Rivers challenges Okonjo-Iweala on crude oil earnings

THE Rivers State Government has dared  the Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to tell Nigerians how much the country earns from crude oil sales.

Rivers also challenged the minister to open up on the quantity of crude oil being produced, its market value and the differential between oil prices.

State Commissioner for Information and Communications, Mrs. Ibim Semenitari, said in a statement issued in Port Harcourt on Thursday that rather than speaking on how much Rivers had earned as revenue, the minister should tell Nigerians how many percent of the 2013 budget had the nation’s oil revenue been able to fund.

The state government expressed dissatisfaction over the minister’s position against Governor Rotimi Amaechi, adding that Okonjo-Iweala’s suggestion that the Excess Crude Account was one of the means through which the Federation Account Allocation Committee was funded was misleading and a threat to the nation’s fiscal federalism.

Semenitari partly statement reads, “The Rivers State Government as a policy publishes what it earns from all revenue sources and what it expends as well. Since we have nothing to hide, the honourable minister is welcome to reaffirm these figures for the public as they are already in the public domain.

“What is not in the public domain and what the Rivers State Government has respectfully requested the honourable minister to publish are the following –

“How much oil does Nigeria produce? Where is the differential between the oil pump prices? What price is our oil being sold? How much have we earned from our crude oil sales in the last year?

“What percentage of budget 2013 does our crude oil sales revenue fund? Can the Honourable Minister assist in shedding more light on the subsidy savings since the reduction in petroleum subsidy?

“The red herring of how much Rivers State has received from the federation account can be the matter for another day as right now those figures are not in contest, and the spat against Governor Amaechi is unnecessary.”


Source: Punch