The 13% Refund To The Oil Producing States…”Why the Noise”?

Ndifreke Godwin

Governments, all over the world, do not go to the press to announce that there’s additional revenue accruing to the purse. Therefore, attacking Governor Udom Emmanuel for not disclosing receipts of additional revenue from the Government of the Federation is neither here nor there because considering the integrity and wealth of experience of the Governor in financial management over the years, Udom Emmanuel stands tall in this area as one of the best in the world; so why the noise?

Governments at all levels, are required by law to present details of their proposed income and expenditure to the Parliament which in our case is the House of Assembly by way of budgets.

Anytime there’s additional income, what is expected is for the Executive arm of government to go to the Parliament for a supplementary budget. These days, thanks to the World Bank’s State’s Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability (SFTAS) Program adopted by most State of the Federation, Akwa Ibom inclusive, State budgets are published on Government Website.

 Annual Accountant General Reports and Auditor General Reports are equally published on the State Website. Government is not run on pages of newspaper.

 Therefore Castigating the State Governor for not disclosing sources of Government revenue to the press is to say the least, display of knowledgelessness of Government workings or at most, political talk.

Why didn’t Wike go to the press to make the announcement at the point of receipt of the derivation revenue? Why is OBA making the announcement today? Or is it because this is election period?

In the last administration of Obong Godswill AKPABIO in which Senator Bassey Albert was the Commissioner for Finance during which period the Federal Government paid Akwa Ibom State Government Billions of Naira and Dollars that accrued from the Resource Control agitation championed by Former Governor Obong Attah, did they ever go to the press and public media to announce to Akwa Ibom people the trillion of Naira that was refunded to state by the Federal Government?

Answer is simple. He wants to score cheap political points. Before, we join the fray in making uninformed opinion, let’s first check if these disclosures are not in the budget, supplementary budgets and the Annual Accountant General Reports of the State.

As I checked, the Executive Arm of the State Government approached the State House of Assembly twice for supplementary budgets in 2021 and also twice in 2022 to obtain approval for appropriations of the additional Revenues that accrued to the State Government.

The 13% refunds to the Oil producing State I understand will be paid over a period of five years on monthly basis as the Federation has no money to make bulk payment. So please why the noise?

An opinion of Ndifreke Godwin, a concerned Akwa Ibomite.