The Presidency on Sunday dismissed as false Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde’s claim that the Federal Government is withholding ₦250 billion in dividends from Nigeria LNG due to each state and will not release the money until after the 2027 elections.
Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, issued the rebuttal two days after Makinde, a declared 2027 presidential candidate, made the allegation at a stakeholders’ consultative engagement on Oyo State’s 2027 budget at an event in Ibadan.
“They fooled us. The Nigeria LNG paid dividends to the Federal Government, which went straight into the Federation Account, but they spent it,” the governor said on Friday. “Each state should receive more than N250 billion but Tinubu cornered it,” he added, noting that Oyo had already identified projects to invest its share.
Onanuga said the claim was “false and should be disregarded”. ₦250 billion for each of the 36 states amounts to ₦9.0 trillion, he said — excluding the Federal Government, the FCT and the 774 local councils.
Since states receive 26.72 per cent of distributable Federation Account revenue under the FAAC formula, total NLNG dividends would have to exceed ₦33.68 trillion, about $25 billion, in a single declaration. “NLNG has never paid $25 billion in dividends to the Federation Account in a single payout,” he said.
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The company has paid about $21.5 billion to the Federation over 25 years, with less than $3 billion realised since President Bola Tinubu took office, the statement said. Independent figures corroborate the lifetime number: NLNG’s Facts & Figures 2024 report shows the Federal Government received about $21.56 billion of the $44 billion the company disbursed since inception, through its 49 per cent stake held via NNPC Limited.
The statement accused Makinde of playing politics since launching his presidential bid, saying he had turned “false, unguarded statements and claims into an art form”, and recalled his earlier description of federal allocations to states as “voodoo”. It urged Nigerians to disregard claims that stoke “needless disaffection against the Federal authorities”.
Friday’s clash extends a running feud: Makinde has repeatedly questioned the real value of higher allocations amid naira devaluation, and the two camps have traded barbs over FAAC receipts before.
The governor declared for the presidency in May on the Allied Peoples Movement platform amid a PDP leadership crisis, though he remains a PDP governor.
Crediblenewsng.com
