SAN FRANCISCO, December 17, (THEWILL) – Nigeria Governors’ Forum Chairman AbdulAzeez Yari, who is also Governor of Zamfara State, has chided Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State over his claim that the $1b recently approved for the fight against Boko Haram is a ruse.
THEWILL recalls that the NGF, at a meeting of the National Economic Council (NEC) on Thursday, gave the Federal Government the nod to withdraw $1bn from the Excess Crude Account to fight insurgency in the North-East.
Reacting to the news, Fayose, in a statement, alleged that the money was meant for President Muhammadu Buhari’s re-election in 2019 revealing that he was not at the meeting where the decision was taken and therefore, dissociated himself from the decision.
“For posterity sake, I wish to place it on record that I was not among the governors who approved the withdrawal of almost half of our savings in the Excess Crude Account, which belongs to the three tiers of government to fight an already defeated insurgency,” he declared.
“Since they said they have defeated Boko Haram, what else do they need a whopping sum of $1 billion (over N360 billion) for; if not to fund the 2019 elections?
“The APC promised to wipe out Boko Haram within six months, now it is 31 months and what the APC government is wiping out is the economy of Nigeria and the means of livelihood of the people.
“Nigerians deserve proper explanations from the federal government on the rationale behind spending such huge sum of money to fight an already defeated Boko Haram.”
But Yari, in a swift reaction to Fayose declared that his absence from the meeting did not clear him or anyone for that matter of responsibility for the forum’s resolutions saying the decision, to allow the Federal Government to access the amount was a collective one by the Forum.
Governor Yari pointed out that the issue of withdrawal was broadly deliberated at the forum’s meeting on the eve of the NEC meeting where the decision was taken.
“I am saying that, that statement was an unfair cut against the Forum,” he said.
“When a decision is taken by the Forum in one’s absence, once there was a quorum at the meeting where the decision was taken, becomes binding on all.
“I am sure Fayose was not making the statement to undermine the Forum. He was just doing his thing.
“If Governor Fayose was there at the meeting, he would have seen the wisdom in the decision.
“Yes, the administration is claiming to have decimated the insurgents out of Sambisa Forest but they are re-emerging in different flashpoints across the country.
“They need to be tackled wherever they are and the NGF decided to support the Presidency just as it (The Presidency) had been supporting states with their own problems.
“Governor Fayose is on his own. We have to protect our people and we have to do it with everything we have.
“Let me reemphasize one more thing, Mr President is a responsible and honest leader who does not believe in money politics and he would never divert public resources into it.”
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