The National Economic Council decided last week through the Nigerian Governors Forum that it was going to approve the withdrawal of 1 Billion dollars from the excess crude account to fight the Boko Haram war in the North Eastern part of Nigeria. However, nobody, not even the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) and other civil society organizations believe for one second that this new tranche of money will be used for the purpose the Federal Government is trying to sell to us.

The approval of this sum which was announced by the Edo State Governor Mr Godwin Obaseki at the end of the National Economic Council meeting was premised on the fact that the governors needs to support the Federal government which they claimed has been committed to the fight against the extremist sect. A decision the Ekiti state Governor Ayo Fayose distanced himself from.

SERAP through its executive director Adetokunbo Mumuni said “Whatever is not properly appropriated for should not be considered. That is the only way we can maintain sanity in our public expenditure.

“The Presidency may want to say that security matters are fundamental. But we cannot continue to have all manner of expenditures on Boko Haram. That will be reckless to me.”

Other civil society organizations such as Campaign for Democracy, Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership shared the same view with SERAP as they all call for a concrete financial details of previous spending before embarking on a new one, this they believed will help in showing governments transparency in its financial spending on the Boko Haram crisis to prevent the mistake of the previous administration where funds where spent without detailed financial transparency.

The decision of the NGF to approve the withdrawal of this morning has also brought up suspicion as its coming at a time the Federal government less than two years ago through the Minister of Information Alhaji Lai Mohammed claimed that the Boko-Haram set has been “technically defeated”

That technicality is now being challenged by this 1 Billion dollars decision and the questions on the lips of these CSOs is why spending such a huge amount of money on a defeated group?

Editor