Oby Ezekwesili, President Jonathan and the $67bn question, By Femi Fani-Kayode

I think that it is a pity that President
Goodluck Jonathan’s Government declined
to take up the challenge of the former
Minister of Education, Mrs. Obiageli
Ezekwesili, to a public debate on the $67
billion savings that President Obasanjo
left behind in 2007.
I do not think that our government ought
to have run away from the debating ring.
They ought to have accepted the
challenge of a rigorous public debate and
allow the Nigerian people to listen to it
and make up their own minds about who
was right and who was wrong. I thought
that the response of the Special Assistant
to the President on Public Affairs, Dr.
Doyin Okupe, to Obiageli Ezekwesili was
more logical and made far more sense
than that of the Honorable Minister of
Information, Labaran Maku. But I still
believe that Obiageli Ezekwesili was right.
I believe that the Government’s position
on this issue and its attempt to over-
aggressively defend what I personally
consider to be the indefensible is not only
disingenuous but is also essentially
dishonest and self-seeking.
The charge that our foreign reserves were
heavily depleted between 2007 and 2013
cannot be convincingly or logically
denied. In 2007, President Olusegun
Obasanjo left $45 billion in our foreign
reserves and $22 billion in our Excess
Crude Account. If the two figures are
added up the amount that you will come
up with is $67 billion of savings for our
country. This is the figure that Obiageli
Ezekwesili cited. It represents what was
in both our foreign reserves and our
Excess Crude Account put together.
Let us look at the history. When President
Olusegun Obasanjo came to power in 1999
Nigeria only had $1.5 billion in her
foreign reserves and consequently no-one
in the world took us seriously. We were
poor, weak and lonely and we were
viewed as a failed state and a pariah
nation. No-one trusted us, no-one wanted
to do business with us and no-one
seriously believed that we as a people or
as a nation were capable of enduring the
rigours of serious economic recovery,
prudence and fiscal discipline. As far as
the developed world was concerned,
Nigeria was only good for its endless
supply of sweet bonny light crude oil.
Yet Obasanjo proved the world wrong and
showed them that Nigerians could do far
better than they thought. After eight
years of good stewardship and the display
of fiscal discipline and remarkable
prudence he built up those foreign
reserves from a measly and pitiful $1.5
billion in 1999 to no less than $45 billion
by 2007. This was quite an achievement.
Sadly, what took place after Obasanjo left
power was very disheartening.
It was not only a downer but it was also
sad and unfortunate. I say this because by
the Federal Governments own admission,
and four long years after leaving $45
billion for the Yar’Adua administration to
build on in 2007, we still only have that
same figure of $45 billion left in our
foreign reserves today. Worse still this
was after it had plummeted to a shameful
$30 billion under late President Umaru
Yar’Adua. Had it not been for the fact
that whatever was coming in after we left
in 2007 and over the last 4 years was
being recklessly shared and spent by the
Yar’Adua and later Jonathan
administrations our foreign reserves
ought to have doubled and reached at
least $100 billion dollars by now. That is
just the foreign reserves alone and I am
not even adding the Excess Crude Account
figures yet. If I were to do that I would be
talking about an expected increase of up
to $150 billion by today. That is what we
ought to have in the savings kitty today if
the two governments that succeeded
Obasanjo knew anything about prudence,
good management and fiscal discipline.
The difference is that under Obasanjo it
was ”save, save, save” whilst under
Yar’Adua and later Jonathan it has been
”spend, spend, spend’. Yet if they insist on
spending the question is what do they
have to show for such high expenditure
and what has this cost the Nigerian
people in real terms. I believe that these
are legitimate questions.
Mrs. Ezekwezile may have been inelegant
or a little too harsh in her use of words
when she made those weighty assertions
in her speech; but her analysis and
conclusions surely cannot be faulted. Yet
the Government has given no reasonable
explanation or response to her or the
Nigerian people and they do not even
appear to like the fact that questions are
being asked.
As a matter of fact, they appear to believe
that it is an achievement for us to be
exactly where we were four years ago in
terms of our foreign reserves by openly
boasting that we have $45 billion saved
today. The questions that we should put
to them are as follows – did you not save
anything in the last 4 years in either
foreign reserves or the Excess Crude
Account? Where did all the money that
accrued to you and that you ought to
have saved go? How come 4 years after
being handed $45 billion in foreign
reserves and after billions have come into
your hands through record price crude oil
sales you still only have $45 billion
saved? Is this not strange and absurd? Is
this the way a responsive and responsible
government ought to behave? Do they
know the true meaning of ”saving for a
rainy day”?
