By Ehi Ekhator
A former Nigerian Minister of Aviation, Mr. Femi Fani-Kayode has asked the Nigerian Minister of Transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi to accuse the former president, Late Musa Yar’adua and his men on what they did with the money in the foreign reserve and the Excess Crude Account. (ECA)
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Fani-Kayode was responding to the statement credited to the Minister where he accused the former President, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan of squandering the nation’s coffers in his six years of administering the nation.
Reno Omokri, a former aide to Jonathan took the same path yesterday when he called out Amaechi as senile, reminding him that he was one of the governors who dragged the federal government to court, compelling it to share the money meant for savings.
“It is quite possible that Rotimi Amaechi is losing his marbles otherwise why else would he be asking former President Jonathan to account for the $65 billion that former Olusegun Obasanjo left in the Excess Crude Account when there was never any such amount?
“The reason I say so is because Rotimi Amaechi as Chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum is precisely the reason why the Excess Crude Account had to be phased out and below are the facts:
“The Jonathan administration met $6.5 billion in the Excess Crude Account upon inception in 2010 and not $65 Billion as wrongly asserted by Rotimi Amaechi.
” So excruciating was the pressure from the Nigerian Governors Forum and most notably from the then Rivers state Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, (now the minister of transport) for the Jonathan administration to end the Excess Crude Account and the Sovereign Wealth Fund regimes and instead share the funds in those accounts amongst the three tiers of government that they approached the Supreme Court, to challenge the legality of the Excess Crude Account and then President Jonathan’s decision to transfer $1 billion from that account to the Sovereign Wealth Fund.” he explained.
In his own version, Fani-Kayode praised another former President, Olusegun Obasanjo for saving so much when he met absolutely nothing in the nation’s coffers.
He accused Yar’adua’s men as those who depleted the foreign reserves within three years.
“Olusegun Obasanjo’s record in terms of savings, prudence and fiscal discipline remains unbeaten.This is an incontrovertible and indisputable fact. It is also a fact that both our Excess Crude Account and Foreign Reserves were heavily depleted in the three years after he left office
“When Obasanjo came to power in 1999 he met $1.1 billion in foreign reserves and no Excess Crude Account. When he left power in 2007 he left $45 billion in foreign reserves and $22 billion in the Excess Crude Account. Obasanjo left an unbeaten record total of $67 billion in savings
“When Yar’adua came to power in 2007 he spent $16.5 in 3 years out of the Excess Crude Account! By the time Jonathan took over power in 2010 only $6.5 billion was left in that account. Rotimi Amaechi should ask Yar’Adua’s men what that money was used for and not Jonathan.”
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