The governor, in an publication, reviewing the nation’s economy in the last four years, had alleged that Okonjo-Iweala ran the ECA as if she was running a one-man show.
Oshiomhole had noted that the minister’s recent outcry that oil marketers were falsifying subsidy claims might have been done out of fear of the incoming administration of President-Elect, Muhammadu Buhari.
He said, “As the country transits from one democratic dispensation to another, there is no gainsaying that the state of the nation’s economy is the focal point, especially with the unending fuel scarcity, which is gradually grinding the nation to a halt.
“No doubt, the best person to explain the state of the economy today is Okonjo-Iweala, the Honourable Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, whose management of the nation’s resources in these past four years has elicited different reactions from Nigerians.
“Recently, Okonjo-Iweala has been all over the place, pointing at the wrong directions and blaming everybody but herself for the parlous state of the Nigerian economy.”
But the minister, in a statement by her Special Adviser, Communications, Mr Paul Nwabuikwu, said she was only being attacked for daring to publish the allocations made under the ECA to the governors.
The statement reads in part, “Obviously, for daring to publish how the ECA was shared and showing that governors, who cannot pay salaries, have no excuses, Okonjo-Iweala is being targeted.
“It is noteworthy that several of their colleagues have been able to manage their finances reasonably well under these same difficult circumstances.
“The release of the ECA details has also demonstrated very clearly that there is no substance in the wild allegations that any money is missing from the account or that finances of the country under Okonjo-Iweala watch have not been well managed.
“Like previous baseless allegations by some governors, the motive behind Oshiomhole’s attack is clear: to deflect public attention away from the manner in which they have run the finances of their states and make Okonjo-Iweala the scapegoat. If it was meant to intimidate the minister, it has failed abysmally.
“How can Governor Oshiomhole claim that state governors were not properly briefed on the status of the ECA when his commissioner of finance attends all the FAAC meetings, where decisions were taken and communicated to the nation?
“Oshiomhole’s allegation that Okonjo-Iweala has not been transparent is ridiculous and totally lacking in merit.”
-Punch