FG In Financial Stress, Printed Additional N50bn To Support March FAAC, Says Obaseki

The Federal Government had to print additional N50-60bn to augment March allocation to States, Edo Governor Godwin Obaseki has disclosed.

The development, he said, is a clear indication Nigeria is in huge financial trouble.

Speaking at the Edo transition committee stakeholders engagement, Obaseki said the nation’s economy is no longer what it used to be.

“When we got FAAC for March, the federal government printed additional N50-N60 billion to top-up for us to share,” Obaseki stressed

While lamenting the over-dependence on crude oil, the Governor expressed worry over rising debts of the nation.

He canvassed for diversified economy where all the three tiers of government would have a strategic role to play.

“This April, we will go to Abuja and share. By the end of this year, our total borrowings are going to be within N15-N16 trillion.

“Imagine a family that is just borrowing without any means to pay back and nobody is looking at that. Everybody is looking at 2023, everybody is blaming Mr. President as if he is a magician,” he said.

He added: “Nigeria has changed. The economy of Nigeria is not the same again, whether we like it or not. Since the civil war, we have been managing, saying money is not our problem as long as we are pumping crude oil everyday.

“So we have run a very strange economy and strange presidential system where the local, state and federal governments, at the end of the month, go and earn salaries. We are the only country in the world that does that.

“Everywhere else, the government relies on the people to produce taxes and that is what they use to run the local government, state and the federation.

“But with the way we run Nigeria, the country can go to sleep. At the end of the month, we just go to Abuja, collect money and we come back to spend. We are in trouble, huge financial trouble.

“The current price of crude oil is only a mirage. The major oil companies who are the ones producing are no longer investing much in oil.

“Shell is pulling out of Nigeria and Chevron is now one of the world’s largest investors in alternative fuel, so in another year or so, where will we find this money that we go to share in Abuja?”