Buhari Laments Empty Treasury …Jonathan Left Behind $30bn -Ex-Minister

President Muhammadu Buhari Monday paid a courtesy call on State House correspondents at the Press Gallery, during which he lamented the near empty treasury left behind by his predecessor, former President Goodluck Jonathan.
Buhari’s meeting with the State House Press Corps was a clear departure from his predecessor who never met with State House correspondents throughout his over five years as president.
Buhari informed them that he met a virtually empty treasury, with debts running into millions of dollars, adding that it was a disgrace for Nigeria that the salaries of state workers and even federal workers had not been paid.
Speaking on the calibre of his media team, he said it was not by accident that he got the best (Femi Adesina) from the media to serve as his special adviser, adding that he was one of the 15 aides he got clearance from the Senate to appoint.
After his brief remarks, the president thanked the correspondents and departed the Press Gallery.
But in a swift reaction, the  immediate past Minister/Deputy Chairman National Planning Commission (NPC) Dr. Abubakar Olanrewaju Sulaiman, yesterday faulted claims by President Muhammadu Buhari that his administration met an empty treasury.
Suleiman said the former administration as at May 29 left behind the sum of US$2billion, adding that the sum would have been higher if not the governors insistence on sharing the fund.
He warned that the former President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan must not be criminalized and painted a plunderer and looter of the nation’s treasury before the generality of Nigerians.
The clarification was in response to the President’s statement during an interactive session with journalists in Abuja, where he was quoted to have said that his government met “virtually an empty treasury.”
President Buhari reportedly said that it was adding a disgrace that Nigeria cannot pay salaries of its workforce.
Expressing his dismay over the President’s statement, Sulaiman in a statement in Abuja described the report as “unscientific and unfair”, stressing that the immediate past administration “left behind close to US$30billion.”
He said, “Government can’t tell us that there is no Excess Crude Account(ECA), Sovereign Wealth Fund(SWF) or are we saying the Federal Inland Revenue Service(FIR) and related agencies had not in the last one month been generating revenue?
“Until they are able to prove they had no receipts from these government agencies in the last one month before Nigerians can now buy into Mr. President’s claims of an empty treasury.”
He recalled that under the Jonathan’s administration, Nigeria was rated the largest economy in Africa and 26th largest in the world, querying how come such a government would leave behind an empty treasury.
“Is it not on record that President Obama inherited US$3 triillion debt, a collapsed banking sector and mortgage industry,yet he never raised any alarm. None of these has happened in Nigeria under Jonathan.
“Under Jonathan, Nigeria became the largest Africa economy and 26th in the world amidst deadly security challenges and dwindling international prices of oil. In spite of all these, the FG never owed salary.
“Upon inception of Jonathan’s administration, it is on record that the price of oil at the global stage was over 100 dollars per barrel and at the close of the administration, it dropped to 46dollars. Yet, there wasn’t collapse of government and federal civil servants were paid as at when due.
“It will be misleading therefore for our respected President Muhammadu Buhari and indeed the ruling APC to claim to have met an empty treasury.”
He further reminded the new government that “aspiration to governance is a call of meeting and confronting challenges headlong. So, we urge the APC-led government to hit the ground running as promised Nigerians by confronting the challenges.
“We are not in doubt of the capability of Mr. President to do it. He should therefore get to business, put in place structures and personnel to redeem the pledges made to the Nigeria.”