Hottestgistnaija.com
The National Bureau of Statistic published that Ogun State is highly indebted, the state sits in the 3rd position among other states of the federation which have gone on borrowing spree without solid and visible repayment plan
The present administration lack of good economy policy has shown that it is keen on leaving the state in bankruptcy for posterity to shoulder the baggage
The published accumulated debt is a bombshell that calls for a concern, the 300billion loan is a true but sad picture of outlandish and overwhelming public debt
The people must ask questions about the astonishing and sickening borrowing which the Government has claimed was done on their behalves, to provide basic amenities and improve life, the true nature of the debt is covulated , shrouded and clouded in a labyrinthine maze which has deprived the citizens preamble or information on why such huge debt was taken to cater for them and why the borrowing did not have the people imprimatur, it is therefore a conventional way of putting the gateway people in a state of perennial poverty
Few months into President Buhari’s reign in office, the President had offered a bail out therapy to assist the States which were heavily burdened with debt and had gone on borrowing to pay salaries, the President intention was to reduce the burgeoning monthly bills of the state
The Governors had gone on borrowing spree to pay salaries which is a recurrent expenditure when the state was not sure of how to pay back
Economically , the fiscal policy forbids borrowing for recurrent expenditure.
The present economy hardship of Ogun state or insatiable thirst for borrowing is an accumulation of lack of resourcefulness , arid policies and lack of political will to think outside the box but rely heavily on the allocation which comes from the Federal Government
When people are in the dark, when there are no consultations, Government intentions are perceived to be laced with falsehood, the state debt portfolio is alarming and concerned citizens of the state must seek for understanding while the state is swimming in such debt and the Government is expected to tender or intimate the public on the re payment plans
Sadly there are basic amenities which show a government is not fragile or on the brink of collapse, it is believed that a system which is devoid of good security architecture will suffer to promote development, the huge amount of money has not reflected on security , as we have observed that the state is turning to an unsafe space with the current happenings in sagamu, one begins to wonder, does the huge debt reflect or correlate with the level of developments as observed at present,.. while I will not conclude without giving some commendations that the present Government has offered dividends of democracy to the best of their knowledge by opening some linking arteries in the state and building some infrastructures but I am hugely of the opinion that the present administration must explain to the people what he has done with the loan as it has conspicously shown that there is no correlation between the 300billion debt and the infrastructures across the state
What baffles me is Government reports and denial, when Senator Ibikunle Amosun left the office, his Commissioner for Finance, Adewale Oshinowo, debunked the claim by Governor Dapo Abiodun that he met an empty treasury in the state, he insisted that former Governor Ibikunle Amosun left behind N18.3 billion and he gave the breakdown of money left in the treasury as N5.735 billion was from the Federation Account (FAAC/JAAC), N2.483 billion from the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and N10.6 billion as refunds for Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE).
But Governor Abiodun had said that his administration inherited an empty treasury, which forced him to obtain a bank loan of N7 billion to pay workers’ salaries in May 2019, Who the lied to us as both camps have denied allegations of reckless spendings
The unfortunate precedence of denial and counter denial have put the people in obscurity, the is a large gap of ignorance and aloofness because many of us never asked when the debate was on rather we hid our ignorance under partisanship rather than our collective growth
As the state struggles with it’s public debt, it will retard the rate of development in the state and pose a threat to the welfarism of the people, it is as well obvious that the state will have little to spend on project or they either continue accumulating debt which will eventually put the state on the brink of bankruptcy with subsequent Governments struggling to proffer solutions
When the people keep quiet in the face of malfeasance or societal nepotism the overall effect will be enournous
Heaven will fall, every neck shall feel the pain irrespective of our political affiliation
