The African Democratic Congress (ADC), has berated President Bola Tinubu for his recent cancellation of legacy debts owed by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd.) to the Federation Account.
ADC, in a statement on Saturday posted on X handle by its National Publicly Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, described the action as unconstitutional.
TheFact Daily reports the debts also included those arising from production sharing contracts, domestic supply obligations, royalty receivables, and other legacy balances.
ADC, while quoting official documents presented to the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC), said the President approved the removal from the Federation Account books of approximately $1.42 billion (USD) and N5.57 trillion (NGN) in legacy NNPC debt following a reconciliation of records with the industry regulators. Adding that the directive covers outstanding liabilities accumulated up to 31 December 2024.
The party expressed concern that nearly 96 percent of the dollar denominated legacy obligations and 88 percent of the naira denominated legacy balances were written off by executive directive, without legislative or parliamentary approval or clear constitutional authority.
It noted that purported justification of “reconciliation” cannot lawfully override the constitutional requirements for revenue sharing. Explaining that the action effectively removes longstanding liabilities from public accounts, but at the cost of reducing the revenue base constitutionally distributable to States and Local Governments.
“It is important to emphasise that executive action cannot override the Constitution. Under Section 162 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), all revenues due to the Federation, including oil sector receipts and related obligations, must be paid into the Federation Account and shared among the Federal, State, and Local Governments.
“The Federation Account is not subject to executive discretion, no President, including this one, has the unilateral authority to cancel constitutionally due revenues, and any cancellation that reduces revenue due to the States and Local Governments without legislative authority is unconstitutional,” ADC said.
The party stressed that President Tinubu has repeatedly violated the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Saying that even more worrisome was what appears to be active collusion or wilful surrender by the National Assembly.
“Ordinarily, these egregious assaults on the Constitution should be sufficient grounds to commence impeachment proceedings.
“As a nation of laws, and not of men, no President can override what the Constitution protects. The Federation Account belongs to all tiers of government, and cannot be subject to the discretion of the Federal Executive or the President,” it concluded.
