Governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State has declared that any
government that does not borrow money is not serious.
The governor, who took over from Godswill Akpabio, few months
back, stated this on Tuesday when he paid a courtesy visit to the Punch Place,
the corporate headquarters of Punch Nigeria Limited, Magboro, Ogun State.
The governor said debt profile of the state should not get
anyone worried because even developed countries like the United States had
incurred debts in the region of trillions of dollars.
Asked if it was true that his predecessor, Senator Godswill
Akpabio, left an empty treasury, he simply said, “What is the motive of holding
money? You don’t just hold money to go and keep it in the treasury. Money is
not supposed to be in the bank but to be used for something else. Any
government that doesn’t owe is not serious because even America today is
indebted to China to the tune of $1.3tn.
“If you pull out that amount of money from an economy do you
think they will survive? They cannot. So, why are we shying away from owing? We
should owe. As a state government I will not shy away from it but I will not
collect money to go and do something that will not generate money.
“If developed nations are borrowing to progress, why wouldn’t I
borrow? If you don’t owe, you cannot develop.”
When asked to explain how the state government spent the
billions of naira, which accrued to the state from the Excess Crude Account,
Emmanuel said the state government had spent a lot on federal infrastructure in
the state.
He said, “The money received from the Excess Crude Account was
N266bn and we put N145bn on federal assets. As of today, we have not got a
reimbursement of one naira. So, if you deduct that, you will understand things
better. And even though we are the largest producer of oil, since that state
was created, the Federal Government has never built one kilometre of road in my
state.
“There is no Federal Government presence in the whole state, not
even one. Even the federal university in my state, the internal roads and
infrastructure in it are done by the state government. The teaching hospital
owned by the Federal Government is equipped by the state government.
“Even the hostels were built by the state government. So, the
Federal Government presence in my state has been near zero. We even have a
federal approval for reimbursement of the funds but it has not come. The past
state government administration inherited a total decay of infrastructure but
today things are different,” he added.
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