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Rep Raises Alarm Over Depletion Of Excess Crude Account
Federal lawmaker representing Degema/Bonny Federal Constituency, Hon. Doctor Farah Dagogo has raised alarm over dwindling excess crude account.
He described as “mind boggling” following a statement by the Federal Government that the country’s excess crude account has depleted from $2.1billion in 2015 to $60million 2021.
The lawmaker wondered the justification on how such huge amount of money was expended while the masses in the country, especially the Niger Delta region where the revenue comes in from, are in such a perilous state.
It would be recalled that, last Friday, the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Clem Agba, gave the update during the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting at the State House in Abuja.
According to a statement by the spokesperson to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Laolu Akande, the minister was quoted as saying: “Excess Crude Account (ECA) balance as at October 13, 2021 stands at $60, 857,773.43; Stabilisation Account, balance as at October 13, stands at N25,009,892,511.55; Development of Natural Resources Account balance as at October 13, 2021 stands at N56,144,024,000.71.”
Responding to the development in Abuja, at the weekend, Dagogo said the depletion of the funds without anything tangible to show is ‘unacceptable and abhorrent to people of good conscience’.
He said, “Today in Nigeria, the cost of living has risen astronomically. We were in paradise in 2015, if we were to make a comparative analysis of what was applicable then and now as to what majority of the masses are facing and passing through daily. To feed a day in Nigeria is akin to the camel passing through the eyes of a needle. Yet, we hear mind boggling depletion of our common wealth with nothing tangible to show for it.
“For clarity, the purpose of the Excess Crude Account that was set up in 2004, which later metamorphosed to Sovereign Wealth Fund in 2011, has been clearly defeated. Has it three cardinal objectives; of supporting the budget in times of economic stress, including to hedge against volatile crude oil prices; to save for future generations of Nigerians; to invest in domestic infrastructure; being met?
“The answer is a capital NO and unacceptable to the people of my region, who semantically speaking are the goose that laid the golden eggs that is being pilfered unhindered. I strongly believe that this daylight stealing and mismanagement should be a grave concern and abhorrent to people of good conscience,” Dagogo said.
By: Kevin Nengia
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