Wale Edun, Tinubu’s Likely Finance Minister, Grilled By Senate On Economy

Wale Edun, the ministerial nominee from Ogun State who was nominated by President Bola Tinubu on Tuesday said there’s the need for separate offices for the Accountant General of the Federation and the Accountant General for the Federal Government.

He made the submission on the floor of the Senate during his screening.

In responding to a question from the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, he said it’s necessary to have two offices for a sound financial management for the federal government to take care of the government’s share from the Federal Account Allocation Committee, FAAC, and a separate accountant for both the federal government and the federation.

Currently, the country has one accountant general who receives the central government’s share of FAAC and the entire revenues for the federation from where the central government gets its share.

This has often led to accusations of shortchange from states that the accountant general has often been on the side of the central government.

Arising from the question, Edun, who was Commissioner for Finance in Lagos State under the administration of Bola Tinubu agreed that, “There should be a separation between the accountant general of the federation and accountant general for the federal government.

“I did recommend to Bola Tinubu at the time I was commissioner for finance that there should be a separation but I will have to review if the situation exists to allow that,” he said.

He explained that the Lagos experience under the government he was part of can be replicated noting that there were essential steps the government of Tinubu embarked on to turn around the situation.

First, “There was commitment to technology, technology was unsparing for revenue generation,” he said, adding it was helped by “the cooperation in the civil service.”

He also said there was huge “investment by the private sector” as a result of the government commitment and policy at the time.

Edun also said Lagos puts itself in a position to take advantage of the financial market to have a sound economic system.

He pointed out that “Lagos capitalised on the capital market” to make things work.

The former commissioner lamented that in “1990 Nigeria GDP was higher than China’s. Today, China’s GDP stands at $13,000 but Nigeria’s GDP stands at $2000.

“Our growth was stopped by insecurity, inflation and wasteful government expenditure.”

He however expressed optimism that things are turning the corner with the coming of Tinubu.

He also justified the essence of borrowing that, “Owing is not a bad thing as long as you have the revenue to service.”

He assured that, “We are in a strong position to go forward as a result of removal of subsidy and multiple exchange windows.

“Commitment of Tinubu is for the most vulnerable to be protected through that period,” he added.