The crisis is brewing between the 36 state governors and the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Allocation Commission (RMFAC) over the disbursement of Paris Club’s N243. 8 billion to the states, as the governors have denied receiving any allocation. The said disbursement was part of the Paris Club.
In a strongly-worded statement by the Head, Media and Public Affairs of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum Secretariat, Abdulrazaque Bello-Barkindo, the governors described the news of the allocation as false.
He said that the announcement making the rounds that disbursement of N243.8bn to states in the month of August had been made came to the attention of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum as a surprise.
According to the statement, “The Nigeria Governors’ Forum wishes to state categorically that nothing can be farther from the truth as this disbursement did not happen and could not have happened as there are no further possibilities, that they can happen now, or in the future.
“The so-called disbursement is, therefore, a big lie and a figment of the imagination of its author. The lie is further accentuated by the fact that the announcer has remained anonymous and to all intents and purposes, faceless.
“If it were true and the announcer was sure of his facts, he would have owned the announcement in case anyone wanted to verify the information. But alas!
“The faceless announcer of the fake disbursement, is apparently, completely oblivious of, or even clueless, about how the Paris Club refunds came about. This ignorance is either a sincere lack of knowledge of the process or a deliberate effort to cause confusion in the land,” the Governors Forum secretariat said.
The Paris Club is not a reserve from where the federal government can dip its hands and share monies to states. It was a cumulative over-payment of debts by States, which had been refunded.
The NGF, therefore, called on the announcer to desist from spreading malicious, mischievous, and false information to the Nigerian public especially where it involves money, as such could undermine the nation’s stability, especially at this inauspicious time when our finances are lean and security temperament is fragile.
“There are myriads of ways to encourage the population to call their leaders to account but stoking the embers of discord by dishing out false information as funds that have been disbursed to states is doing the states, the governors, and the citizens, as a whole, a disservice or even a calamity that no responsible citizen invites on his people.”
By Chuks Okocha,
This Day