The
Governor of Niger State, Alhaji Abubakar Bello, on Wednesday painted a gloomy
picture of his state’s economy, saying it had become impossible for him to pay
salaries.
Bello
spoke with State House correspondents shortly after meeting President Muhammadu
Buhari behind closed doors at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
“We
have laid the cards on the table; we are not hiding anything. We are very
transparent as much as we can but the truth of the matter is that I cannot give
what we don’t have. I wish I had; personally if I had, I would have paid
(salaries) from my pocket but I can’t,” the governor told reporters.
He
said his government had been borrowing from banks since January to augment
whatever came to the state in form of federal allocation. He said as of May
ending, his government was in debt to the tune of N3bn.
According
to Bello, if the trend continues till December, his state’s debt profile will
have risen to N10bn. He said his government decided to sit with labour leaders
and discuss the issue because it could not offer what it did not have.
While
saying it was not healthy to continue borrowing to pay salaries, the governor
said there were other pressing issues that needed his government’s attention
apart from salaries.
“I
think we should go back to the table. Of course, we can’t give what we don’t
have. We are facing difficult times now, so let us sit down and see what we can
do.
“I
really think it is unhealthy to keep on borrowing just to pay salaries. Apart
from that, we are not just there to pay salaries, there are a lot of issues.
“I
got a call this morning from one Girls’ Secondary School that their roof is off
in six out of seven dormitories. Where will they sleep? Now if I take the whole
revenue and pay salaries, how am I going to fix schools, hospitals?” the
governor wondered.
He
said the state has a population of over four million, while he put the civil
service strength at about 40,000.
Bello
explained that with N1.5bn from federation account, the state still had to
borrow to pay 40,000 people against over three million people that it needed to
cater for.
While
saying that nobody should be blamed for the sharp drop in oil price, the
governor said everybody should be ready to make sacrifices.
He
said, “I am willing to make sacrifices, all my appointees are willing to make
sacrifices.
“We
have shown example by cutting down our expenditure, we have cut down the
expenses of the Government House from N150m a week to between N20m and N25
million a week.
“So
we have cut down Government House expenditure by over 70 per cent and I mean
these are all sacrifices.”
The
governor disclosed that his government is currently probing the administration
of his predecessor, Babangida Aliyu.
He
said although some pension funds that were misappropriated in the past had been
recovered, investigation was still ongoing.
Although
he said he did not want to interfere with the investigation, Bello said the
team had met with the former governor.
Source: Punch
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