El-Rufai committee recommends N2b each ecological fund for 19 states, FCT

A National Economic Council (NEC) committee on Ecological Fund led by Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna state has recommended the disbursement of N2billion each to 19 states which he alleged were discriminated against by former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.

Briefing state house corespondents on the outcome of council meeting presided over by acting President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa, Villa Abuja on Thursday, he informed that his committee presented an interim report where it also recommended a new sharing formula for the fund.

The 11-man committee was set up to examine the utilisation of Federal Government’s 1% allocation of the fund from 2010 till date.

El-Rufai alleged that the fund was disbursed at the discretion of the former the former president who gave it to Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and other states governed by political parties sympathetic to the PDP.

He said the committee therefore recommended that the states that were left out during the past dispensation be compensated with the sum of N2billion each.

He said: “The N2 billion was given to the states that benefited in purely discretionary basis and not on any identified Ecological problem or any project request.

“It was given to favoured states based on no criteria or any request based on emergency. It was just a handout to favoured states and other states that were not so favoured were discriminated against.

“So, our committee recommended that to level the playing field, every state be treated equally, the federal government should give those states that did not get.

“My state got because my state was governed by the PDP and was very friendly with Jonathan.

“In my state, the amount was used to do some Ecological projects but in some states the money simply vanished.

“But in my state, it didn’t vanish,  the projects were done. We are looking into those projects because the prices did not look right, the quality in one or two cases is not the best but some projects were done.

“So, we are saying in fairness the other states that did not get this N2billion on discretionary basis, it should be done. This is why President Buhari is here to right the wrongs of the past.”

The governor stated that after the payment to these states, the new sharing formula could come into effect.

He added: “So, what we did was to give an interim report on how the entire ecological fund has been utilized from May 2010 till date.

“And we realize that a lot of the deployment of the funds was based on discretion of the president and there is need to establish very clear criteria for the use of the 65 per cent of the federal government share among the states of the federation.

“The committee established beyond all doubts that In 2013, the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan gave N2 billion to certain states of the federation but excluded other states.

“The states that got it were all PDP states and states of other parties that were sympathetic to the PDP like Labour Party in Ondo and APGA in Anambra State. 19 states and the FCT did not get the N2billion from the Ecological Fund.

“These states are Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Borno, Edo, Ekiti, Imo, Jigawa, Kano, Kwara and Lagos.
“Others are Nassarawa, Niger, Ogun, Osun, Oyo, Rivers, Sokoto, Yobe, Zamfara and the Federal Capital Territory

“So essentially what President Goodluck Jonathan did was to take N2billion each from the Ecological fund and gave to some PDP states.

“Any PDP state that was not his friend like Kano and Kwara didn’t get. And all the other opposition party, like no ACN state got anything, no ANPP state got anything.

“This, the committee of the council considered discriminatory and recommended that the 19 states and the FCT that did not get the N2 billion in 2013 be given N2 billion each to level the playing field.

“And thereafter, very clear criteria for accessing the fund will be recommended to the council for the consideration of the federal government.”

El-Rufai however added that it would not be able to pay the states N2billion each since there was only N13billion available for sharing.

This he explained was because the law provided that there must be a balance of N20billion in the Ecological Fund at any point in time in case of emergency, adding: “Of the one 1% belonging to the federal government report in April, the total amount accruing is N33.6 billion.”

According to him, “So, out of the N33.6billion in Ecological Fund right now, there is a Presidential directive that the Ecological Fund office must maintain a balance of N20 billion in case of any emergency, any natural disaster requiring intervention. Which means there is only about N13 billion available for distribution to the states that were discriminated against.

“As I said 19 states and the FCT making it 20. So, it isn’t enough to give them N2 billion each.

“But the committee recommended to make partial payment to these states that were discriminated against by President Jonathan.

“Council deferred decision on that until we submit out final report which will be submitted to NEC in the meeting of June.

“The council appreciated the enormous work the committee did and particularly appreciated the permanent secretary of the Ecological Fund office for providing detailed information about the operations of the Fund.”

On the revised sharing formula, he gave the figures as federal government,1%: states 0.72% and local government areas, 0.60%.

Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo state reported that the NEC was worried that the stoppage of the budget support loan facility may destabilize the states.

He said facility extended to states was due to end this month and if stopped, it would affect the states’ ability to stabilize and therefore, NEC has extended it.

Okorocha said: “As regards the loan support what is called the budget support facility for states which is supposed to come to an end by the end of this month, council was concerned about the fact that we are gradually coming out of recession and if this budgetary support ceases at the end of May, it might create some lapses in our bid to stabilize the economy.

“So, council resolved that the budgetary support be extended to enable states catch up with the economy challenges of the moment.

“The good news is that we have been reliably informed that crude production at Forcados terminal will soon commence and this will  in any small way help the  economy and the stabilization of the economy and for us to get out of recession as quickly as possible.”
The Imo governor also reported that Excess Crude Account (ECA) as at May 24th stood at $2.3 billion.

He said council reviewed the discrepancies in figures and had directed the Accountant General of the Federation to look into it and report to the next meeting.