Former minister of finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo Iweala has stated that yesterday scavengers are today’s saints reacting to the present administration.
According to Ngozi Okonjo, “Rotimi Amaechi as Chairman of Nigeria governors Forum took Jonathan government to court for trying to save for raining season including Fashola and most APC members, today they are the ones shouting that the PDP did not save, hypocrites and liars”.
“We then established a stabilization mechanism and opened an account for the oil surplus, which posted up to $22 billion”.
“In 2008, when prices fell from 148 to $ 38 a barrel, no one has heard of Nigeria because the country was able to tap into this fund. And that, I am very proud [of]”.
“When I returned to the department in 2011, there remained only $4 billion on this account (because part of the money saved was used to fund the amnesty programme for Niger Delta Militants embarked upon by the Yar’adua government) while the price of oil was very high!”
“I tried again to put money aside. The PRESIDENT agreed, but the GOVERNORS did not accept”.
“I suffered a lot of attacks from them (and they took us to the court up to the supreme court) and now that the country would really need this account, these same people accuse me of not having saved! If Nigeria had been more careful, we would not be here today. It hurts me. We have the mechanism, we had the experience, but we were prevented to act”.
“Unfortunately, the same scavengers of yesterday are the saints of today”.
