Governors express shock as Excess Crude Account depletes from $325m to $70m in one month -

When the 36 state governors attend the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting on Thursday, three main issues would be on their minds: insecurity, Excess Crude Account (ECA) and the revenue sharing formula.

The governors are said to be worried about heightened insecurity across the country vis-a-vis the president’s reluctance to sack the service chiefs.

Also, the governors are said to have expressed concern about how the ECA depleted from $325 million to $70 million in a month without their knowledge as stakeholders. Established in 2004, the ECA was created to save revenues — in excess of the budgetary benchmark price — generated from the sale of oil.

Equally of concern to the governors is the perceived reluctance of the Federal Government to amend the revenue allocation formula in view of present realities.

The Nation quoted an unnamed governor as saying that the governors would be discussing the issues of insecurity, Excess Crude Account (ECA) depletion and the revenue sharing formula at Thursday’s meeting expected to be chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

“The governors are going to the NEC meeting with three issues bordering on security, ECA and reconciliation of oil revenue and allocation.

“Most of the governors are in favour of the change of guards in the military to allow for fresh ideas. But the President seems to have some intelligence at his disposal which has made him to retain the Service chiefs.

“The governors have been very careful in their position on the continuous stay in office of Service Chiefs but said “the reality is that things (strategies) are not working”.

“We are ready to go to NEC with new ideas on how to address the increasing security challenges at hand. The President is not bound by our advice but we do not want the situation to get worse.

“Being a sensitive matter, we will discreetly make our recommendations to the President on the way forward. It is indisputable that we need fresh ideas in managing our security architecture.”

Another governor, who also preferred anonymity, said, “Certainly, we want NEC to address this depletion of ECA Account from $325million to $70million in one month because we were not consulted.

“We will expect the Federal Government to lay the cards on the table at the NEC session. There is no way the Federal Government can withdraw from ECA without the permission of stakeholders, especially states.

“We want to know why they depleted the account and what went wrong. Some commentators have started blaming state governors without knowing that we were not aware of the huge depletion within a month.

“The NEC is expected to reconcile oil receipts and allocations to states by the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC). The reconciliation is necessary in order to ascertain that what is given to the states is their statutory shares.”