By Efio-Ita Nyok |9 July 2015 |6:14am
It has been reliably confirmed that President Buhari has ordered the release of N480 million bailout for states to offset their salary debt they collectively owe their civil servants.
And if we recall, it is the APC-led States that are the worst hit by this challenge. In fact, it was reported in the news that the APC governors had appealed to the presidency to come into their assistance of helping them pay owed salaries to state civil servants. The presidency responded yesterday. This, I must confess is commendable in that the APC-led federal government didn't segregate among state which should benefit or not. Both the PDP- and APC-led states are reported to benefit from this bailout alike, unlike related previous incidents in the immediate past administration.
However, my reservations revolves around the source of the fund from which the federal government could demonstrate this financial magnanimity. Accordingly, it has been reported that this fund emanates from the Excess Crude Account(ECA) created by former president Olusegun Obasanjo that housed the sum of $2.0 billion hitherto. It is part of what was bequeathed to PMB by the out gone GEJ administration. Research has it that the ECA is jointly managed by the three tier of government namely the federal, state and local governments. It is an account that is funded by excess proceeds from the sales of liquefied natural gas(LNG).
My question is, if the sum of $2 billion was left over in the ECA, why did President Buhari and some foremost APC governor including APC leaders tell Nigerians that the incumbent administration met an almost empty treasury thereby creating the impression that the immediate past government looted the treasury blind? Was that facade-of-an-impression necessary? What purposes did that or would it serve the APC at the center?
It has become important to raise these critical inquiries as a means of telling the incumbent federal government that Nigerians would not tolerate any form of irresponsibility from them. Nigerians would not blame the failure of Buhari on Jonathan. Neither would it trace its successes to the former. Just like the APC would take responsibility for any successes recorded within the time frame under review, they should do same with the failures as well. The masses want solution and not who to heap blames on. If we are to heap blames then the first, second, third republics and early part of this fourth republic will not be eschewed. In other words, PMB and a majority of APC politicians will have to bear responsibility too. And a large portion at that!
The APC should be reminded that they promised Nigerians change and we acquiesced. The idea of tracing our collective failures to the PDP isn't reminiscent of change. It is change we need and responsible-cum-positive change at that. This politics of witch hunting should come to an end. We should be forward looking. The earlier they take this advice to heart, the better. Besides, 2019 isn't too far-fetched. In an era of change, we can revert back to the PDP or some other party. A word is enough for the wise.
