Uche Rochas, one Nigerian businessman, claim sey Alex Otti, govnor of Abia state, collect loans wey all di govnors before am no collect inside one year Rochas tok sey Otti dey spend “N9m evri day ontop food from Abia state tax payers moni. Im don borrow pass Orji Kalu, Theo Orji, Okezie Ikpeazu put togeda in less dan 1yr inside office,” na so Rochas tok. Im dey build cheap roads but di Pharisees aka obidient movement no go see anything bad inside. Kalu na Naija politician and businessman wey serve as govnor of Abia from May 29, 1999 to May 29, 2007. Im be di senator wey dey represent Abia north senatorial district, while Orji serve as di state governor from 2007 to 2015 and di senator wey dey represent Abia central senatorial district from 2015 to 2023. Ikpeazu serve as govnor from May 2015 to May 2023 Rochas claim sey Otti dey spend N9 million evriday ontop food. Howeva, inside di 2024 approved budget, dem budget N595.12 million for refreshments and meals for di govnor office — bringing di daily expenditure to N1.63 million. To confam Rochas’ claim, TheCable first attempt to compare di first-year change for domestic and external debt profile during Orji and Ikpeazu tenure to Otti, but di informate no dey enough to make fair comparison. Di domestic debt records wey di Debt Management Office (DMO) gada bin start for 2011, therefore, di debt profile of govnors wey serve between 1999 and 2010 no dey inside....CONTINUE READING
DMO na agency wey govment establish to coordinate di management of Nigeria’s debt. Debt informate for Kalu two terms and Orji first tenure for office as govnor of Abia no dey inside. Howeva, available informate show sey Abia state domestic debt profile bin reach N142,470,717,702.46 as of June 2023, one month afta Otti enta office. Di record folo show as di state domestic debt reduce by N3.83 billion or 2.69 percent to N138,638,007,432.32 as of December 2023 — di first six months of Otti tenure. Also, external debt stock reduce by $3.27 million under Otti to $89,053,939.30 as of December 2023, from $92,328,683.83 as of June 2023. During Ikpeazu tenure, di state domestic debt stock bin rise for di first year by N8.49 billion (8.92 percent) from N95,212,687,526.87 as of December 2021, to N103,710,011,090.63 as of December 2022.
Although, external debt stock under Ikpeazu dropped by $6,853,150.31 from $101,132,954.37 to $94,279,804.06 during di same period.Also, DMO report sey di state domestic debt under Orji tanda at N31,736,723,709.99 as of December 2013, compared to N25,126,070,685.10 in December 2014 — showing reduction of N6.61 billion or 26.3 percent during im tenure. Howeva, during Orji administration, external debt stock bin rise by $388,691.41 from $34,180,112.33 as of December 2013, to $33,791,420.92 as of December 2014.
FINAL TOK
Based on di DMO informate wey dey, e clear sey di state debt don reduce since Otti enta office. Therefore, di claim wey tok sey Otti don borrow moni pass di previous govnors combined in less dan one year for office no correct. Also, di claim wey tok sey Otti dey spend N9 million evriday ontop food no correct based on di 2024 approved budget.
