The Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF), Rotimi Amaechi , on Thursday faulted the Presidency’s frequent cancellation of the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting without valid reasons.
That was part of the resolutions of the meeting which started on Wednesday and ended in the early hours of Thursday at the Rivers State Governor’s Lodge in Abuja.
The governors said that cancellation of such meetings, which would allow issues of urgent and utmost national importance to be discussed, is embarrassing to state governors.
As the NEC meeting was earlier scheduled to hold on Thursday, the governors moved to Abuja to plot strategies and their positions to be presented to NEC only to be informed that the meeting has been postponed.
They also pointed out that they were not able to contribute their input to the 2014 budget before the National Assembly due to the frequent cancellation of the meeting.
Reading the communiqué, Amaechi said: “It has become embarrassing that governors are invited to Abuja for NEC meetings only to be told of their cancellation after their arrival without any tangible reason, yet there are issues of urgent and utmost national importance that ought to have been addressed at such meetings.
“Consequently, we have a 2014 national budget without input from the states resulting in a lack of sense of ownership of the budget process.”
The forum also reiterated its stance on the allegedly missing $48.9 billion from the account of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) even as the governor of the Central Bank of NIgeria (CBN), Sanusi Lamido Sanusi who initially raised the allegation has since recanted.
“In furtherance of the issues raised above, the forum reiterates that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and the Ministry of Finance should brief the governors formally on the non-remittance of $49.8bn into the Federation Account.”
“In the absence of NEC meetings, the platform for resolving these issues becomes non-existent,” he added.