Former President Goodluck Jonathan’s aide, Reno Omokri, claims that Jonathan left the country’s external reserve at $28.6 billion, disputing claims of insufficient finances.
The finances left by Jonathan, according to Rotimi Amaechi, minister of transportation, were insufficient to sustain the incoming government three weeks.
“As previous chairman of the governors’ forum, I was instructed by security at a meeting led by the former President and involving the former minister of finance that the government must leave money behind at all times in case Nigeria goes to war for six months,” Amaechi claimed.
“By the time we arrived, they hadn’t left us enough money to last us three weeks. And I was speaking as the chairman of the governors’ forum at the time.”
Savings account for only a small portion of reserves. At the monthly meeting of the federation account allocation committee (FAAC), the naira equivalent of oil receipts is consistently distrusted, while the FX is held in reserves to satisfy foreign obligations.
Forex reserves, CBN reserves, and excess crude account are the three types of reserves.
“A circumstance that has led him to be pouring lies on the Goodluck Jonathan administration,” Omokri said of Amaechi’s desperation to be the next All Progressives Congress (APC) vice-presidential candidate.
“This is exactly what Jonathan left behind on May 29, 2015,” he said on his Instagram page, “that Amaechi said could not sustain Nigeria for three weeks.”
“Foreign reserve of $28.6 billion, $2.2 billion in the Excess Crude Account, $5.6 billion Nigeria Liquified Natural Gas Limited dividends and over $1 billion investments via the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority.”
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Omokri also alleged that Amaechi had a slave mentality which he claimed makes him do anything to please those he described as his slave masters.
“Rotimi Amaechi is just a useless liar, who thinks he can get APC’s vice-presidential slot by attacking former President Jonathan. 2023 is near. The whole of Nigeria will soon see what Buhari will leave behind, apart from N40 trillion debt,” he added.
“Sadly, he has a perpetual problem with self-worth, and Nigerians are cautioned not to take him seriously.”
FOREIGN RESERVES STAND AT $40BN
Foreign (external) reserves also known as foreign exchange reserves are assets held on reserve by a monetary authority (CBN) in foreign currencies.
These reserves are used to back liabilities and influence monetary policies. They include foreign banknotes, deposits, bonds, treasury bills and other foreign government securities.
These assets serve many purposes but are most significantly held to ensure that a government or its agency has backup funds if their national currency rapidly devalues.
According to data from the CBN, Nigeria’s external reserves stood at $40.58 billion as of December 23, 2021.
Ojelabi, the publisher of Freelanews, is an award winning and professionally trained mass communicator and a recipient of the D9112 Superstar Icon Award, who writes ruthlessly about pop culture, religion, politics and entertainment.
