From Mba Nnenna- Abakaliki
A social-cultural organization in Ebonyi State, Unwuekumenyi United Youth Forum has absolved governor Francis Nwifuru of high profile debts
The group was reacting to the statement signed by the 2023 governorship candidate in the state, Chief Chukwuma Odii
Odii through a statement by his media spokesperson, Moses Idika claimed that the state was owing external debt of $92, 655,060.01 and a cumulative internal debt of over N170bn apart from various commitments to some other domestic financial institution.
But the group absolved governor Nwifuru of any debt
At a press briefing in Abakaliki, the state capital National President of the group, Uche Ega said governor has never borrowed any loan since he came to power.
He noted that the governor inherited internal and external debts from the past administration.
Chief Odii failed to understand the fact that government is a continuum because if he had researched well, he would have realized that the loan statistics he quoted as emanating from the Debt Management Office, DMO was not pointing directly to this administration but an accumulation from previous administrations, which the Governor in his determination to make the state self-sufficient has significantly decimated within these few months in office.
” It is on record that as at March 31, 2024, Governor Nwifuru had already cut the state’s domestic debt down from N76.14 billion to N70.44 billion, down by N6.30 billion. Going by that, it is obvious that as it stands today, the domestic debt profile of the state has gone far below what the writer quoted. Same justifiably goes for the foreign loan profile.
“He should be reminded that the statistics he quoted through his paid agent, from DMO has remained a contentious one as the state government had earlier refuted the claim that Ebonyi was among the 17 states that borrowed $125.1m (#112.24 billion) from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
“These erroneously documented record has already cast doubt on the authenticity of the statistics quoted by this writer. Let us assure our beloved people of the state that debt profile is a relative term, and the state’s debt profile is not as high as represented in the write-up.
“As it stands, Ebonyi State is still the least in both domestic and foreign debts among the South East states”, he said.
On high poverty level in the state, the group noted that the governor has done so much to lift the people out of it
“The parameter for measuring poverty is varied and cannot be reduced to simple statistics. Poverty is in every land and a product of many factors, both man made and natural, but what is most important is the effort of a leader to ameliorate these factors by tackling them from their roots. Governor Nwifuru has so far proven his mettle in this area.
“If the writer has been around, he should have known that under Nwifuru, business activities are speedily returning back to the state as artisans and other specialized technicians hitherto sent indoors by strict operational rules are now flourishing. Governor Nwifuru, contrary to the release, has exempted all petty traders and micro businesses in the market from paying any form of tax. Just recently, the media was awash with the arrest of fake revenue agents extorting money from such traders. These extortioners are currently under prosecution to serve as a deterrent to others”,
