Nigeria: Confronting The Curse Of Oil By Reuben Abati

The monthly Federation Accounts Allocation Committee, FAAC, meeting was held the other day in Abuja, with the representatives of state governments again cap in hand, asking for their share of federal revenue – read: oil revenue, or better still, national cake, or our money.

A paragraph in the report by the online newspaper, Premium Times, caught my attention and here it is: “But at the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee, FAAC, meeting, representatives of the 36 state governments went home SAD (emphasis mine), as they were handed parlous shares from a total N299.75 billion statutory allocation for the month, the lowest allocations in more than five years.” For the month of March 2016, the states shared N55.34 billion, compared to N64.52 billion in February 2016. I have deliberately emphasized the word sad,because the day may well come when after the sharing of national revenue, we may be told that some Commissioners of Finance left the meeting crying, or wailing.

To prevent that happening this time, the Federal Government chose to suspend deductions of salary repayment loans owed by the states. When such deductions were made in February 2016, at least one state, Osun, went back home with a paltry N6 million only. The truth is that most of the 36 states are in dire straits, worst hit by the economic crisis that the country faces. About 27 out of the 36 states of the Federation are effectively insolvent, if not bankrupt. In July 2015, the Federal Government not only bailed out the states financially, the Central Bank of Nigeria further extended the repayment period for bank loans taken by the states from a period of seven years to 20 years. So far the affected states have collected salary assistance loans from the CBN to the tune of N689.5 billion, with an additional N310 billion as loans backed by the Excess Crude Account.

Leadership - His Royal Highness Sanusi Lamido Sanusi by Sam Nda Isaiah

I would like to preface the column today with a condolence message to the people of Kano over the death of Alhaji Ado Bayero, the 56th Emir of Kano. HRH Bayero had an eventful tenure; he will be remembered as a very respectable traditional ruler. He maintained his dignity throughout his reign and was never involved in any scandal that could have undermined the traditional institution. He made friends all over the nation and even across the world. May his soul rest in peace.

The king is dead, long live the king. And now the 57th Emir. Is it not poetic that Sanusi Lamido Sanusi would become the 57th emir of Kano? Indeed, “Dia ris God o!”, if you know what I mean. If Jonathan had known God’s plan, he would not have created this embarrassment for himself by giving himself the power to “remove” a CBN governor even when the law was clear about this. And, to make matters worse, the president did it to silence someone who dared to challenge the mindless stealing, the type that this nation had never seen, in his government. But all that is by the way. Jonathan will see more of this type of poetic justice in due course. That is usually the fate of all leaders who see their offices as an opportunity to commit serial injustices.