The thirty-six Governors under the aegis of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) will on Tuesday meet with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) over the security votes in their respective domains.
In a statement by the spokesman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Abdulrazaque Bello-Barkindo, others expected at the meeting are the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) and the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).
The meeting which will be held virtually is called to brainstorm some thorny issues surrounding security votes allocated to States and also to ensure full attendance by all the relevant officers in the matter.
Bello-Barkindo stated that the governors as well as the economic and financial agencies in the country will use the opportunity to iron out thorny issues surrounding their states’ security votes, towards establishing a better option for managing the funds.
“Furthermore, the meeting will also consider deepening the management and expansion of the cashless policy which took effect from the time of the redesigning of the national currency, the Nigerian Naira, last year, to further the financial inclusion of all citizens in the ensuing scheme of things, going forward,” the statement read.
“This meeting is called at the instance of the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit, NFIU, in its letter of 30th March, which was addressed to the Chairman of the NGF and signed by the NFIU Director, Modibbo Hamman Tukur.”
Apart from the facilities for national financial inclusion, the governors will propose uniform development and cooperation on the national addressing and postcode project, which will put Nigeria on the same pedestal as all advanced countries across the globe.
Also on the agenda is a consensus on harmonizing and updating the national tax collection and business entry standards and their requirements to help respond to the FATF and the EU greylisting in which Nigeria appeared.
All governors are advised to prioritise the meeting as its contents had been discussed at the NGF emergency meeting on Thursday 30th March, where it was unanimously agreed that a meeting with the agencies was imperative.
Recall that over the years, whatever Nigerians have heard about the real amount being appropriated to state governors in Nigeria as security has remained a guess work, just as even those in the corridors of power, have described security votes as a humongous amount of money that is spent by governors unaccounted for.
Wikipedia had noted that security votes have not been widely accepted by citizens, as most have claimed that such funds are being abused by the state governments, because how the funds are disbursed is not accountable to any agency.
According to Transparency International, Nigeria allocates an estimated N241.2 billion (about $670 million) to security votes annually.
The international governance and rights watchdog had decried Nigeria’s annual allocation to security votes, saying that it is more than the Nigerian Army’s annual budget, 70 percent more than the Nigerian Police Force annual budget, and far higher than the United States of America and United Kingdom’s security assistance to Nigeria.
Transparency International said that since 2012, the US has spent $68.6 million in security assistance to Nigeria, while the UK has given over $53.5 million (£40 million) in counterterrorism support to Nigeria from 2016 to 2020.
