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Seyi Makinde, the Oyo State Governor, has said contrary to President Bola Tinubu’s claim, the states did not receive such a grant from the Federal Government.
Tinubu had said in his national address that while addressing broadcast during the #EndBadGovernance nationwide protests his government had doled out a whopping N570 billion to Nigeria’s 36 states to expand livelihood support to citizens.
However, Makinde, who spoke in a newsletter he published on the Oyo State official website described the N570 billion claim as inaccurate.
According to him, the disbursed funds were not a direct allocation from the Federal Government.
He clarified that what the states received was reimbursement of expenses World Bank COVID-19 funds to reimburse the states for expenses incurred during the pandemic.
He added that the Federal Government only acted as an intermediary between the states and the international creditor.
“I responded to a question from a concerned citizen of Oyo State regarding the claim that the Federal Government ‘gave’ states over N570 billion as some kind of ‘hardship fund’ for citizens,” the governor said.
“Let me state categorically that this is yet another case of misrepresentation of facts. The said funds were part of the World Bank-assisted NG-CARES project—a Programme for Results intervention.
“The World Bank facilitated an intervention to help states in Nigeria with COVID-19 Recovery. CARES means COVID-19 Action Recovery Economic Stimulus.”
