Nigeria’s High Debt Profile Worries Incoming Govs

Chuks Okocha in Abuja

Both re-elected and incoming governors have expressed concern over the country’s huge debt profile.

They also queried the World Bank, saying the multilateral institution ought to have raised the red flag over the over Nigeria’s rising debt profile.

The governors said these while reacting to a World Bank presentation at the induction seminar for incoming and re-elected governors.

A World Bank official in a presentation at the induction seminar had called on the governors to be weary and cautious of the country’s rising debt profile.

But the governors who spoke on the sidelines of the seminar said the best thing that ought to have been done was for the World Bank and other donor agencies to have raised the red flag on the rising debt.

Addressing newsmen, the re-elected governor of Bauchi State, Bala Mohammed, when asked to react to the caution by the World Bank on the country’s rising debt profile said: “Honestly, I wonder what the world bank is doing. Apart from giving us grants, assistance in SFTAS and of course loans, they should be able to raise a red flag. 

“They should be able to tell the managers of our economy that we cannot continue to borrow endlessly. Our debt service requirement is about 95 per cent of the revenue. And so the states are affected by this macro-economic reality.

“The oil proceeds are not being shared. And we’re here celebrating success, what success? We are going to go under unless we do something inward to really correct our own perception and our own approaches to the management of the economy of the country.

“It is a monolithic economy and yet even where we are getting money, we have taken so much up front. The Federation has to be looked at as a structure because states have to have a say in the management of the economy,” the Bauchi state governor said.

Also speaking, the Benue State Governor-elect, Rev. Fr. Hycent Alia, in response to why the World Bank did not warn Nigeria, said, “I guess, I’m not sure if they did or didn’t. But I’m sure as a responsible international financial organisation, they would have been able to put across to the managers of our economy, that things are getting beyond the thresholds.

“I would want to believe that such warnings have not been given. But again, whatever they do, whether they did or didn’t do, we owe ourselves the responsibility to know we don’t need the World Bank really to tell us that there is a red flag.

“If we appoint the right people, we should be able to come to a point where we know that all is not well.

“And I think as a people, even the ordinary man on the streets know we need to do something quickly to address this.” Rev Alia.

The incoming governor of Plateau State, Caleb Mutfwang, when asked how he would tackle the high debt profile said, “This is both a national and sub national issue. We will be collaborating with the federal government, as members of the National Economic Council to come up with the right policies that we’ll be able to reverse our debt situation.

“And of course, reversing debt is not rocket science, you have to create wealth, you have to add more money to be able to pay your debts. So we must look at ways and means of creating wealth as a nation.”

Katsina State, Governor-elect, Dikko Umar Radda, said the main issue before him on assumption would be to handle the security challenge in the state.

According to the Katsina governor-elect, “we have a very serious security issue, which we need a lot of resources to confront. And then I think the most important thing that we need to do is to look at the whole financial situation of the state.

“We would look at the debt profile of the state and see how we can restructure it to allow us to meet all our obligations.”