Okonjo-Iweala parries questions on Jonathan, Sanusi face-of

Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, on Friday, parried questions from State  House correspondents on the reported face-off between President Goodluck Jonathan and the Governor of 

the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Lamido Sanusi.

The controversy surrounding Sanusi’s planned exit had reportedly deepened with the governor insisting that he would not quit the post until his term expired on June 2, 2014.

The President had reportedly asked the CBN governor to resign immediately because of the alleged deliberate leakage of the letter that Sanusi wrote to him in which the governor accused the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation of not remitting $49.8bn crude oil revenue to the Federation Account.

Shortly after the presentation of a report of 15 years of United Kingdom partnership with Nigeria on debt management to Vice President Namadi Sambo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Friday, journalists had sought the government’s position and the implication of the face-off on the economy from Okonjo-Iweala.

 But the Coordinating Minister of the Economy refused to speak on the issue.

“We are here to talk about the debt management office. The economy is stable, it is going well and we have just started the new year and we have such big plans for the year,” she said.

When probed further on the issue, Okonjo-Iweala smiled and said, 

“We are here to talk about the wonderful thing that has happened in the Nigerian economy, which is that a partner is saying we have one of the best Debt Management Offices in Africa; that we should now be advising other countries even beyond Africa. I think we are here to talk about something different.”

The minister who was recently given 50 questions to answer on the nation’s economy by the House of Representatives described the questions as weighty.

She said she needed some time to tackle them.

“There is absolutely no situation (on the issue with the House of Representatives), you know I am taking exams. They have given me exams and I am sitting it and at some point we have to come out of the exam room. Some of the questions are very weighty and you know some of us need a bit of time to be able to tackle them,” she said.

Okonjo-Iweala faulted claims that the Federal Government is piling up debts, saying those who hold such views lack information.

On the contrary, she said the present administration had embarked on a policy of reducing the nation’s borrowing, particularly domestic borrowing which forms the major part of Nigeria’s debt.

She said, “External debt is only two per cent of what we owe and 98 per cent domestic debt. We want to reduce that so that the private sector can have a chance to borrow so that interest rate can come down.

“From 2011 till now, we have gone from about N852bn in borrowing down to N571bn. It is a very big reduction.

“So I beg to differ from those who say we are piling debt. We actually have very good strategy. In addition, for the first time ever, we actually retired N75bn in bond last year.

PUNCH