…CLOs kick, say it calls for worries
John Ovie
There are concerns in Bayelsa state following the rising domestic debt profile of the oil rich state.
Information within our reach shows that Bayelsa is currently indebted to the tune of N169 billion
State governments borrow funds from domestic and foreign scene in other to meet up with their state expenses. This is especially important when the state is not generating as much from internally generated revenue or when they need to carry out capital-intensive projects in the state.
However, concerned Bayelsans are raising the fears that continuous borrowing would jeopardize the future development of the state.
It could be recalled that the Bayelsa State Government intends to borrow N43.57 billion to augment the N310.7 billion proposed for the 2022 fiscal year as the state’s debt profile hits N169 billion.
The borrowing plan is contained in the state’s 2022 Appropriation Bill.
Checks on official records obtained by this medium indicate that the debt grew following the recent approval granted by the state house of Assembly to Governor Douye Diri to obtain an additional loan of N18.7 billion.
It is also on record that the Douye Diri led government sometime in March, 2022, sought the approval of the Bayelsa State House of Assembly to obtain a N30 billion loan which the legislators approved, noting that the loan would be used to service ongoing projects in the state.
Some of the projects to be serviced by the loan facility, according to the government, were the Outer Ring Road, the Sagbama-Ekeremor Road, the Nembe-Brass Road, the AIT-Elebele Road amongst others.
A political analyst and former commissioner in the state, Surv. Furoebi Akene has expressed his worries over the continuous rising of the state’s debt profile.
In a statement he personally signed and entitled “Increasing debt burden and underdevelopment of Bayelsa State caused by Greed,” Akene said the data he obtained from the Debt Management Office (DMO) website indicated that the state debt profile as of June 2021 stood at over N150.60 billion, up from the N123 billion the current administration inherited on assumption of office in February 2020.
The 2022 budget which has been signed into law by governor Diri puts the running cost of governance at N70.56 billion, some 22 per cent of the budget while N61.75 billion is set aside for debt servicing and repayments.
Akene questioned the role of the State Assembly in all the loans being collected by the executive arm, alleging that “there is a big conspiracy between the executive and the legislature against the development of the State. Borrowing a statement from one of my friends “kill and divide Bayelsa money”
“It is also not news that the revenue earnings of Bayelsa State from the Federal allocation and the 13% derivation is more than three times what their contemporaries get within a corresponding period.
“Bayelsa State also owns an oil company known as Bayelsa oil company Limited that has a functional and producing oil field, yet no revenue has been declared by the state government as revenue generated from the operations of the oil company.”
Probing further, Akene said “it is also worthy of note that the Bayelsa Development and Investment Company (BDIC) has asset base worth over N200bn spread across Nigeria, South Africa, UK and others, but over the years, no income has been declared by the State Government in the so-called transparency briefing that has never been transparent but deceitful.
He opined that if all the sources of revenue owned by the state were properly harnessed, there would be no need for the state to go into excessive borrowing.
He lamented that there was no reason whatsoever for Beyelsa to be so underdeveloped despite all the potentials to be greater than all its contemporaries that are now far ahead of her.
Akene called on governments at all levels to involve experts to actualise maximum development without increasing the debt burden successively to fall within the ambits of sustainable development, adding that by so doing “we shall not be harming the future.’’
The CLOs react
Also reacting to the debt situation in the state, a member of the Civil Liberties Organization, Comrade David West who is also a rights activist, described the increasing rate of the state’s debt profile as worrisome.
His words: ‘’honestly, the rising debt profile in Bayelsa state calls for worry just as it is growing astronomically as well as it is alarming. If we try to juxtapose or make a critical analysis of the N169 billion indebtedness by the state, and measure it with infrastructural development side-by-side with human capacity development as well as the welfare of the most vulnerable persons in the state, can we beat our chest that this humongous amount has produced the commensurate development?
‘’When we continue to increase the debt profile of the state without corresponding achievements, it becomes worrisome. It becomes a burden to the state and her inhabitants on whose names the loans are being taken.
“We are compelled to ask where and where is it being put into? This really calls for worry because some of these loans will surely outlive this present government. I also believe that the repayment pattern of these loans are made in a futuristic manner that can run through two to three generations.
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