Nigeria’s opposition has rejected a plan to spend a billion dollars of oil money to fight the Boko Haram insurgency in the country’s volatile northeast.
Last week, the governor of the southern state of Edo, Godwin Obaseki, told reporters the federal government had been given the nod to withdraw the cash from the country’s Excess Crude Account (ECA).
The account is a buffer drawn from crude oil revenues, jointly owned by the federal government, 36 states and local governments.
Nigeria, Africa’s largest crude producer, exports around two million barrels per day and depends on the sector for 70 percent of government revenue and 90 percent of foreign exchange earnings.
“We are pleased with the federal government achievements in the insurgency war and in that vein, state governors have approved that the sum of $1 billion be taken from the excess crude account by the federal government to fight the insurgency war to its conclusion,” Obaseki said.
Such a sum would nearly halve the $2.
Row over oil money to fight Boko Haram in Nigeria
