Paris Club Funds: Buhari Orders CBN to Reimburse States

President Muhammadu Buhari Thursday made a dramatic appearance at the Monthly National Economic Council meeting usually Chaired by the Vice President and directed the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun and the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, to act appropriately and with dispatch in releasing the second tranche of the London-Paris Club refunds to the states in order to ease their financial hardships.

The appearance of Mr. President to address the meeting of the National Economic Council made up of State Governors and chaired by the Vice-President was the first in history.

The President at the meeting made a strong case for settlement of unpaid salaries and pension liabilities of their workers.

“I will not rest until I address those issues that affect our people. One of these basic things is the issue of salaries. It is most important that workers are able to feed their families, pay rents and school fees, then other things can follow,” he said.

President Buhari, who went round the Council Chambers to greet the governors one after another, praised the unity of the Forum of State Governors.

He thanked them profusely for their display of “love and respect” to him.

The President said he was overwhelmed by his recent experience in which states, irrespective of political differences, charged their citizens to pray in mosques and churches for his well-being and apologized to Governors for barring them from visits to him while he rested in London.

“I didn’t want government to move to London. I wanted it to remain here and I am glad it did,” he said.

After narrating what he went through while on that vacation, President Buhari noted the suggestion by the Governors for him to have more rest, but insisted that he would remain relentless in the pursuit of the interest of the Nigerian people at all times.

This, according to him, was the only way to show his gratitude to the people who “had given so much to me. I was overwhelmed by the celebration of my return across the country.”

The Chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum, Abdul-Aziz Yari of Zamfara State, assured the President, on behalf of his colleagues, that they will continue to support his policies and actions which they had adjudged as being in the nation’s best interest.