Former Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Governor, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, said Wednesday, that he was standing by every statement he made in his two articles in which he alleged that N30 trillion was missing from the federation Account.
According to Soludo,the money has either been stolen, mismanaged or unaccounted for.
The erudite economist however said that he would hold back the other two part response he had promised to release to the public asince the Minister of Finance and Co-coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, was not ready to engage in a debate.
Soludo in his first article x-rayed the Nigerian economy against some claims to high performance on economy by the incumbent administration and disagreed sharply with most of their conclusions.
The response by Okonjo-Iweala through her media aide, Mr. Paul Nwabuikwu, only helped to fire Soludo to come out with the second article, which packed more venom than the first. The minister of finance could muster only a tepid response, when he said in a radio programme that he was not ready to join isues with the former CBN governor. She only said that all Soludo said were deliberate lies.
According to Soludo,“Let me also state, for the avoidance of doubt, that I stand by every statement I made in the two articles namely: ‘Buhari vs Jonathan: Beyond the Elections”; and “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.
“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.
“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. Once more, Nigeria must survive and prosper beyond Buhari or Jonathan.”
