A former Vice President of the World Bank, Africa Region, Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili, yesterday remained adamant, saying the Federal Government should account for how it spent the $67billion reserves inherited from the former administration of ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo.
She also challenged the Federal Government to a debate on all the issues she raised.
She, however, added that she has nothing
to hide on how she managed funds allocated to the Federal Ministry of
Education during her 10-month tenure.
Ezekwesili, who made her position known
in a statement in Abuja last night, said she remains resolute in
demanding accountability on the management of the Foreign Reserves and
the Excess Crude Account.
She said: “I remain resolute in
demanding full disclosure and accountability by the Federal Government
on the issues of poor management of oil revenues- especially the Excess
Crude Account and the Foreign Reserve Account.
“The recent reaction by the spokesperson of the Administration failed to respond responsibly to my demand for accountability.
“In my Convocation Lecture at the
University of Nigeria , I had stated concerning the poor management of
oil revenues as follows:
“While these countries moved up the
manufacturing and economic development ladder in my 50 years of
existence, all I can say for Nigeria is that during the same period I
have known at least five cycles of commodity booms that offered us rare
opportunities to use revenues generated from oil to transform our
economy. Sadly, each cycle ended up sliding us farther down the
productivity ladder.”
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