SAN FRANCISCO, May 25, (THEWILL) – The National Economic Council (NEC) has accused former President Goodluck Jonathan of discrimination in the distribution of N34 billion ecological fund to 17 states controlled by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP), to the exclusion of opposition parties.
This was revealed by the Governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir el-Rufai, Chairman of the 11-man Committee on Ecological Fund, as he presented the report of the Committee to NEC on Thursday.
He explained that the Committee discovered that the former president gave N2 billion each to the 17 states and side-tracked 19 states controlled by opposition All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) at the time.
According to him, NEC considered the action to be discriminatory and consequently, resolved that the 19 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) that were denied the fund should be given N2 billion each too.
El-Rufai said the balance in the ecological fund account currently stood at N33.6 billion meaning that the amount was not enough to pay the affected states in view of the stipulation that at least N20 billion must be left in the account at every given time.
He further disclosed that the sharing formula for the ecological fund had been modified to one per cent for the federal government, 0.72 per cent for states and 0.60 per cent for local government areas, adding that the states and local governments had currently taken their own share of the funds, leaving only the federal government’s share in the account.
NEC then resolved that N13 billion part payment of the sum should be made to the states pending the time more funds would accrue into the account.
Also, the Accountant General of the Federation presented to Council, an update on the Excess Crude Account. He told Council that the balance in the Excess Crude Account as at 24th May, 2017 stands at $2,300,389,201.51 adding that the current Budget Support Loan Facility will end in May 2017.
An ad hoc committee set up by NEC to review the report of the Presidential Technical Committee on Land Use Act submitted its report.
It recommended the need to introduce systematic titling and land registration throughout Nigeria; radically increase the existing dismal volume of land registration in Nigeria; substantially reduce the cost of securing land titles in Nigeria; set out standard guidelines and processes for land titling and registration in Nigeria and optimise the socio-economic benefits of land to both the government and the people.
In his briefing, the Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbe, informed Council that agriculture is still leading the path of GDP growth which stood at 3.5% in the second quarter of 2017, and that there is need to give greater impetus to agricultural production in order to speed up the country’s economic recovery.
He said the cost of local rice in Nigeria was higher than imported rice because governments of countries such as Thailand, China and United States subsidised the cost of production heavily for their farmers because they have incentives which are not available in Nigeria.
Council urged States to step up efforts to acquire more tractors to boost agricultural production.
Members of the Council lauded the leadership qualities of the Acting President, describing him as the “System Stabilizer.”
In a presentation by the Governors, the Acting President was told “this nation is very stable because of the role you play. God bless you our Acting President, thank you very much”.
The Council then prayed that God Almighty should give the Acting President more strength to carry out the task of national re-engineering.
