By Sunday Etuka
The Federal Government said Wednesday that President Goodluck Jonathan did not squander the nation’s foreign reserves and excess crude funds as alleged in some quarters.
A statement issued yesterday by the Federal Ministry of Finance said it was absolutely untrue that the Jonathan has squandered the nation’s reserves, adding that the facts are clear and indisputable.
According to the ministry, from verifiable facts, it was clear that Nigeria’s reserves were not squandered but used appropriately in the course of normal transactions required for the development of the Nigerian economy.
The ministry attributed the allegations that the Jonathan administration has frittered away the reserves and the excess crude account to opposition party members and former President Olusegun Obasanjo, among other critics, informed largely by the fall in the prices of oil.
The statement noted that, “At the end of May 2007, Nigeria’s gross reserves stood at $43.13 billion – comprising the CBN’s external reserves of $31.5 billion, $9.43 billion in the Excess Crude Account, and $2.18 billion in Federal Government’s savings. These figures can be independently verified from the CBN’s records. The figure of $67 billion cited in some recent commentary is therefore factually incorrect.”
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