By Emmanuel Nduka
Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari has superintended the draining of Nigeria’s Excess Crude Account (ECA) to $35.8 million from over $2 billion left by former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015.
This statistics were read out by Clem Agba, Nigeria’s Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, at the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting in Abuja.
“Nigeria’s Excess Crude Account (ECA) Balance As At 17th January 2022 stands At $35,868,086.40, Stabilization Account Balance As Of 17th January 2022 Stands At N30, 685, 611, 413.79, Development Of Natural Resources Account balance As At 17th January 2022 Stands At N42, 820,382,381.40,” the Minister disclosed.
As at October last year, the ECA balance stood at $60 million, but has further depleted to $35million, plunging the nation’s economy into regress.
The ECA was conceived in 2004 by former President Olusegun Obasanjo to document the nation’s excess revenue from crude oil.
Also, before Buhari’s assumption of office, the account balance stood at $3.6 billion in February 2014, one of the highest balances on record.
Thus, the paltry status of the ECA has again raised criticisms about Buhari’s incompetence to utilise the nation’s resources judiciously. His regime so far has been characterised by heavy borrowing, looting, insecurity, inflation, heavy hike in food prices and overall unrest.
Buhari was described by The Economist in 2021 as an inept leader whose fiscal policies had regressed the nation’s economy and whose fight against terrorism ends on the lips.
“Mr Buhari, who was elected in 2015, turned an oil shock into a recession by propping up the naira and barring many imports in the hope this would spur domestic production. Instead he sent annual food inflation soaring above 20%,” the London-based publication wrote.
In addition to depleting ECA, the Buhari regime has become notorious for borrowing heavily from countries like China, France, Japan, India and Germany. As at June 2021, Nigeria was owing a staggering sum of $4.26 billion to these five countries.
In 2015, the then Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala disclosed that the country earned $61.7 billion (about N12.3 trillion) as excess crude oil money between 2011 and 2015.
Okonjo-Iweala who is now the President of World Trade Organisation (WTO) said Nigeria earned about $18.14 billion in 2011; $18.16 billion in 2012; $15.19 billion in 2013; $8.01 billion in 2014, and $2.17 billion in 2015.
According to BudgiT, the ECA as at June 2007 stood at $9.43bn, rose to $20bn as at January 2009, and depleted drastically to $324m in October 2019.
