Nigeria @63: PDP Alarmed Over Gov Abdulrahman's Attempt to Convert N17bn Kwara Funds into 2027 Retirement Package
... Demands Publication of Monthly Allocations and IGR Figures
The Kwara State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has congratulated Kwarans and Nigerians in general on the celebration of the 63rd anniversary of our nation’s independence.
The Party has also expressed worry over the continued silence of the Kwara State government on the situation around the seventeen billion naira (N17bn) Kwara money said to have been fixed in a secret bank account since the year 2020 by Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq.
In a statement by the Party's State Publicity Secretary, Mr Olusegun Olusola Adewara (Sholyments), the N17bn in question is an outstanding balance from the over N52bn loan the Abdulrazaq government accessed within the first five months of his administration. The Governor had publicly informed Kwarans, following public outcries, that he kept the N17bn of the borrowed fund in an undisclosed bank for reasons not explained to Kwarans.
It should be noted that Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq is the first public manager who will borrow funds on behalf of the state and proceed to keep the borrowed money in a bank account while servicing the debt with about N1.3bn every month. This action broke every rule of rationality in public management.
The decision to keep this huge fund in an undisclosed bank account for so long without providing details to Kwarans about how much interest this fund has accrued raises suspicion that those in government may be thinking the people of Kwara may have forgotten the fund, thereby willing to convert it to their retirement package in 2027.
Our party wishes to remind Abdulrahman and his government that they are holding trust for and acting on behalf of Kwarans, whose common patrimony they are voted to administer judiciously with openness and transparency.
The people on whose behalf they are acting, therefore, deserve to know how every kobo of their money is being expended by the government, and such expenditure or action must be in the interest of the state. Whose interest, therefore, is a N17bn loan kept in an unknown commercial bank for more than three years when our primary health centers have collapsed, our roads in gory situation, education in shambles, insecurity is soaring, and governance in complete ruin?
In the spirit of Nigeria's Independence Day celebration, we demand that Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq publicly disclose the whereabouts of the seventeen billion naira (N17bn) he claimed to have fixed from the N35bn loan in an unknown bank and also avail Kwarans of how much interest the fund has yielded since the year 2020.
In the same vein, our party observed with dismay the secrecy attached to the huge billions of naira FAAC and the internally generated revenue through KWIRS accruing to the state every month since 2019. It is important to call on the governor to speak to Kwarans and account for the revenues that have flowed into the state since he got to power in 2019 so that Kwarans can hold him accountable and ask informed questions.
The PDP calls on Yakubu Danladi led State House of Assembly to heed the clarion call by summoning Governor Abdulrahman and making him explain how our N17bn is fairing in the secret bank account he kept it before the house as it is unacceptable for the Governor to continue running our state as if he's running a Bet9ja shop.
The unfortunate decision of the Governor to step down the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) since he came on board has scuttled any formal means of challenging the regime’s secret revenue receipt and application. Our party demands monthly publication of FAAC allocations as well as figures for the internally generated revenue for the state as was the practice under the PDP regime.
Kwarans will recall that under the PDP administration since 2003, apart from the monthly publication of FAAC allocations and the IGR figures for public perusal, the government also engaged experts and labor unions to sit and get briefings on the state's financial standing every month. It is unbelievable, therefore, what the present Government is hiding from the people by their continued secret handling of the state's resources.
Signed:
Olusegun Olusola Adewara (Sholyments),
State Publicity Secretary,
Kwara PDP.
October 1, 2023.
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