It is not surprising that the Prime
Minister of Great Britain, The Right
Honorable David Cameron, asked just a
few days ago where the 100 billion USD
that Nigeria received from oil sales in the
last few years has gone. Would our
Government be good enough to answer
his question and tell him even if they feel
that they don’t owe the Nigerian people
themselves an explanation? As far as I am
concerned it is not something that our
government should be proud of that 4
years after Obasanjo handed $45 billion
to them as savings in foreign reserves
they have not built on it in all that time
but rather they have spent all the
receivables and inflows that came in after
that time and that ought to have been
saved.
Yet the story does not stop there. It gets
worse. Apart from the sorry tale about
our foreign reserves, the story about the
usage and outright draining of our Excess
Crude Account is even more damning. It
goes like this. When President Obasanjo
left power in 2007 the Excess Crude
Account had just over $22 billion in its
coffers. This figure was built up by
Obasanjo from zero in 1999 because at
that time there was no Excess Crude
Account. In 8 years he built it up from
zero to $22 billion. Yet when the
Yar’Adua administration and later the
Jonathan administration came in ALL the
money in that account was shared with
the state governors and spent.
The Federal Government saved nothing
for a rainy day and instead chose to just
spend all the money. It was initially run
down to zero by President Umaru
Yar’Adua government but, in fairness to
President Jonathan, he has now been able
to build it up to approximately $10
billion. This represents approximately
half the figure that Obasanjo left in that
account in 2007. But at least it is a step in
the right direction. Yet if both the
Yar’Adua and Jonathan government had
continued to save and not just spend all
the money we would have had at least
$50 billion in the Excess Crude Account
today and not just a paltry 10.
Whichever way one looks at it, when one
sees all these figures and considers the
strong position that we were coming from
in 2007 it represents a failure in fiscal
discipline by both the Yar’Adua and
Jonathan administrations. This is because
the Federal Government was meant to
build up on the legacy that they inherited
in 2007 and not spend and squander all
that money. For the purpose of emphasis
permit me to repeat the fact that had
they been doing the right thing in the last
4 years and not overspend we ought to be
hitting at least $100 billion in our foreign
reserves by now and at least $50 billion
in the Excess Crude Account. Yet we have
not seen anything near that and instead
all we have seen is depletion and a drain
of both accounts and the monies that
ought to have accrued to them since 2007.
Finally when President Obasanjo came to
power in 1999 our foreign debt was 30
billion USD. Yet by sheer hardwork, by
the time he left office 8 years later he had
paid off the foreign debt completely and
for the first time in its history, Africa had
a debt-free nation.
This was a monumental achievement by
any standard and one that every serious-
minded and patriotic Nigerian ought to
be proud of no matter what side of the
political divide they stand. Yet sadly 4
years later we are back in chronic debt to
the tune of $9 billion and we are still
borrowing. In view of the foregoing it is
perfectly legitimate for anyone to ask
how come so much money was spent,
what it was spent on and how the
government has managed our resources
over the last 4 years. As a matter of fact
not asking any questions would be most
unpatriotic and it would lay some of us
open to the charge of cowardice and
collusion.
Since 2007 we have seen nothing but
depletion of our resources and more and
more borrowing. Unlike President
Obasanjo, both President Yar’Adua and
President Jonathan’s governments did not
build up our reserves or save any money.
Instead they both spent recklessly and
borrowed more and more. As a matter of
fact, if our government continues to
borrow at the rate it has been borrowing
for the last four years for another two
years Nigeria will be back to having a
foreign debt of close to $30 billion very
soon. That was where we were in 1999
and if that were to ever happen it would
be a tragedy of monumental proportions.
I sincerely hope that other than the usual
insults, intimidation, sponsored stories,
persecution and baseless allegations that
are channeled against and heaped on
some of us for pointing out these matters
and raising these questions, the Federal
Government will endeavour to change its
ways and display a greater degree of
fiscal discipline and accountability to the
Nigerian people. To that extent, I am in
total agreement with my former cabinet
colleague in the Obasanjo administration,
Obiageli Ezekwezile.