Since the sudden announcement by the National Economic Council (NEC) that Governors and federal government have agreed to deflect the Excess Crude Account (ECA) to the tune of $1bn for the fortification of the fight against insurgency in the North East, discordant voices have continued to vibrate.
Whereas many argued that it is very hard to reconcile the essence of pumping such amount into the fight at a time the federal government had long told Nigerians that Boko Haram had been degraded, the leaders of Niger Delta, the real source of the fund, say extra $1b for B’Haram discriminatory.
Already, some experts in anti-graft analysis say this is how the former administration led by the current opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), gradually got its hand burnt the abuse of $1.2bn meant for the same intractable insurgency of which the former National Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki is still in trouble till date.
However, because of the timing and lack of any clear stiff fighting build up suggesting that the fight is actually getting out hand and therefore in need of strong reinforcement in terms of funding, some pundits are beginning to suspect if the massive fund may be diverted for the 2019 general election which was to some extent what happened to Dasuki’s $1.2bn
According to Sani Maa’ji, a political analyst, “Some of us are still confused on the suddenness of the approval as the Nigerian Army field commanders had not been crying for funding in the last couple of months that can give credence to the approval”.
He therefore warned the federal government to be very careful not to fall into similar trap Jonathan administration ran into using Dasuki.
According to Maa’ji, the best bet for such approval would have been to add it to the funding of the still-birth 2017 budget so that more money will come into circulation and reverberate the ailing economy which has just exited recession because of rising oil prices and not due to government policies.
