25th December, 2014
Jethro Ibileke/Benin
Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State Wednesday revealed that President Goodluck Jonathan-led federal government has emptied the nation’s excess crude account.
The governor who made this revelation during a visit of the Association of Enigies from Edo South to him, further disclosed that the none of the 36 states of the federation has received monies from the account in the last 18 months.
Oshiomhole said the situation has distorted the developmental plans he has for the state. “Over the past 18 months, we have not shared the excess crude account and yet, the account is empty. Sometimes we are told they have taken money from it to fund subsidies including subsidy on kerosene but your royal highnesses, there is nowhere in your various domains where kerosene is sold for N50. So in the name of subsidy, large sums of money are being stolen.
“Things are tough now around the country because the Federal Government mismanaged our national resources and what is being stolen, nobody agrees it is being stolen. What is arguable, is who is responsible for this stealing. When the Federal Government and the President talk about oil theft and the amount that is allegedly stolen which is huge, we wonder. We have the capacity to produce about 2.4 million barrels a day, what accrues into the federal government account is less than 1.8 million barrel a day,” he told his royal visitors.
The governor further alleged that the last meeting they had at Aso Rock, the handouts they distributed to the various state governors showed that sometime for a period of two weeks, “we were losing as much as 700,000 barrels a day and that has been on for the past twelve years. I am not able to understand why, suddenly, Nigeria cannot protect its territorial waters because the boundaries have not changed and the people are still the same and at the peak of the so-called militancy, we were still exporting about 2 million barrels a day.”
According to the governor, it would be difficult to explain that after the issue of militancy in the Niger Delta has been resolved and the ex-militants have been rehabilitated and even awarded contracts, crude oil is still being lost to oil thieves and yet there is no person to be prosecuted and convicted for oil theft in a way that reflects the magnitude of what is allegedly stolen.
“What this means is that our budgets have not performed over the past 3 years whereas the budgets have been based on an average of between $77 to $79 a barrel. The average price of Nigeria’s sweet crude has been around $108 per barrel. That gives a surplus of over $30. Ideally, we ought to be saving $36 per barrel and 2.3 million barrel a day over the past three years and if you look at these numbers you will find that hat we have in our excess crude oil account should be over $30billion but as we speak, we have barely $3 billon in our excess crude account.
“Now oil price has dropped to $60 and because we have not saved, the naira is undergoing devaluation. Already as low as N180 per dollar and I believe by February when the elections are over, nobody is going to want to hold the naira. Wherever the election goes, I expect that the naira will hit over N200 per dollar. The inflationary consequence of that is prices of everything will go up and part of the vicious cycle of the devalued naira in the manner that is being done is that the price of petroleum products imported in dollars will go up in naira and government will be asking people who are already poor to pay more money for petroleum products.
“I see this vicious cycle setting in and people are likely to get poorer and that will lead to more tension and we already have our fair share of insecurity,” he said.
While calling on the royal fathers to pray for Nigeria, Oshiomhole warned that “the year that is coming is going to be a very tough one. Pray for Nigeria, 2015 will be tough.”
On the ongoing projects in the state, the governor said the Central Hospital complex will be completed and ready for use by August next year, while contractors will be mobilized to site on the 2nd East Circular road in the new year.
The Governor informed the visiting traditional rulers that a total of 16 roads had been identified in the GRA for immediate rehabilation and contractors have already bid for the projects and would be completely fixed in the first half of next year, added, “It’s not that government is unwillingly to work on roads in GRA but because of the lean financial resources.”
The Ogiegbaen of Egbaen who responded on behalf of other royal fathers, commended the governor for the achievements recorded so far by his administration. He pledged that the Enigies will continue to support his government with prayers and advice to enable him succeed.