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The Minister of State for Finance, Yabawa Lawani Wali, may have learnt early to tread cautiously where her predecessor, Remi Babalola, dared, as she appears determined to limit her official relationship with the media on critical issues.

Mr Babalola, before his reassignment last month to the Ministry of Special Duties in the wake of his controversial statement on the insolvency of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), had cultivated the habit of interacting extensively with reporters at the end of every meeting of the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC).

During such meetings, the former minister, who resigned from his new office last Thursday, usually fielded questions on all issues discussed during the closed door sessions, as well as provided factual details about resolutions that appeared controversial.

However, from the way she has handled the two FAAC meetings so far since she assumed office in August, Mrs Wali appears to loathe any opportunity that will bring her in close contact with journalists, apparently to avoid being asked questions on some sensitive issues capable of running her into ‘trouble’.

At the FAAC meeting for the month of August held in Abuja last Friday, the minister not only arrived more than one and half hours later than the scheduled 10am time, but also ordered journalists to clear the press gallery, before going straight into the meeting without the usual introductory remarks on the day’s agenda.

At the end of the meeting, which lasted about two hours, Mrs Wali, in the company of the Accountant General of the Federation (AGF), Ibrahim Dankwambo; Chairman of Commissioners’ forum, Usman Rebo, as well as other top officials, spent less than three minutes to brief reporters on deliberations and outcomes of the meeting.

The minister, who described the meeting as “very successful”, told reporters that “everything was well understood, and went down very well with everybody. The meeting deliberated about outstanding issues, and at the same time distributed the resources for this month.

“In summary, we distributed the statutory amount of N362.379 billion; VAT of N46.581 billion, making it a sub-total of N408.960 billion. We also shared the augmentation arrears from January to July, of N24.738 billion. There was no exchange gain. Therefore, the total distributed for this month was N433.698 billion. Thank you.”

Unwanted journalists

Just as the reporters were settling down for questions, the Information Officer to the minister, Abel Nakorji, who had earlier declared that his boss would not entertain more than “three good questions”, hastily called off the briefing.

A Finance Commissioner from one of the northern states, who attended the meeting, told NEXT in confidence that the issue of the controversial N450b illion NNPC debt to the Federation Account, which the journalists were anxious for an update on from the minister, was one of the issues that topped the agenda of deliberations. We gathered that the meeting also discussed a similar issue pertaining to the investment in the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) project.

Meanwhile, Mr Dankwambo explained that the distributable statutory revenue for the month increased by about N946million, or 26 per cent, when compared to the allocation for July, pointing out that the increment was attributed to the revised monthly approved budget revenue benchmark from N365.888 billion to N369.422 billion.

Last June, the FAAC created a new excess revenue account where monthly revenue in excess of the about N365.888 billion pegged as the ceiling for allocations for sharing among the three tiers of government and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, would be saved.