Niger State Governor Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu has criticised the decision of the National Assembly to transfer funds in the Excess Crude Account (ECA) to the Sovereign Wealth Account (SWA).
Aliyu spoke yesterday in Minna, the state capital, while signing the budget into law.
He said it was not the business of the National Assembly to decide where the excess crude funds should be kept.
Aliyu said the Senate was ignorant of how the excess crude oil account operates.
He said the Constitution states that every kobo that goes into the Federation Account is to be divided in accordance with the revenue formula and the ECA is part of the Federation Account.
Aliyu said: “We should beware of this kind of skirmishes between the National Assembly and the governors. Many of them mistakenly think the excess crude oil fund is given to governors as a personal thing, which is not. It is actually our right.”
He said the business of the Senate is to pass the revenue formula into law, once it is assented to by the President.
Aliyu said the revenue formula, which gives the centre the larger part of the fund is not right.
He said the Governors’ Forum has decided to set up a committee to look into the revenue formula and suggest ways to improve on it.
The governor signed into law a N129.6 billion budget,s with N92.8 billion earmarked for capital expenditure and N36.8 billion for recurrent expenditure.
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Aliyu condemns transfer of excess crude oil funds