maku merely urged Nigerians to acknowledge the achievements of the government. He did not say what those achievements are.

Nor did he say whether the government will accept the challenge to publicly debate the facts concerning government expenditure of Nigeria’s oil revenues.

In December 2011, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo similarly blasted the Goodluck Jonathan government, saying it had squandered over $35 billion of Nigeria’s foreign reserves since May 2007. The former President said the money may have been “shared.”
Mr. Jonathan has since declared that the only entity that is fighting corruption more than his administration is the United States.

Which explains the very point: corruption fights back. Corruption not only defends itself; in Nigeria, it advertises in Eagle Square. Corruption blackmails; on the offensive, it paints everything in its own colours.

taharqa: Maku is d SPOKESPERSON of d Govt; he is d ONLY official REP of d Govt in d strictest sense of dat word, and since it is a written press release, he must hv had access to every resource of Govt including d Min of Finance, CBN etc (at least dat is d assumptn).... BUT dat is not even rili important. My questn to you was why you wud bliv any person, moreso when they are 'reportd' to hv said so, that '$67billion was squandered by d 2 Govts' without even d slightest explanatn as to how dat is even possible when d lowest value of d reserve was never below $30billion and is even now increasing. I cant just undastad dat, and need to plz explain it to me...

Other uses of the reserves are to settle both public and private sector foreign currency obligations of Nigeria, including the importation of goods such as equipment for power sector. Whenever a ministry or agency of government needs to incur approved expenditure in foreign currency (e.g. payment of goods and services, settlement of external debt, etc) it must provide the naira equivalent to the CBN before the Bank sells the required foreign currency. As a former World Bank Vice-President for Africa, surely, Mrs. Ezekwesili must have known this.

taharqa: Read d full piece again and you wud realise that you and Maku were saying essentiali same thing. You were largely right here- which is very surprising ; D

On the use of reserves, it is fallacious to say that the nation’s external reserves were dipped into or misapplied by the Federal Government. It is important to note that the Federal Government cannot dip its hands into external reserves. Like in other countries, the management of external reserves is one of the statutory mandates of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Section 2 sub-section (c) of the CBN Act (2007) states that the Bank shall “maintain external reserves to safeguard the international value of the legal tender currency” – in other words, to defend the value of the Naira. No President since the democratic dispensation has contravened this Act.

J12: In your feeble mind, Jonathan does not communicate properly in English abi? As long as he speaks 100 percent understandable English language which he does perfectly, then he's communicating/ or can communicate properly with anyone who understands English language. Or maybe its because he doesn't have a phoney American accent like y'all?

What the hell is wrong with you nigerians in the first place? If you want a grammarian as president, then persuade or Obiahagbon or whatever his name is to contest for the presidency come 2015. Or better still, you can vote for the Fresh party.
Its ironic that most of you who are criticising the president for the poor quality of his oral English are Buhari supporters. Does Buhari speak better English than Goodluck?

ayox2003: Op, where and how did he lambast GEJ? SMH

Uk's economy is on the decline. Their GDP is at -0.3% while ours is at 6.7%. So Cameron doesn't have any right to lambast our country.

If not for the mess they created, we should be at par with Singapore by now.


Frawzey

On the use of reserves, it is fallacious to say that the nation’s external reserves were dipped intoor misapplied by the Federal Government. It is important to note that the Federal Government cannot dip its hands into external reserves. Like in other countries, the management of external reserves is one of the statutory mandates of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Section 2 sub-section (c) of the CBN Act (2007) states that the Bank shall “maintain external reserves to safeguard the international value of the legal tender currency” – in other words, to defend the value of the Naira.

Sincere 9gerian: On the use of reserves, it is fallacious to say that the nation’s external reserves were dipped intoor misapplied by the Federal Government. It is important to note that the Federal Government cannot dip its hands into external reserves. Like in other countries, the management of external reserves is one of the statutory mandates of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Section 2 sub-section (c) of the CBN Act (2007) states that the Bank shall “maintain external reserves to safeguard the international value of the legal tender currency” – in other words, to defend the value of the Naira.

No President since the democratic dispensation has contravened this Act.
Other uses of the reserves are to settle both public and private sector foreign currency obligationsof Nigeria, including the importation of goods such as equipment for power sector. Whenever a ministry or agency of government needs to incur approved expenditure in foreign currency (e.g. payment of goods and services, settlement of externaldebt, etc) it must provide the naira equivalent to the CBN before the Bank sells the required foreign currency. As a former World Bank Vice-President for Africa, surely, Mrs. Ezekwesili must have known this.

We also found Mrs. Ezekwesili’s interrogation of the educational system somewhat disingenuous and borderline hypocritical. During her tenure as Minister of Educationbetween 2006 and 2007, she collected a total sum of N352.3 billion from direct budgetary releases. In addition, she received about N65.8 billion under the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) Fund, and over N40 billion from the Education Trust Fund (ETF) during her time as Minister of Education. In view of these humongous allocations, a few legitimate questions arise. What did she do with all these allocations? What impact did it have on the education sector? One wonders if our educational system would have been better today if these allocations were properly applied.

No one disputes that Nigeria still faces challenges, most of which were built up over a long time. But we need to acknowledge the significant achievements of this administration in the aftermath of difficult but necessary macroeconomic and structural reforms being implemented in the country.

Reference: Aha, aha, aha. Which title Kanu get. No be international title. Kanu don win cup for Africa. But who know Kpakol even when BCC dey on fire.

Sagamite: STOP CHATTING SHYT!

Teams win titles! Cut the crap about who was captain. What significance does that have except to a simpleton!

Reference: All na Africa naa. If you want to rate the best Nigerian player then even Moses Kpakol of BCC Lions will rank above Kanu because as far as Africa and Nigeria is concerned Kanu no near am.

Sagamite: The exceptional things that made their names known across Africa and the World.

Stop this moronic argument that captaining makes you significant. I don't argue at such Simpleton level.

Yobo is captian of Nigeria and the most cap. Wow! Surely he must be on of the top 10 Nigerian players then?

I don't argue at such simpleton level.

Sincere 9gerian: "Nigerian farmers are all rural farmers which means, cellphone is not their priority because they can afford it"...Prince Wale Oyekoya, the President of Farmers Association of Lagos Chambers of Commerce and Industry, LCCI

How can you justify the statement above with the world bank data that shows over 60% of Nigerians live on less than $1 per day? How can those who live on less than $1 per day suddenly be able to afford mobile phones?

Sagamite: I want him to do something exceptional that would make him stand out in the team that is winning something.

I would want him to do something exceptional to the point he is poached to come and play at the highest level.

I would want him to do somehting excpetional that we fcking even notice him.

Sagamite: Because of what?

A modern day player that hardly anyone knows?

Speaks volumes of his ability.

Jarus: One season/Nation's cup wonder.

Sagamite: I would put skills/ability above throphies anyday.

Throphies are a function of a team, skills is based on the individual.

Otherwise, Gary Neville would be one of the greatest.

And Austin Eguavon would be regarded as better than Diouf!