…And the Okonjo-Iweala-Soludo drama continues.
You will recall that former governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Charles Soludo gave a controversial response to an article written by by Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. In the article, he alleged that N30 trillion had been stolen under her watch.
And now, in a new response, titled I Stand by my Statements, he claims that not only did N30 trillion go missing, an additional N8.6 trillion is stolen from Nigeria every year.
Read his response below, as reported by Premium Times:
1. My attention has been drawn to
statements credited to the Hon. Minister of Finance and Coordinating
Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, in response to my
latest article and call for a structured debate on the issues. According
to the report, she no longer wants to join issues with me. In the
circumstance of the moment, I therefore withhold parts two and three of
my promised three-part response.
2. Let me also state for the avoidance
of doubt that I stand by every statement I made in the two articles viz:
(1) “Buhari Vs Jonathan: Beyond the Elections”; and (2) “Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala and the Missing Trillions”. In particular, I insist that
over N30 trillion has either been stolen or unaccounted for, or grossly
mismanaged over the last few years. This figure does not include the
estimated $40.9 billion (N8.6 trillion at parallel market exchange rate
or nearly two years’ Federal Government budget) which the African
Union’s (AU) recent report claims to be “stolen” from Nigeria each year.
3. I wish to thank Nigerians all over
the world who have been contributing to this timely debate. This is
election time and it is expected that some vested interests will either
choose to live in denial or attempt to politicise the issues. But from
the debate so far, I am convinced that our economic management won’t be
the same again. Once our managers know that the citizens will rigorously
and vigorously challenge them to account, the welfare of the citizens
will be better for it. Whoever wins has his job cut out for him, and to
the extent that this debate has challenged the respective teams to
seriously re-examine their blueprints to guarantee the security and
prosperity of every Nigerian, my objective is accomplished. I love my
country Nigeria, and as I said before, I won’t keep quiet again.
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