There are indications that the raging revenue allocation crises between the presidency and the State governors may spite more governors to go against President Goodluck Jonathan.
All the governors are said to be very displeased with the Federal Government over the non-payment of the three months’ allocations by the Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala-led Ministry of Finance.
The 36 states governors of the federation had lamented over the non-receipt of their arrears of about N466 billion from the federation action for about three months.
It is pertinent to recall that the Chairman of Finance Commissioners Forum, Timothy Odaah had rejected the recent allocation from the Office of Accountant General of the federation allocations on the basis that the states were being owed N336 billion, with the N75 billion being the balance of the July 2013 arrears, N121 billion from June augmentation and over N90 billion as July augmentation.
It has also become glaring that all the 36 state governors are not happy about the piece rate system which the federal government has resorted to in allocating revenues due to them.
According to a northern governor, whose state is said to be currently “been grounded” due to insufficient allocation from the federations account has confirmed that most of the governors are now “quite upset over the financial distress imposed on us by the Federal Government.”
The governor who is said to be one of the strongest supporters of Jonathan is also seriously fighting tooth and nail to meet up with the financial obligations of his administration.
He however spoke anonymously recently revealing thus: “If urgent steps were not taken by the Presidency to put an end to the emerging financial crisis in the states, more governors would be forced to distance themselves from Aso Rock Villa and the Finance Minister.
“We are afraid that if the current situation, which we believe is artificially created so as to punish some states and their governors is not stopped, many governors would be left with no option than to seek redress.
“It is difficult for the Finance Minister to convince us that after generating N1.05 trillion in July this year, a figure that was well over the projection by government for the month, states could not be paid their full allocations for the month.
“As we speak, we have not been paid for August and September while our people are anxiously looking up to us as governors to give them dividends of democracy through provision of life-changing projects.
“In almost all the states, the salaries and emoluments of civil and public servants have not been paid while contractors are on edge waiting to do battle with the governors.
“If we may ask, where has all the money gone since Okonjo-Iweala keeps insisting that the economy is robust and kicking?”, he queried.
Although the G-7 comprising of the “rebel governors of the Abubakar Baraje-led New PDP” have already publicized their displeasure that their governments are experiencing financial stress while the supporters of Jonathan due to loyalty, are finding it hard to lay theirs bare in public view.
Another governor from the South has also lamented over the situation stating that the financial position of his state is so bad that he now avoids his office due to daily throng of contractors who besiege his office to ask for funds.
“I have no genuine excuse to give since they won’t believe that for the past three months we have not been given our full remittances by the centre.
“This is what we have been exposed to by the Federal Government even with increased revenue confirmed by the Central Bank of Nigeria accruing to the purse of the government.
“Nigerians should be more vigilant by asking the Finance Minister where our money is being kept. Let them tell Nigerians what happened to the balance of the N1.05 trillion that accrued to Nigeria after N792billion was shared to states for July.
“We have made the point that it is either they are hiding our money for 2015 elections or they are deliberately manipulating the economy to give Nigerians the impression that all is well when the nation is broke.”
The Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF), Jonah Otunla, called the Chairman of Commissioners Forum to collect a paltry sum of N75 billion released by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) out of the outstanding N466 billion of the state government allocations.
The Federal Government, through the AGF, was reported to have raised N548.393 billion as the Statutory Revenue for the three tiers of government for August after it met tough resistance from the state governments.
Most obviously, the President now risks more opposition from some other governors who are said to be on the verge of an outburst after an internal implosion when they can no longer withstand the situation.
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