TheCable

Nasir el-Rufai, Kaduna state governor, has alleged that the administration of Goodluck Jonathan gave N2bn ecological fund to each state under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) but did not extend the largesse to states under the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in 2013.

The ACN, the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) merged to become the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The fund, which is for solving emergency problems like natural disasters, is statutory. The federal government has a share of one percent; states, 72 percent, and local governments, six percent.

Speaking with state house correspondents after the national economic council meeting (NEC) in Abuja on Thursday, el-Rufai alleged that then ruling party – the PDP – and other parties that were sympathetic to the government were favoured in the distribution of the fund in 2013.

“The committee established beyond all doubts that in 2013, the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan gave N2bn to certain states of the federation but excluded other states,” he said.

“The states that got it were all PDP states and states of other parties that were sympathetic to the PDP like Labour Party in Ondo and APGA in Anambra state. 19 states and the FCT did not get the N2bn from the ecological fund. These states are Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Borno, Edo, Ekiti, Imo, Jigawa, Kano, Kwara and Lagos.

“Others are Nassarawa, Niger, Ogun, Osun, Oyo, Rivers, Sokoto, Yobe, Zamfara and the federal capital territory.

“So, essentially what President Goodluck Jonathan did was to take N2bn each from the ecological fund and give to some PDP states. Any PDP state that was not his friend like Kano and Kwara didn’t get it. And all the other opposition party, like ACN state got nothing… no ANPP state got anything.”

The governor also said that the committee of the council recommended that the 19 states and the FCT that did not get the N2bn in 2013 be given N2bn each to level the playing field.

“And thereafter very clear criteria for accessing the fund will be recommended to the council for the consideration of the federal government,” he added.

“So, out of the N33.6bn in ecological fund right now, there is a presidential directive that the ecological fund office must maintain a balance of N20bn in case of any emergency, any natural disaster requiring intervention, which means there is only about N13bn valuable for distribution to the states that were discriminated against.”

“As I said 19 states and the FCT making it 20, so it isn’t enough to give them N2bn each.

“But the committee recommended partial payment to these states that were discriminated against by President Jonathan. Council deferred decision on that until we submit out final report which will be submitted to NEC in the meeting of June.”