Devouring Excess Crude Account

A situation where government had to declare to civil servants in both federal and state employments that they may have to wait a little longer than usual for their August salary is another disturbing signal that all is not well with the nation’s economy, which in the past few years has been recklessly managed by […]

A situation where government had to declare to civil servants in both federal and state employments that they may have to wait a little longer than usual for their August salary is another disturbing signal that all is not well with the nation’s economy, which in the past few years has been recklessly managed by those elected or appointed to responsibly look after it with prudence.
The withdrawal of the N115 billion was, according to the Minister of State for Finance Dr. Yerima Lawan Ngama, to augment the massive shortfall in revenue which dropped from N863.026 billion received in June 2013 to N487.984 in July 2013. Explaining further, Dr. Ngama attributed the fall in revenue to many factors that include the continuous theft of crude oil, leakages, pipeline vandalism at various terminals, and a sharp decrease in mineral revenue that had a shortfall of N136.122 billion as against the N465.057 billion projected for July 2013.
Before now, the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala stated during an interview with the crew of Political Platform (a political programme in RayPower Radio monitored in Abuja on July 1, 2013) that government may not be able to pay workers’ salary by October 2013 unless the national assembly approves the bill seeking to amend the 2013 appropriation budget. Responding to a question during the programme on the state of Nigerian economy, Okonjo-Iweala quickly dispelled the insinuation that the country is broke; asserting that Nigeria’s economy is strong but currently experiencing some cash flow hiccups. What then, if we may ask, makes it strong? The truth is that monumental corruption and theft of public funds have both rendered the country’s treasury empty.
The reasons advanced by government officials including Okonjo-Iweala and Lawan Ngama to explain either the shrinking of the country’s ECA or delays in government meeting its obligations are sophistry excuses meant to divert attention from the real cause(s) of government bankruptcy in order for them to escape public criticism. But how could they succeed in deceiving all Nigerians on this matter when even a deaf, dumb or blind Nigerian today knows that corruption is at the root of all evils bedeviling the country including bankruptcy.
Even if the decline in revenue were taken serious as an unforeseen circumstance, commonsense requires responsible leadership to cut its expenditures in the light of what accrues to it as revenue. On the contrary, the same public officers who told Nigerians while preaching the gospel of oil subsidy in January 2012 that there was no alternative to making sacrifices to pay more for the pump price of petrol are the same wicked government officials who consider it an abomination to make sacrifices in their official duties. The atrocious profligacy of the Minister of Petroleum Resources Diezani Allison Madueke, for instance, makes her one such public officer who thinks Nigeria’s oil wealth is her personal property to be expended as it pleases her or her boss – President Goodluck Jonathan. Media reports allege that Diezani travels on chattered airplanes at a huge cost of $300,000 for every foreign trip including cases when such trips involved President Jonathan travelling in the presidential jet to attend one and same function.
The ECA which had a reserve of $5.1 in 2005 increased substantially between 2005 and 2008. By the time late President Umaru Musa Yar’adua went for medical treatment in Saudi Arabia, reserve in the ECA was over $20 billion. But unfortunately, the speed with which the ECA was devoured under the acting presidency of Goodluck Jonathan during President Yar’adua’s sojourn at a Jeddah hospital in Saudi Arabia explained Jonathan’s financial recklessness and rascality which at that time enjoyed the support of governors under the auspices of the National Economic Council. By 2010, the account under Jonathan had shrunk to less than $4 billion.
The ECA was established in 2004 with a primary objective to “protect planned budgets against shortfalls that may unpredictably arise from volatile oil prices”. The current shortfall which government attempted to desperately justify is practically not a consequence of any fall in crude oil prices. It is only logical therefore to conclude that the reasons adduced by government for withdrawing N115 billion from the ECA are wrong and misleading. If government would be thoughtless to lavish reserves in the ECA when oil prices are stable, what happens when the prices sour?
The continuous lamentation by government over oil theft also indicates how unserious President Jonathan is about ending the menace; probably because, like the case of Diezani who cannot be sanctioned, the powers that be are involved in crude oil theft. But how could Jonathan stop the criminal act when he contracted the security of pipelines in coastal borders in the sum of billions of naira to Tompolo and other ex-Niger Delta militants who once took up arms to steal from the same oil they have been engaged now to protect its pipelines?
The use of sophistry called excuses by public officers to explain their failures which in this case concerns the poor handling of the nation’s finances cannot help them to succeed in deceiving Nigerians about the real issues in the current fiscal crisis. It may be possible to deceive all Nigerians for sometime just as some Nigerians could be deceived all the time. But it is certainly impossible to succeed in deceiving all Nigerians all the time. May Allah (SWT) deliver Nigerians from the wicked machinations of corrupt leaders, amin.