Uba says State’s debt burden alarming
By Emma Ogbuehi
Andy Uba, the Anambra governorship candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC), has tasked Charles Soludo, his All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) counterpart, to admit the huge debt profile of Anambra state. He said the state’s debt burden is alarming.
Uba further asked Soludo to stop feigning ignorance about the total debt liability of the state.
Uba threw the challenge through his campaign platform, the Senator Andy Uba Governorship Campaign Organisation, SAUGCO.
According to SAUGCO, Soludo, had while speaking on Channels TV programme, shocked the host and viewers when he could not put a figure to the state’s debt profile.
“The usually verbose Professor of Economics had been pointedly asked if he knew what the state’s debt overhang was, and how he intended to deal with it.
“Instead of offering a definitive answer, the APGA candidate embarked on a rigmarole, before stating that he would find out when he becomes governor.
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“Undeterred, the presenter pressed further, pointing out that statistics from the country’s Debt Management Office, DMO, indicated that Anambra owed N60 billion in domestic debt, and $116 million in external loans.
“However, the real shock emerged when the eminent Professor, renowned for his oratorical skills than sound macroeconomic solutions, said: ‘We are going to verify that. Borrowed from who, who are the creditors?’
“We see Soludo’s demurred stance on a very sensitive issue that affects the lives of the people as cheap politics and an attempt to cover up the sins of his pay masters to the detriment of the State.
“We are however happy that APGA’s antics are already known to the people who are waiting to finally send them packing on November 6.
“Ironically, data released by the DMO on December 31, 2020 indicated that Anambra’s domestic debt stood at N59,013 billion as at September 30, 2020, while the state’s external debt profile was $115,886 million as at June, 2020.
“In deed, it is shocking that a Professor Soludo who should have such information at the tip of his fingers, would elect to play politics with such information crucial to the lifeblood of the state, or was simply being mischievous,” Hon. Victor Afam Ogene, Director, Media and Publicity of the Senator Andy Uba Governorship Campaign Organisation, SAUGCO said in a statement.
The statement added that whichever is the case, Professor Soludo owes Ndi Anambra the patriotic duty of researching into what really is the debt liability of our dear state, Anambra.
It added; “In fact, for a man who was two years ago, in November 2019, given the task of fashioning out the grandiose 50-year Anambra 2070 Vision Agenda not to be seized of important data such as the profit and loss account of the state, speaks eloquently about his capacity for accomplishing small, practical assignments.
“As an irreducible minimum, the Senator Andy Uba Governorship Campaign Organisation, SAUGCO, requests Professor Soludo to undertake the urgent task of finding out the exact and total debt liability of Anambra state – for, in accomplishing this task, Professor Soludo would have rendered an invaluable service to a people he so eagerly crave to govern”.
