President Goodluck Jonathan has discredited claims by former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Charles Soludo that the Federal Government has failed to account for about N30 Trillion, stating that the allegations were politically motivated, expressing his bewilderment that Soludo could insinuate that the said sum was stolen when it had not even been generated, despite his academic qualifications.
President Jonathan made this known in the course of an interview with Thisday last week, remarking that the claims by his detractors that his administration was wantonly corrupt was totally unfounded and was unfortunately spread by notable figures like Soludo.
He said: “So you’ll see that there is a lot of politicking about some of the serious issues. Not too long ago I read in one of the papers, I think Vanguard, that former chief economic adviser to President Obasanjo who also went to become a CBN governor… Soludo is a professor and first class material. Yes, making a first class in economics, he is a brilliant person. His secondary school records are fantastic. So by all standards he is a brilliant person. So the Vanguard wrote that he accused Ngozi; that N30 trillion was stolen under the watch of Ngozi in four years.”
Mr. president continued: “Ngozi became a finance minister, let’s say from 2011 till date. From that time till now, our annual budget is between N4.3 trillion and N4.9 trillion. So even if you put all together, it is about 18 plus trillion naira, and not 30 trillion. The budget for these four years is less than N20 trillion, but Soludo said that under Ngozi’s watch they stole N30 trillion. This is in the papers, social media, stored in the clouds and will continue to be there. And when you type it in it will come out that during President Jonathan’s time they stole N30 trillion.”
