Tony Osauzo, Benin
The ruling All Progressives Congress in Edo and the Peoples Democratic Party are locked in war of words over the state’s foreign debt profile.
The Debt Management Office (DMO) placed Edo as the third highest debtor to foreign creditors, among state governments in Nigeria, with a debt of $232.2 million as of December 2017.
The PDP said the debt profile indicates that the APC government has thrown the state and its citizens into perpetual indebtedness.
The party has also accused the state government of allegedly over-burdening the citizens with debts that “generations yet unborn will continue to settle and pay.”
State Chairman, Chief Dan Orbih said: “Our own information shows that we (Edo) are second (highest debtor). I think I need to reconcile what we have with the DMO so that it would see that, actually, Edo is number two. It shows clearly what we have been saying over the past nine years of the APC government. APC has thrown the state into a bottomless pit of debt that generations yet unborn will continue to settle and pay.”
He said that Edo did not have any business incurring huge debts if the resources available were judiciously utilized by the state government.
“The present governor played a leading role in incurring this debt for no just cause. It is clear that the mismanagement of state resources under the (Adams) Oshiomhole and (Godwin) Obaseki administrations has put us in this sorry state. I wish to remind you that Obaseki was the head of Oshiomhole’s economic team, a team that facilitated and negotiated most of the debts that have now plagued the state. It is sad that they have thrown us into this sorry state of indebtedness because the problem is not scarce resources but mismanagement of resources.
“From the time of Oshiomhole till date, the APC government takes an average of N500 million every month for undisclosed urgent security challenges. So, when they mismanaged our money they resort to borrowing,” Orbih alleged.
In a swift reaction, APC state Chairman, Anselm Ojezua, said the data released by the DMO also included debts incurred by previous administrations under the PDP, and added that the loans taken by the state government were directed at capital projects and other activities aimed at boosting the state’s economy.
He added: “All the debts that we will eventually incur will be those that can be used to boost the economy of our state and human resources, not to pay salaries and claims, as is the tradition of the PDP.”