Lack of will to save: Okonjo-Iweala must be prosecuted, says South East APC

Okonjo-Iweala

The All Progressives Congress (APC) in the Southeast wants former Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, prosecuted for her conspiracy in what the party termed squandering of the nation’s oil resources by the Jonathan administration.

Reacting yesterday to a statement by Okonjo-Iweala in the USA that the last administration lacked the political will to save for the rainy day, spokesman for the APC caucus in the geo-political zone ,Mr. Osita Okechukwu, said  the former minister’s open confession was an admission of her conspiracy in alleged  mismanagement of the oil windfall of the period.

The minister, however, denied yesterday that she indicted the former president.

She said it was the state governors and not Jonathan who made saving difficult.

“My understanding  is that ex-president Jonathan handed over the economy to our sister to manage because of her acclaimed international pedigree,” Okechukwu said.

 

 

Dismissing the claim that she was not the President and the buck didn’t stop at her desk, Okechukwu said “Ngozi could should have resigned, that’s the path of honour and rectitude. It is easy to sit in her comfort zone in the United States and plot an escape route from the economic adversity she unleashed on Nigerians.”

However,the former minister yesterday said it was actually the state governors that made saving difficult and not Dr.Jonathan.

She cited the Excess Crude Account (ECA) and the Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) which she said were vehemently  opposed by the governors for the purpose of saving for the future.

The ex-minister who spoke though her media aide, Paul Nwabuikwu, said: ”Contrary to the slant given by these loud headlines, Dr Okonjo-Iweala did not indict the Jonathan administration in which she served.

“Rather, she was referring to what many Nigerians already know: the strong opposition by some governors to the Jonathan government  efforts to save in the Excess Crude Account and the Sovereign Wealth Fund sabotaged this important national priority.

“The governors’ criticism of Dr Okonjo-Iweala’s many calls for the country to save for the rainy day are still fresh