The Presidency has reacted to the latest communiqué by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Governors’ Forum, asking Nigerians not to entrust the party with the national leadership of the country at any time.
The presidency added that “What the governors are asking of NNPC is to “break the bank” for their own profligate political ends”.
The PDP Governors had on Monday, had raised an alarm on the manner in which the NNPC carries out its operations, while decreeing the recent NNPC’s failure to make its statutory contributions to the Federation Account, an action the governors noted, that resulted in “starving the states and local governments and indeed Nigerians of funds needed for employment, development and general well-being”.
The governors posited that the constitution mandates the NNPC, to make proceeds of sale or business of petroleum available to the Federation Account, which belongs to the three tiers of government, excluding reasonable and verified and verifiable cost of operations.
However, the Presidency through the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu stated that the governors appeared to believe that NNPC could spend the same money twice – on petroleum subsidy and n on their states via the Federation Account.
According to Shehu, “NNPC is a trustee for the nation – and this means it must manage its finances with prudence and for the long-term to safeguard the financial support it bestows on our country. What the governors are asking of NNPC is to “break the bank” for their own profligate political ends”.
“Similar profligacy and contradiction are in full view with their call to the Central Bank to appreciate the value of the Naira. This would damage exports – including oil revenues on which NNPC depends – as well as damage small businesses and employment. But an appreciated currency would benefit those spending on luxuries from abroad – this, no doubt, being the leading desire of a typical PDP governor.
“When the governors claim a lack of federal institutions’ money pouring into their states’ coffers is an affront to democracy, constitutionalism, and federalism; they fail to mention the ugliest trend against the integrity of Nigeria comes by own hands with their refusal to support the federal government’s earnest desire to reinstate the local government as the third tier and finding a lasting solution to farmer-herder conflicts costing the nation lives and livestock.
“This initiative brings rights and support for generations of all ages to bring solutions to challenges that different communities of our country have faced but the PDP governors reject it – denying all Nigerians their constitutional right to live and work in any state of the Federation – preferring to appeal to ethnic division and hatred rather than support the first practical solution offered since independence,” the spokesperson stated.
Shehu observed that the PDP governors, in their communiqué, failed to propose solutions to any of the nation’s challenges in the face of COVID-19 and global economic downturn, “instead, they grasp for more money and mourn their lack of access to social media to spread falsehoods and hate”.
