$6.5b Windfall: Why Governors Support Senate

By Ada Owojela

Do you know why state governors are desperate to ensure that Vice President, Goodluck Jonathan, is sworn-in as Acting President?  They want Jonathan constitutionally empowered so that he can order the sharing of $6.5 billion excess crude oil revenue accruing to the states.

Source told P.M.NEWS this morning that the state governors, under the umbrella of Governors Forum, want the money shared as soon as possible and have been prevailing on Jonathan to do so.

However, Jonathan was said to have turned down their request, citing the fact that he was not constitutionally empowered to do so and as such, he did not want to go to prison for committing an illegal act.

Sensing that they may lose out if something was not done immediately, the governors were said to have mooted the idea of aligning  with those who want Jonathan sworn-in as Acting President, so that in that capacity, he could direct that the excess crude windfall be shared to the states.

The governors’ trip to the National Assembly today to prevail on the lawmakers to endorse a resolution empowering Jonathan as Acting President was part of their ploy and not because they have the interest of Nigerians at heart.

Before today’s trip to Abuja, the governors were said to have met senators representing the Senatorial zones in their states and convinced them to speedily pass a resolution empowering Jonathan as acting President.

Our sources said the senators had bought the governors’ idea and that today’s meeting with the lawmakers was just a mere formality.

Another reason the governors want Jonathan sworn-in as Acting President is that they want him to sack Yar’Adua’s cabinet and appoint new ones, hand picked by the governors.

Our sources said when the governors sold this idea to the Vice President, he turned it down, saying that if at all he was going to carry out any cabinet shake up, only one or two ministers he inherited from Yar’Adua would be dropped.

Meanwhile, proceeds from Nigeria’s excess crude oil has sharply fallen, as the government dipped into the account to cope with the global financial crisis, an official said on Monday.

In the last three years, nearly 14 billion dollars (10.2 billion euros) have been taken from the account, which holds excess cash made from upward swings in world oil prices, said the office of Deputy Finance Minister, Remi Babalola.

When the present administration came into office in 2007, it “met over 20 billion dollars in the excess crude proceeds account, which has now declined to about 6.2 billion dollars due to its utilisation by all tiers of government as a result of the impact of the economic recession,” it said in a statement.

The minister, a senior accountant and ex-banker, has written more than a dozen papers on the impact of economic recession on Nigeria and the knock-on effects on Nigerians, the statement said.

Oil accounts for about 80 per cent of Nigeria’s revenue and more than 90 per cent of its foreign exchange earnings.