By John Ikani
President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration has depleted the Excess Crude Account (ECA) to $376,655.09 from $35.377 million in May, this year.
The ECA was created in 2004 by former president Olusegun Obasanjo to track the country’s excess revenue from crude oil.
It is meant to be a savings cushion that stabilises government revenue and acts as a lifeline for the economy in difficult times.
June’s depletion means that in one month, the government withdrew $35,000,344.91 from the ECA.
On a macro scale, the Buhari-led regime has depleted the ECA from over $2 billion left by former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015 to $376,655.
The ECA balance which stood at $60 million in October 2021, and fell to $35.8 million in January, has nosedived further to $376,655, plunging the nation’s economy into regress.
A communiqué issued at the end of the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting for July 2022, held in Abuja yesterday disclosed this.
Although the communique did not provide an explanation for the sharp decrease in the ECA funds, the slump came as allocation to the federal, state and local governments increased by N121.624 billion as FAAC shared a total sum of N802.407 billion for June.
The sum of N680.783 billion was shared in the preceding month of May and N656, 602 in April.
However, the rise in June allocation was attributed to tremendous increases in Companies Income Tax (CIT) and Petroleum Profit Tax (PPT), although oil and gas royalties declined marginally.
The ECA’s pitiful status has fueled further criticism of President Buhari’s inability to manage the nation’s resources wisely.
This is even as states in Nigeria are in dire straits and desperately looking for means to pay salaries and cover budget expenses amid dwindling allocation from the federation account.
The revenue allocation to federal, state and local governments declined from a peak of N970.57bn in July 2021 to N680.783bn in May 2022, representing a 30 per cent reduction over the period.
