Osinbajo Denies Violations In Approval Of N5.8b Emergency Fund
OFFICE OF THE VICE PRESIDENT
PRESS STATEMENT
NO VIOLATIONS IN APPROVAL OF N5.8B EMERGENCY FOOD INTERVENTION FUND FOR NORTH-EAST
Our attention has been drawn to a report of the House Committee on
Emergency and Disaster Preparedness issued on Thursday, November 8,
2018, particularly in respect of funds released for “emergency
intervention of food security to the North-East” in June 2017, when the
Vice President was Acting President.
In its report, the Committee alleged that a sum of N5,865,671,939.26
was approved and released in June 2017 vide a Memo raised from the
Office of the Acting President, directing the Honourable Minister of
Finance and the Accountant General of the Federation to so act. The
House Committee also concluded that the payment made was in
contravention of approval of the National Assembly. This conclusion is
both false and misleading.
To start with, it is important to understand the context of the
transaction. This was at a time when internally displaced persons and
their host communities faced very severe food shortages throughout the
North East, as a result of successive poor harvests and abandoned
farmlands, minimal cross-border cash crop trade and lost economic
opportunities.
On 15th April 2017, the United Nations World Food Programme (UN WFP),
a major aid organisation and food supplier to the region, had issued a
warning that it would be reducing its vital support to about 1.8 million
IDPs by as much as 85%, due to corresponding reduction in funding by
the donor countries. Around the same time, the United Nations Commission
for Refugees in Geneva also warned of the growing risk of mass deaths
from starvation among people living in the conflict areas.
The Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) moved urgently to prevent the
looming disaster by establishing a strategic food intervention plan for
the affected States. A Presidential Committee on Emergency Food
Delivery to the North East was convened and the Committee met on the
13th of May, 2017 to kick off the process, with the then Acting
President as Chairman. Other members of the Committee included:
(i) Minister of Finance;
(ii) Minister of Budget and National Planning;
(iii) Minister of State for Budget and National Planning;
(iv) Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development;
(v) Governor of Central Bank;
(vi) Deputy Chief of Staff to the President; and
(vii) Senior Special Assistant in the Office of the Chief of Staff to the President.
(i) Minister of Finance;
(ii) Minister of Budget and National Planning;
(iii) Minister of State for Budget and National Planning;
(iv) Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development;
(v) Governor of Central Bank;
(vi) Deputy Chief of Staff to the President; and
(vii) Senior Special Assistant in the Office of the Chief of Staff to the President.
Resulting from the deliberations of this and subsequent meetings, the
approval referred to in the House Committee’s Report was, in fact,
based on a request raised by the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria
as facilitator of the National Food Security Programme, vide a letter
dated May 25, 2017.
As explained in the said letter, there was an immediate need to
distribute grains, including rice, maize, soya beans and sorghum, to
Internally Displaced Persons through the National Emergency Management
Agency (NEMA). The only way to obtain the quantity of grains required
was to resort to the National Food Security Progamme (NFSP) earlier
established by the Federal Government as a means of shoring up its
strategic grain reserves.
It was in consequence of the Federal Government decision to urgently
purchase the stored grains for distribution to Internally Displaced
Persons that the CBN made the proposal for approval of 30,905.08 Metric
Tonnes at N5,229,685,333.26. Of that amount, the then Acting President
eventually approved N5,036,644,933.26, after excluding bagging costs.
This was pursuant to the recommendation that bagging, transportation and
other logistics were best handled by NEMA.
NEMA also originated a request to the Acting President, dated May 25,
2017, requesting the sum of N829,026,456.00 for general logistics,
branding & packaging, tracking, security, personnel, media &
publicity and contingency costs of taking the grains from their
respective locations in Kano, Kaduna, Funtua, Ibadan and Gombe to
Adamawa, Borno, Yobe, Bauchi, Gombe, Taraba and Jigawa States.
These presidential approvals were well within the clear
constitutional authority of the Acting President, who needed to take
emergency steps to forestall acute food shortages in the affected States
and there was nothing illegal or unconstitutional about them. The
approvals were duly communicated by the Deputy Chief of Staff to the
Governor of Central Bank, Director General of NEMA and the Minister of
Finance for implementation.
On account of the emergency nature of the procurement, the House
Committee’s assumption that the ordinary rules of procurement would
apply was wrong. Section 43 of the Public Procurement Act makes
provision for emergency procurement, in which case the procuring entity
is allowed to engage in direct contracting for goods and file a report
thereafter with the Bureau of Public Procurement.
It is also wrong to assume that taxes and interests accruable to
government from these transactions in food items were deliberately
ignored or waived by neglect. Of course, we expect that any loans
advanced to any of the companies would be recovered with the agreed
interests, and that any profits made by such companies would be liable
to tax in the usual manner.
The suggestion that the grains were never delivered to the target
States is also blatant falsehood. In actual fact, in order to ensure
effective distribution of the grains, an Emergency Food Intervention
Project Team was established, consisting of the Director General of NEMA
and representatives of the National Security Adviser, Chief of Defence
Staff, Chief of Army Staff, Chief of Naval Staff, Chief of Air Staff,
Department of State Security, Nigeria Police and the Presidency. The
Committee also worked with respective State Emergency Management
Agencies, as well as humanitarian agencies such as World Food Programme,
International Committee of the Red Cross, and the United Nations Office
for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Deliveries were publicly
made directly to the intended beneficiaries. In fact, the then Acting
President personally inspected the electronic truck-tracking unit
established in Maiduguri for the purpose of monitoring the
transportation, and flagged off the food distribution on the 8th of
June, 2017. Besides, there was the integration of a robust monitoring
and evaluation system into the operation in order to facilitate a
transparent and accountable process.
Therefore, all insinuations on this matter regarding purported
indictments and perceived violations of due process or the constitution
are baseless and totally false. Such interpretations are flawed and
should be utterly ignored.
Laolu Akande
Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the President
Office of the Vice President
Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the President
Office of the Vice President
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