Editorial

Paris Club refunds as governors’ side money

 

Recently, the 36 state governors met with President Muhammadu Buhari to demand for the urgent release of the outstanding Paris Club funds. No mistakes about it, the money, especially the part that belongs to federating units indeed belong to them. It is statutory and legitimate. Yet again, it is legitimate on the part of citizens to ask questions of how most of the governors utilised the previous refunds totaling N760.17 billion released to them by the Federal Government in two tranches between 2016 and this year.
Lets be clear about it, this Paris club refunds were not part of revenue projects for the states as at 2015, so the money came as a windfall. Windfalls almost always suffer one thing, waste! This should explain the controversy that has dogged the refunds since last year. Even so, at least, it should have provided a good ground for states to fully settle salaries and emoluments that were outstanding. If the Federal Government had arranged bailouts, budget support and then the refunds, what in the world has prevented states from fulfilling their obligations to her workers and pensioners? Their quest for the windfall even led them to issue a two-week deadline to the president for the release of the 50 per cent balance of the refunds, reportedly estimated at N760bn.
The NGF, which was led by its Chairman and Zamfara State Governor, Abdulaziz Yari, was however silent on its next line of action should the Federal Government fail to release the outstanding amount. The group may, however, not enjoy public support for its campaign as many of the governors have not come clean on their utilisation of the refunds earlier disbursed to them. They have failed to show that the payments were used to pay the outstanding salaries and pensions of their beleaguered workers and retirees.
As expected, the President, at the parley, expressed worries about the continuing agitations of workers and retirees for their entitlements, even after the payments to the states. The president had wondered how the “governors sleep at night’’, during the parley. We equally urge the governors of the affected states to explain why it is difficult to pay their workers with facts not contrived fiction.  It appears that personal interests, rather than the public interest, weighed more in the management of the funds already released to some states.
While the plight of workers and pensioners justifies the release of the outstanding amount, the Federal Government should not lose sight of earlier agreements between it and the states, even though the payments are in partial settlement of longstanding claims of state governments relating to over-deductions from the Federal Accounts Allocation Committee, FAAC for the servicing of their external debts between 1995 and 2002.
It will be recalled that the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, had said soon after the disbursement of the second tranche of the refunds some months ago, that further releases of the outstanding sum would depend on “current and projected cash flow of the federation as well as the outcome of the independent monitoring of the compliance with terms and conditions attached to the earlier disbursements.”
However, Nigerian governors contend that at no time did they set parameters or agree on specific or special terms and conditions with the Federal Government over how and when the monies should be disbursed. They added and we agree with them that since the money belongs to the states, they should be given their money. After all, it is not as if they are begging for the funds.
All the same, we call for a peaceful resolution of all contentious issues on the refunds before the outstanding sum is released. There is really no need to issue threats to the Federal Government. Although, like we pointed out, the Federal Government is not the owner of the funds. They are merely the custodians. We appeal to state governors to be prudent in the management of public funds. They should no longer treat that refund like a windfall. It is awful, some of the things we hear (true or not) of the Paris Club money, instead they should give priority to things that can improve the welfare of their people.
This is where the House of Assembly should have bared its fangs. State assemblies unfortunately have not shown character in pursuing public interest agenda. They are in the main mere rubber stamps of the governors. If they had taken their constitutional roles of oversight more seriously, some of these infractions and suspicions would not have came in the first place.

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