The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, said yesterday the nation’s economy was doing well under President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration than previous governments.

She also explained the depletion of Excess Crude Account, ECA, saying it had not been funded for sometime.

Mrs. Ahmed stated this after the Federal Executive Council, FEC, meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, yesterday.

Asked the current status of the economy, she said: “Thank you for that question. First of all, let me address a question on the issue of the economy, as to whether the administration has done well. The administration has done very well.

“I need to remind us all here that in 2015, the administration came on and met a crisis in the oil and gas sector; we had the first slump in crude oil prices and a very significant slump in crude oil production.

“There was a time the volumes went as low as one million barrels per day. We were able to take measures to reflate the economy and exit recession within three quarters. By the fourth quarter, we were out of recession.

“Secondly, we had a second recession due to COVID-19. That was even a shorter recession and we have seen now up to five quarters of positive growth. So, the economy has been growing, despite very, very difficult circumstances.

“The other thing I need to remind us is that this administration has been able to realize the lowest oil and gas revenue, compared to all previous administrations, but it has also been able to do much more in terms of deployment of infrastructure. So, the administration has done well.”

On the Excess Crude Account, the minister recalled that the sum of $1 billion was withdrawn from it for the procurement of arms, in consultation with state governors.

“On the issue of the Excess Crude Account, in the past four years, because of volatility in the oil market, we have not had accrual to the account.

“So, what we have had, has been gradually used up for different purposes and it is always used in consultation with the National Economic Council, NEC, that is the governors, because this is a federation account.

“The last approval that was given by the council was the withdrawal of $1billion to enhance security. We have been utilizing that. The last tranch of that has been finally released because deployment to security agencies are based on the contracts executed and its been used strictly for that security purpose. So, the utilization of the account is with the full knowledge of the governors.”

On the council’s approval of the Medium Term Expenditure Franework,, MTEF, the Minister said: “The assumptions that we made for the next medium term framework from 2023 to 2025 is that crude oil price will be at $70 bpd for 2023, $66 pbd for 2024 and $62 bpd for 2025.

“Crude oil production is projected to be 1.69million bpd for 2023 and 1.813million bpd for both 2024 as well as 2025. We have also projected that the nominal GDP, that the size of Nigeria economy will rise to N225.5trillion, with 95% of this contribution by the non-oil sector, while the oil sector will be contributing only 5%. And some steady increase from 2024, 2025 to reach up to N280.70trillion in 2025.

“This means that Nigeria continues to retain its position as the largest economy in Africa.”

Speakers of the Northern State Assemblies controlled by the All Progressives Congress (APC) have described the combination of the ruling party’s presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and his running mate, Kashim Shettima, as a winning formula for the APC.

The lawmakers vowed to work for their victory comes 2023, saying they would chart a progressive path for Nigeria in all ramifications.

This was made known in a statement signed by the SA Media and Publicity to the Speaker of Kaduna State House of Assembly, Rt. Honourable Yusuf Ibrahim Zailani, Ibrahim Dahiru Dan-Fulani.

According to him, the speakers unanimously decided to work for the party to ensure that their candidates becomes the next president of the country.

“As chairman of the Northern States Speakers Forum, I am informing the general public that Speakers under the platform of our great party have resolved to support our Presidential Candidate and his running mate to emerge victorious at next year’s general elections,” he said.

Zailani therefore, called on all party faithful as well as patriotic Nigerians across party, religious and ethnic divides to embrace Tinubu and Shettima.

Senators of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have given President Muhammadu Buhari a six-week ultimatum to address insecurity or face impeachment proceedings.

Philip Aduda, minority leader of the senate, spoke with reporters after the opposition lawmakers walked out of the red chamber during plenary on Wednesday.

Senate President Ahmad Lawan had earlier prevented Aduda from discussing the rising insecurity and ultimatum to Buhari, hence the walkout.

Aduda was ruled out of order by Lawan when he tried to move a motion on the matter.

“We agreed at the closed session that we should discuss the issue of insecurity in the country but the president of the senate frustrated our efforts to discuss it at plenary,” he said.

“We noted at the closed session as the minority caucus in the senate, that the many resolutions passed on insecurity should be implemented.

“At the closed session we agreed that we must give the president an ultimatum, that if he failed to comply with our resolutions on how to tackle insecurity within six weeks, we would move impeachment proceedings against him.

“We expected the senate president to brief the public on what we discussed at the closed session but he did not.

“He also ruled out our point of order to discuss it.”

Workers in Benue State on Tuesday joined their counterparts across the country in solidarity protest of the strike embarked on by the Academic Staff Union of Universities.

This is as public institutions in the capital city, aside from primary and post-primary schools, shut their doors for business activities.

The workers under the aegis of Nigeria Labour Congress had as early as 7:30 am thronged the major streets of Makurdi, Benue State capital, in peaceful protest.

The workers took off from the State Secretariat along Otukpo road chanting solidarity songs and terminated the procession at the Government House, Makurdi.

The State Chairman of Nigeria Labour Congress, Godwin Anya in his speech said that the two-day protest was part of activities lined up to compel the Federal Government to meet the agreement it entered into with ASUU.

Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, who received the protesting workers at the gate of the government house called on the federal government to honour its agreement with ASUU.

Ortom, who was represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Professor Tony Ijohor SAN, regretted the nonchalant attitude of the federal government towards the future of Nigerian children.

He said, “I wish to commend the NLC for embarking on the solidarity protest. For over five months, our children have been home, and since the federal government is not doing anything about it, Benue State Government is fully in support of your action, and we will communicate to Federal Government.

“As far as we are concerned, this strike is uncalled for; it is too much. You entered into an agreement with somebody, go and honor the agreement. If they (FG) have an issue, please discuss it with them.

“We can’t have a situation whereby we lock up our universities for going to six months now. This is unacceptable.

“Let me call the Federal government that this issue of ‘no work, no pay’ should be revisited. It doesn’t make sense. This ASUU strike is not about the salary. They have so many issues. So go and address the issues.

“We are different from the federal government because despite our state varsity being on a sympathy strike, we are still paying them. Let FG borrow from Benue State. You can not just stop their salary.”

The Kaduna State chapter of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, has called for the disqualification of the presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and the All Progressives Congress, APC, Bola Tinubu and Atiku Abubakar ahead of the 2023 election.

The Kaduna State Chairman of the NNPP, Sani Litti urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to disqualify TInubu and Atiku on the grounds of alleged financial crimes during their respective presidential primaries.

Speaking on Monday, Litti called for the arrest of Tinubu and Atiku by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Department of State Services (DSS).

According to him, “We call on INEC to disqualify Atiku Abubakar and Bola Ahmed Tinubu from contesting the presidential election in 2023 and also for the EFCC, the Police, and DSS to arrest them and all other actors who participated in the convention.

“We believe that should any one of these two wins the election next year, the country will slide into deeper corruption and financial crimes because the process which produced them is rooted in corruption.”