Again, the Edo State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has demonstrated its ignorance of public finance by what is fast becoming its culture of misrepresenting facts and taking issues out of context.
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.
The Debt to revenue ratio of the Debt Management Office is an advisory and we are aware of its implications.
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 their administration obtained loans to procure water pipes and generators for Edo Water Board, that were never installed.
But Governor Obaseki will not spend credit facilities sourced locally or internationally on out-of-use generators and water pipes. 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!
The Edo PDP asked us to name their members that converted private loans to government debt, but our advice to them is that they need no outsider to show them their corrupt relatives.
They know their members who have been convicted, those who have been charged for various offences bordering on fraud and those who till today still visit the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) from time to time.
Edo people appreciate the mess that the APC government has been clearing which include the infamous Edo Line loan that grew to N1.5billion 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.
However, what members of the Edo PDP do not know is that, today, with the number and quality roads that have been constructed by the APC-led government in Edo State, the number of public schools that have been constructed, the ambitious economic projects such as the Benin Industrial Park, Gelegele Seaport, the Edo-Azura power plant, the planned modular refinery in the state, we are the toast of investors and we are well on our way to prosperity. When these and other projects come on stream, our rating in terms of assets will soar and cancel out whatever debt we incurred to build the new Edo State that all our people have yearned for over the years.
Crusoe Osagie
Special Adviser, Media and Communication Strategy, Edo State Government.
