From Mukhtar Garba Maigamo, Kaduna State
According to source, His Excellency our governor Mukhtar Ramalan Yero (Dallatun Zazzau) has yet again secured for the state, a loan of $141Million (N23.69Billion) from the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) purportedly for “infrastructural development”. If It is sincerely for that purposes, then to me it is a good thing being that, Infrastructural development is vital to every society that wishes to be recognized as a model of development because developing infrastructure is a key to the many doors of societal progress be it Agriculture, Health or Commerce. And giving the fact that Kaduna State; as metropolitan as it is, and which is the nerve-centre of the North and one of the strategic states in the country that supposes to be the mother of other states, sadly, it is one of the backward states now in the country. This stems from (among many other factors) our deficit in infrastructure. And who are those to provide us with this if not good leaders, and the rhetoric here now is do we really have these leaders in Kaduna? I believe it is crystal to everybody as to whether we have or not –a fact we know all too well.
As I said securing a facility for the purpose of developing infrastructure is a good thing especially our decadent infrastructures, and also even the most developed countries sometimes runs their economy with a debt. Being a debtor as a state or a country is not bad to the particular economy in so far as the loan will be used judiciously and for the benefit of the state. But as an onlooker, who is interested in what comes and what goes in the state and in which; by virtue of my citizenship I believe I have a stake in the affairs of the state. Therefore then I have so many reservations on this $141Million loan. And my reservations are in order. Owing to the kind of leaders we were (are) plague with, and based on our experiences; we’ve become very suspicious about every bit of government activities especially the one that concerns financial matters. One might be forgiving for viewing his government with pessimistic lenses because it has happen time and again where our money is been siphoned, diverted, stashed out and squandered. Am sure everybody will agree with me. So my reservations on this matter are:
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Firstly, as a Banker who specializes in Risk and Credit I know the procedures of obtaining a loan and the conditions attaches to it. I also know the intricacies imbedded in the offer letter usually. Though it may be a none-issue to the ordinary citizen to know the type of agreement entered between his state and the Lending Institution and at what percentage did his state agreed to be making repayments. But to me it’s critical to know the repayments mode and the tenor, and most importantly at what prevailing interest rate my state shall be servicing this loan. As we all know Kaduna is one of the highly indebted states in the country, which as at this fiscal year, according to the governor himself in his budget speech, Kaduna state has already a total debt of N43, 030,988,350.33DR. And now adding another $141Million debt is, to me, going to be a burden upon burden on us.
However, it is always these huge debts that hamper our governors to work as they always claim. Late Yakowa once claimed that he had inherited a debt from his predecessor; Ramalan Yero now also claimed that he has inherited a huge debt which perhaps underscores his negative performance. It has popularly been said that since when he became the governor of the state substantial part of the state’s revenue goes to debt servicing all the time. This is such our tragedy. Because it has often been discovered by our corrupt leaders that the easiest way of getting a cheap fund to steal is to initiate some spurious projects or programs in order to access credit from these imperialist agents. It’s a platitude that most of these loans obtain by our governors are for flimsy excuses. That is anybody who becomes a governor will be cut in a dangerous web. One to be servicing those debts he inherited from his predecessor and also to be running his administration at the same time. And along the line he will also sees the need to incur a loan too for his who-knows needs. That is how we the ordinary citizens will be suffering from this vicious cycle of debt upon debt.
Also by my calculations the $141Million when converted to Naira is going to be enormous. Thus $168x141Million=N23, 688,000,000.00. N23.69Billion is indeed huge money that can change the faces of the state. And we all know that the state is in dire need of restructure and critical constructions. We don’t have tarred roads we don’t have culverts and drainages. Every day we hear more of Sirens blowing and roving all over the state at every passing moment, but we see less and less of government commitments and proactivity.
Secondly, and most importantly what bothers me the most is if whether these funds will be used according to the purposes for which they had been sought for. Especially in a period like this when election is approaching. Based on experiences already, can we guarantee the safety of this$141Million? If we fear and sense that these monies are going to be a Slush Fund for the next year general election, can government disabuse our minds and dispel our fears?
Me, as a citizen of the state, this is my concern and I will be very much happy if Ramalan Yero will disabuse my suspicious mind. And the only way he can do that is to see to it that the whole $141 Million is used according to its objectives. i.e “provision of critical infrastructures in Health, Education and Water supply sector”
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Mukhtar Garba Maigamo,
A staff of Unity Bank Plc Kaduna.
And can be reached at mgmaigamo@yahoo.com or 08066792996
