.Edo govt is solvent, on course to more prosperity, says APC
By Valentine Amanze
The Edo State chapter of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has raised the alarm that since assumption of office in 2008, the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led government in the state has been careless, irresponsible and unaccountable in the utilization of state funds and resources.
Through its spokesman in the state, Chris Osa Nehikhare, PDP also alleged that APC had led Edo State into a bottomless pit of debt.
But the APC said that it was not true.
The state governor’s Special Adviser, Media and Communication Strategy, Mr. Crusoe Osagie, responded that the Edo State PDP has demonstrated its ignorance of public finance by what is fast becoming its culture of misrepresenting facts and taking issues out of context.
While buttressing its point, PDP stated that the Debt Management Office (DMO) recently released figures that showed that Edo State is the third highest debtor state in Nigeria, which it said that the PDP refuted, stressing, “We refuted that assertion because figures available to us say Edo State is second only to Lagos State.
“However, we have written to DMO to review its figures so that Edo people are properly informed.”
PDP further alerted on what it called the debt to revenue ratio in the state, which it said gives an indication of the capacity of the debtor to service and repay the debt.
“According to the guidelines of the Debt Management Office on debt sustainability, the debt status of states should not exceed 50 per cent of the statutory revenue in the previous 12 months.
“The Fiscal Responsibility Commission 2016 Annual Report released yesterday March 19, 2018, in Abuja, stated: In the light of the DMO’s guidelines on the Debt Management Framework, specifically, sections 222 to 273 of the Investment and Securities Act, 2007 pertaining to debt sustainability, the debt status of Edo State exceeds 270 per cent of its annual revenues,” it stated.
PDP therefore alleged that the former governor, Adams Oshiomhole, and the then Chairman of his Economic team and now Governor, Governor Godwin Obaseki, have left Edo State poorer than they met it in 2008.
“I make bold to say that Adams Oshiomhole and Governor Godwin Obaseki are far richer than they were at the time they assumed office,” it said.
On the sell of water pipes in the state by the past PDP government in the state, it stated that it was untrue, alleging that Governor Obaseki and ex Governor Oshiomhole colluded and sold off all the assets of the state Water Board to themselves.
“All the pipes, over 15,000 pipes, water pumps, machines and generating sets purchased for the purpose of the water infrastructure development in the state were sold off and the state water board left comatose.
“I will ignore the insinuation made regarding Edo Line as Edo people know better. But what was most disturbing and deserves immediate action is the revelation that these are besides several other such borrowings, which officials of the PDP government took privately and converted to state liability. The state government is still paying all these debts.”
Edo PDP stated that the Edo people want the names of the government officials or official involved in this scam named and the amount borrowed, the financial institutions involved and date the facility was approved, and how much the state government has repaid.
But Osagie noted that the latest debt to revenue figures released by the Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) in its 2016 Report listed the states, including Edo, Cross River, Osun and Lagos that have exceeded the 50 per cent debt to income guideline of the Debt Management Office.
He explained that the Debt to revenue ratio of the Debt Management Office was an advisory, stressing that the state government was aware of its implications.
Osagie said, “What the Edo State PDP needs to know is that Governor Godwin Obaseki is a finance expert of international repute and is applying all the state’s resources frugally in critical areas that are raising the economic profile of the state.
“After revealing the role the Edo State Peoples Democratic Party played in raising the debt figures of Edo State, while the party was in power in the state, the party has admitted that its administration obtained loans to procure water pipes and generators for Edo Water Board, that were never installed.”
He assured that Governor Obaseki would not spend credit facilities sourced locally or internationally on out-of-use generators and water pipes, stressing, “We will not use Edo State money to fund the ‘dredging’ of Ikpoba River, only to abandon it after ‘breaking the breakable plate of mammy water’, as claimed by the Edo PDP in their time. That is the height of fiscal irresponsibility!”
He said that the Edo people appreciate the mess that the APC government has been clearing which include the infamous Edo Line loan that grew to N1.5 billion as at the time the governor shut down the company and redeployed the staff to the state ministry, the heart breaking debt incurred by the Edo PDP through Bendel Breweries and other failed ventures.