The Great Debate
Despite sharing $2.1 billion dividend paid into the Federation Account by the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) company about three weeks ago, indications have emerged that Governors are set to press for another bailout fund from the Federal Government when the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting is convened at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Some of the states are still owing workers’ salaries despite benefitting from the largesse shared recently.
Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum and Zamfara State Governor, Alhaji Abdulaziz Yari, who dropped the hint after meeting with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Tuesday, said he came to find out the update on the agreement for a bailout fund to be facilitated by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for governors during last NEC meeting. According to the NGF chairman, he was at the Presidential Villa to know how far the Presidency has gone with the CBN in sourcing the bailout funds ahead of the NEC meeting for Thursday.
****************************************************************************
A member of the House of Representatives, Mr. Igariwey Iduma-Enwo, on Wednesday approached an Abuja Federal High Court to challenge the decision of President Muhammadu Buhari to rescue states in the country with a bailout of N713.7bn.
Many states already owed backlog of unpaid salaries by May 29 when Buhari assumed office as President.
The states later turned to the Federal Government for rescue, a development that informed the President’s action.
But, in suit number FHC/ABJ/CS/1022/15, which the Peoples Democratic Party lawmaker from Ebonyi State filed on Wednesday, Iduma-Enwo is seeking to know whether Buhari has powers under the 1999 Constitution to give the bailout without the approval of the National Assembly.
RECALL -
The package as approved by Buhari, informed Presidency sources told one of our correspondents on Monday, included the sharing of about $2.1bn (N413.7bn) between the federal and state governments from the $1.6bn dividend and $500m tax paid by the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas Limited to the Federal Government.
According to Presidency sources, the package also includes a Central Bank of Nigeria special intervention fund that will offer between N250bn and N300bn as a soft loan to enable the states to pay the backlog of salaries.
It was further gathered that the President had also approved a debt relief programme proposed by the Debt Management Office, which would help the states to restructure their commercial loans with banks currently put at over N660bn.
No comments:
Post a Comment