Olusegun Obasanjo

There is heightened concern that former President Olusegun Obasanjo and his various Finance Ministers, particularly Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala may have deceived and misinformed Nigerians when they claimed that the country’s international debt was cancelled. Pointblanknews.com has obtained exclusive details that Local Governments painfully coughed out N43.65 Billion annually to service Nigeria’s foreign debts especially to the Paris Club.

Nigeria used to owe $33 Billion. Its International creditors agreed to write-off $18 Billion through an arrangement brokered by Okonjo-Iweala, the foremost apostle of Obasanjonomics. But considering the fact that Nigeria realized $222 Billion from Oil revenue in 8 years of Obasanjo's rule, finding enough resources to fund its outstanding debts should not have been a big hastle.

N4.7 Million was withdrawn from each of the 774 local governments in Nigeria.

The vexed issue of deducting N3.6 Billion monthly from Local Governments accounts led to a conflict of interest and loyalty between former President Obasanjo and the Revenue Mobilization and Fiscal Commission, Abuja, RMFC which consistently condemned the floored strategy.

Sources told Pointblanknews.com that the commission has already decided to convince President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua to consider the practice of making Local Governments to bear the burden of repaying Federal Government’s debt as unconstitutional. The chairman and members of the commission are expected to be in a crucial meeting with the President sometimes this weekend.

Another agendum which the commission may be considering for the attention of President Yar’Adua is the continued retention of the position of Accountant General of the Federation. The Commission wants the power and influence of the Accountant General whittled down. In its place, an arrangement is being proposed for officials that would represent all three tiers of Government.

Hitherto, the so called office of the Accountant General was used to run a militaristic unified command structure for allocating revenues to all tiers of Government. The practice under the military and because bulk money could be deducted from source through an amorphous body called Joint Allocation Committee, JAC, Obasanjo decided to maintain the statusquo ante.

Very reliable sources told Pointblanknews.com that besides what the Federal Government’s takes, the states pinch from the remnants before it gets to the local levelthereby stalling developmental projects at the grassroots.

In the hay days of Obasanjo’s administration investigations revealed that the former president was advised against pilfering money for Local Governments in the country. “He would not listen.” Rather, he threatened and indeed made moves to scrap the Revenue and Fiscal Commission, RFMC, for daring to tell him to uphold the constitution. It was gathered that the commission, took necessary legal action to stop Obasanjo from wiping it out.

An official of the Fiscal Commission preferring anonymity told pointblanknews.com that what Obsasnjo did was “simply to hoodwink and suck the air out of the Nigerian poor by robbing peter to pay Paul.” He explained that the Federal Government is taking money from the poor masses “that knew nothing about how Nigerian ruling elites negotiated and secured international loans to now pay in the hard way.”

The official noted that “most of the loans are either diverted or embezzled and where used, the projects were poorly used.”

Obasanjo was said to have spent $3 Billion for his quest for self perpetuation and search for his replacement, a successor that would perpetuate his legacy. He banked on Yar’Adua as a successor after his heart. Yar’Adua is signaling fundamental policy shift that is radically different from the Obasanjo’s heritage. Observers said that his zeal to uphold the rule of law may exactly be the point at which there would be parting of ways with Obasanjo.