Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, has countered claims by President Bola Tinubu that the Federal Government granted N570 billion to the 36 states of the Federation.
Makinde spoke in a newsletter he published on the Oyo State official website on Thursday.
The governor, who said reports that the Federal Government gave the states N570 billion is not completely accurate, added that the funds disbursed were not a direct allocation from the Federal Government.
He explained that the money received by the states were actually World Bank COVID-19 funds, with the Federal Government acting only as an intermediary between the international creditor and the 36 states.
Makinde added that the funding was contingent on what the states had already spent on COVID-19 programs, meaning the World Bank was simply reimbursing what the states had used to address the pandemic crisis.
The Oyo governor said: “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.
“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.”
Recall that while addressing Nigerians in a broadcast over the #EndBadGovernance nationwide protests against hunger and hardship, Tinubu had said his administration had disbursed N570 billion to the 36 states.
Tinubu stated that more than N570 billion has been released to the 36 states to expand livelihood support to citizens, while 600,000 nano-businesses have benefitted from nano-grants.
The President further said that an additional 400,000 more nano-businesses were expected to benefit.
