More Hardship Ahead
- Excess Crude Account drops to $0.37m
- As insecurity worsens
- Secondary School, Varsity Shut down in FCT
- Buhari summons emergency Security Council meeting
Charles Ebi , Ladi Patrick, and Deborah Musa
More hardship for Nigerians as the country’s Excess Crude Account, ECA, has being depleted from $35.377m in May this year to $376,655.09 owing to a significant amount withdrawn by the administration despite not adding any funds in the last four years into the excess crude account, which was created in 2004.
With this development, only $376,655.09 is left in the ECA, a savings buffer meant to steady the government’s revenue and serve as a bailout for the economy in dire times.
The Director in charge of Information in the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, OAGF, Henshaw Ogubike, disclosed this in a communiqué issued at the end of the monthly Federation Account Allocation Committee, FAAC, meeting in Abuja.
The communiqué revealed that a total of N1.012 trillion was realised as revenue last month, but only N802. 407 billion was shared after some deductions. It added that N26.117 billion was withdrawn from the ECA as “Derivation Refund”.
Another N280 billion was withdrawn from the account as “savings and refund of 20% of the amount due to states withdrawing from the ECA from 2009-2015
Also, N1.050 trillion was budgeted for last month as Net Statutory Allocation but was left after the deductions was N644,960 billion.
N18.163 billion was deducted from the N1.012 trillion as “13% refund on subsidy, priority projects and Police Trust Fund 1999 to December 2021.
Other deductions were 13% refund on subsidy and priority projects 2022; and 13% derivation for Anambra State.
The Federal Inland Revenue Service FIRS, received its statutory monthly four per cent cost of collection of N452.318 billion, while the Nigeria Customs Service received its seven per cent cost of collection of N150.622 billion for June.
The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, NUPRC, also received N191.066 billion as its statutory four percent cost of collection for the month. There was an additional refund of N100 million to the FIRS captured as “refund on cost of collection.
Recall that a total balance of $20bn was in the Excess Crude Account in 2009, which successive governments has drawn down to less than $1m as of yesterday
Just last Tuesday, it emerged during the Federation Account Allocation Committee meeting that the federal government again withdrew the sum of $35m from the Excess Crude Account to finance military operations in the maritime sector.
The ECA was created by the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2004 for the purpose of saving oil revenue in excess of the budgeted benchmark, and had a balance of $20bn as at January 2009.
AljazirahNigeria had reported that during the FAAC meeting for July 2022, that there was a balance of $376,655.09 in the ECA.
However, responding the federal government said the funds were used as advance payment for the purchase of patrol vehicles for the Nigerian Navy.
It said the withdrawal was imperative so as to consolidate on maritime security gains recorded in the Gulf of Guinea.
The $35m disbursement from the Excess Crude Account is from June 2022 and is an advance payment for the purchase of brand new Offshore Patrol Vessels for the Nigerian Navy, as part of efforts to consolidate on maritime security gains recorded in the Gulf of Guinea.
Available statistics showed that in the last five years, stretching from 2015 to 2019, a total of $4.92bn or ,N1.5tn at the government rate of N305 to a dollar, was withdrawn from the account.
The Federal Government gave approval for the withdrawal of N458.14bn in the 2015 fiscal period from the ECA.
From this amount, N359.39bn went into petroleum subsidy payment and N98.19bn was used for revenue augmentation to the three tiers of government.
The 2016 fiscal period saw the Federal Government withdraw the sum of N85.17bn to augment revenue to the three tiers of government while $250m was taken out of the account in 2017.
In 2018, the Federal Government depleted the account by an additional amount of $2.87bn.
The withdrawal for 2018 was significantly higher than the $250m withdrawn in 2017 by about $2.62bn.
Based on an analysis of the figures from the Budget Office, the sum of $1.76bn was withdrawn in the fourth quarter of 2018 by the government for the Paris Club refund to state governments.
The $1.76bn represents about 61% of the entire $2.87bn withdrawn during the 12-month period.
