Governors to Raise 9 Questions On Economy Issues

Governors are disturbed by the state of the economy, which has remained hazy to them.
Questions
They are to raise nine issues on Thursday at the meeting of the National Economic Council (NEC), which has not been convened in the past three months.
Many states have complained of being shortchanged in their monthly allocations. Some have been borrowing to pay their workers’ monthly wages, The Nation learnt at the weekend.
Vice-President Namadi Sambo has summoned a NEC meeting, following the governors’ compliant that they are being kept in the dark about the economy’s health.
The 9 issues are:
• Is it true that $50 billion was unremitted to the Federation Account? Where is the money?
• Is Nigeria broken or not?
• Why was the NEC consulted before 2014 Budget was presented to the National Assembly;
• How much has Nigeria earned from its oil sales in 2013 and what percentage of the budget is funded by these receipts?
• Is it really true that $5b is missing from Excess Crude Account
• How much oil does Nigeria produce daily?
• Is the benchmark price for oil in the 2013 budget is $79?
• Is it a fact that crude oil was sold at prices that hovered about $110 per day throughout the year?
Sections 18 and 19 of the 1999 Constitution states: “The Economic Council shall comprise the following members -
(a) the Vice-President who shall be the Chairman;
(b) the Governor of each State of the Federation;
(c) the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria established under the Central Bank of Nigeria Decree 1991 or any enactment replacing that Decree.
Dispute
“The National Economic Council shall have power to advise the President concerning the economic affairs of the Federation, and in particular on measures necessary for the co-ordination of the economic planning efforts or economic programmes of the various Governments of the Federation.”
The governors have not been happy that the Presidency has kept NEC meeting in abeyance for about three months.
According to sources, the governors had initially suspected that the delay in convening the meeting had to do with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) crisis, but they later discovered that it had to do with the state of the economy.
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