The National Economic Council (NEC) on Thursday commended the Federal Government on its decision to arrest and prosecute all the oil marketers who were wrongly paid subsidy money.
Briefing State House correspondents on the outcome of the NEC meeting, the Anambra state governor, Peter Obi said from the report made available to the Council some of the oil company have started refunding the subsidy money they had fraudulently collected and that those who have criticised the administration should now know that what the government was crying about was not in vain.
“The Council commend the Federal Government on its present stand of prosecution of those who were wrongly paid subside money and on the need for them to return same fully,” Mr Obi said.
“The Council also supports the Federal Government on its commitment to privatization on power sector,” he added.
According to him, the Council maintained that the petroleum sector needs to be cleaned up.
Vice President Namadi Sambo, who presided over the NEC meeting, which deliberated on good governance, the 370,000 jobs promised Nigerian youths, urged state governors to key into the vision of the current administration and to ensure that jobs are made available to Nigerians in their respective states.
Another issue which drew the attention of the Council was the need to organise a nonpartisan good governance publicity tour to showcase federal and state projects across the six geo political zones of the country.
The Council recommended that the tour should be organised by the Minister of Information.
Speaking on this issue, the governor of Akwa-Ibom State, Godswill Akpabio said the essence of the tour is to “highlight the good thing that is happening in democracy in Nigeria.
According to him, this tour “has nothing to do with the platform within which somebody was elected. So whether it is an ACN state or a PDP state or an ANPP state is immaterial. What is material is the fact that this tour is going to highlight those good things that are happening, the dividend of democracy that are being delivered to the people.”
The Council also deliberated on the soft loan the federal government is collecting to repay in 40 years. The loan will be used to fight erosion problems in the country. The Council insisted that so far, it is comfortable with the loans collected.
What may be important is what it is doing with such money, hence the need for good governance tour across the country.