Further analysis of the figures showed that the sum of $496.37m was approved by the President, Major General Muhammed Buhari ,retd, and withdrawn for the purchase of Super Tucano Aircraft.
The withdrawal of that amount, according to findings, was made in the first quarter of 2018.
During the same period, the federal government also approved that the sum of $233.29m be withdrawn for states’ matching grant to the Universal Basic Education Commission.
In terms of inflows, the ECA recorded deposit of N2.31trn in 2012, N855.41bn in 2013, N796.7bn in 2014, N48.94bn in 2015, N242.72bn in 2016, N151.54bn in 2017 and $1.08bn or N329.4bn in 2018
During the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan, there were persistent agitations from many state governors for the total sharing of the accretion into the account which they considered illegal.
Data from the Budget Office of the Federation, BoF, showed that for the 2016 fiscal year, the federal government withdrew N85.17 billion to augment revenue to the three tiers of government, while the sum of N76.25 billion was transferred to the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority, NSIA, in 2017.
The government also withdrew the sum of $2.87 billion from the ECA in the 2018 fiscal period to settle various obligations.
The sum of $496.37 million was approved by President Muhammadu Buhari and withdrawn for the purchase of Super Tucano aircraft in 2018.
In a related development, the wind of insecurity blowing across the country, especially in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, gathered pace, sending panic through the whole of Abuja and its environs.
This is as reactions continue to trail terrorists’ attack on troops of Presidential Guards Brigade in Bwari, near Abuja, killing over eight soldiers
The attack on the Guards Brigade, whose duty is to protect the president, comes a few weeks after terrorists, launched a similar attack on a presidential convoy in Dutsinma, Katsina State.
On the same day, terrorists invaded the Kuje prison in Abuja and freed hundreds of inmates, including Boko Haram suspects.
Friday’s attack also occurred two days before terrorists released a video showing them manhandling persons kidnapped from the Abuja-Kaduna train.
One of the terrorists in the video threatened that his group would abduct President Buhari, Kaduna State Governor Nasiru El-Rufai and other prominent Nigerians and destabilise the country if their demands were not met.
The terrorists also threatened to kill and sell some of the remaining Abuja-Kaduna train passengers in their custody.
“This is our message to the government of Nigeria and just as you have seen these people here, by God’s grace, you will see your leaders; your senators and governors will come before us. These ones you are seeing here, we will keep some as our slaves and sell them off just as our Imam told you in the past.
“Just like the Chibok Girls that were sold off, we will equally sell these ones as slaves. If you don’t adhere to our demands, we will kill the ones we need to kill and sell the remaining. By God’s grace, El-Rufai, Buhari, we will bring you here”, the terrorist said in the video
This has led to the shutting down of Veritas University, as the terrorists, who had written the Abuja Campus of the Nigerian Law School.
There are also claims and counter-claims that persons suspected to be terrorists/bandits, on Tuesday night, carried out sporadic shootings at the Minister’s Hill area and the Dantata Bridge along Airport Road, Abuja.
In what seems to be a reaction to the worsening security situation in the country, President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday summoned an emergency National Security Council meeting at the Council Chambers of the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
This is coming after the senate gave him six weeks to fix the heightened insecurity attacks or face impeachment. It would be recalled that last week, the council had recently announced plans for a total ban on motorcycles and mining activities in areas most prone to and affected by terrorist attacks.
The security council meeting was attended by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha; Chief of Staff to the President, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, and the National Security Adviser, NSA, Major-General Babagana Monguno ,retd.
Cabinet members in the meeting include the AGF; Ministers of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola; Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyema; Police Affairs, Mohammed Dingyadi, and Defense, Major-General Bashir Magashi retd.
Others were the Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor, Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant-General Farouk Yahaya; Chief of Naval Staff, Vice-Admiral Awwal Gambo; Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Isiaka Amao; and the Chief of Defense Intelligence, Major-General Samuel Adebayo.
Also in attendance were the Inspector-General of Police, Alkali Usman; Director-General of the Department of State Service, Yusuf Bichi; and Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency, Ahmed Abubakar.
