President Muhammadu Buhari has disclosed that his government had as at January this year succeeded in mopping up over N2.2 trillion through the Treasury Single Account (TSA) arrangement.
President Buhari spoke in London while addressing members of the Nigerian community in the United Kingdom, admitted that though the TSA was introduced by the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan, but that it did not implement it for reasons best known to its officials.
He said that his government decided to implement the arrangement when he came on board and discovered that the country was broke.
“You know the condition we are in now. I am sure with demands from home, in spite of what your effort is, you know we are really in trouble.
“We have tried to impose what we call Treasury Single Account. The reason is simple. This government did not initiate it. It was initiated by the previous government. But it was so unpopular to the bureaucracy, so the previous government for its own reasons, could not impose it.
“But when we came and we found out that we were broke, we said this is the way to do it.
“I will tell you two examples to convince you. Firstly, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation had more than 45 accounts. Ministry of Defence had more than 70 accounts. Tell me which Accountant-General can trace all these accounts?
“So, we imposed TSA. By the end of December, coming to January 2016, we mopped up more than N2.2 trillion which would have been used through bureaucratic system to raise vouchers and sign cheques so that they don’t go into the next budget.”
The President said Nigeria owed the United States and Britain a lot of appreciation for stopping the former administration from rigging the last presidential election.
He recalled that ahead of the elections, the former National Security Adviser (NSA), retired Colonel Sambo Dasuki , directed the service chiefs and the then Inspector-General of Police to tell officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that they could not guarantee their safety during the polls.
He said the then Chairman of INEC, Professor Attahiru Jega, however, gave a comprehensive report at a meeting of the National Council of State, where he said he would be able to deliver, at least, 60 per cent free and fair election.
The President said that as of that time, the country had never gone beyond 45 per cent, adding that it took the intervention of US Secretary of State, John Kerry, for the last administration to conduct credible election.
“Then we insisted that election must be done according to the constitution. At this point again, I must hasten to thank the United States for sending the Secretary of State, Kerry, to go and read the riot act to the previous government and speak to Prof. Jega, the Chairman of INEC and speak to us as opposition that the US would not tolerate any election outside the Nigerian constitution.
“They maintained the pressure from that date until after the election and the formation of the new government. I think Nigerians honestly should thank the US for this. The same thing with Britain, they used all their experience and their powers to make sure that the Federal Government did not rig the last election.
“We thank God, we thank these super powers and we thank technology. Why we thank technology is because of the permanent voter cards and the card readers.” [myad]
Advertisement
