Of Delta State Debt, DESOPADEC And The Politics Of Uninformed Critics - By Fred Edoreh

 

By all means, it is the right of citizens to call their governments to account. It reminds leaders that they hold authority and act in trust for the people. However, it is also important for critics to be well informed on the subjects they speak on, otherwise they end up as mere rabble-rousers.

While some critics are genuinely intended, there are also those who outrightly set out to mischievously misinform the public, often times to chase clout or aim at scoring partisan goals. It would seem that one Sheriff Mulade belongs to this later category. 

His titles alone - Activist, Coordinator (of some ambiguous entity), Comrade Chief, Patron, Ambassador, etc - betray someone most probably suffering from low self-esteem, for which he is psychologically in search of self assurance.

Like many of his ilk who misguidedly seek attention through disjointed reasoning and empty braggadocio, he recently flew off his handle to attack the Governor of Delta State, Rt Hon Sheriff Oborevwori, on account of his repayment of N130 billion of the state's debt, falsely suggesting that, as then Speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly, he approved N465 billion loan for the immediate past administration of Sen Dr Ifeanyi Okowa, that he met an empty treasury, and that he further borrowed N40 billion when he took over as Governor of the state.

Ordinarily, for someone who boasts in ignorance, the likes of Mulade do not deserve any response, but for the interest of the public, it is important to make it clear that Oborevwori, as Speaker, did not approve N465 billion loan for the Okowa administration, never declared at any time that he met an empty treasury as Governor, and has not borrowed any dime since the inception of his administration.

It is true that, like virtually every state of the federation which has different levels of debts, Oborevwori inherited a debt burden of N465 billion out of which he has repaid N130 billion and will subsequently continue to reduce the debt profile to cut down on servicing cost, to keep the state in good financial health.

It must also be stated that the state debt was not simply accumulated during the Okowa administration, but overtime in the course of several administrations of the state.

As we should recall, when Governor Okowa took over in 2015, he informed that he inherited about N636 billion debt, accruing from debts owed banks by way of bonds, overdrafts, loans for various projects and contractual obligations to contractors by the administrations before his.

As explained then, the cash aspect was about N110 billion, then there was the Delta State Infrastructure Development Bond of N50 billion, about N33 billion owed on pensions and gratuity, and debts to local contractors.

Addressing the Delta State House of Assembly then, with Chief Monday Igbuya as the Speaker, Governor Okowa gave a vivid picture of the debt and servicing obligations he met on ground, which prompted the Igbuya leadership of the House to approve the first loan of N10 billion for the administration.

As he explained a few months after his assumption of office, arising from the inherited debt, the state had a total monthly deduction of N4.60 billion from FAAC receipts with effect from about June 2016 through to March 2017, and thereafter N1.098 billion monthly till September 2018. 

That left the government with a balance of N3.4 billion from the monthly FAAC allocation of N8.03 billion, (while) the receipt from Internally Generated Revenue was about N2.0 billion monthly, after deducting the cost of collection. The implication was that the funds available to run the state was N5.40 billion monthly for the early two years.

As was public knowledge then, that balance of N5.40 billion was insufficient for the  monthly wage bill of  N7,437,940,015.38 for the state's over 60,000 workers, not to talk of capital projects and the overhead of running government. This meant that the state ran a monthly deficit of about N2 billion which could only be sourced through ways and means to be able to meet up on just salaries.

Still, the Okowa administration also had to undertake the augmentation of local governments with about N678m monthly, to enable the councils pay primary school teachers’ salaries, which the state has continued to do till date, recently also guaranteeing a loan of N40 billion taken by the forum of the 25 local governments to enable them offset their pension liabilities.

It is that loan by the local governments that Mulade and his band of alarmists is mischievously alleging to have been taken by the State Government, whereas, in respect of the autonomy of the two tiers of government, the state has its own separate pension obligations which includes matching the contribution of workers, by also contributing about 8.5 percent of their total emoluments to the fund and further paying for ex-civil servants who had retired before the contributory system was introduced but who still have to receive pensions, anyway.

Before that time, the MDAs merely ran at half steam and the staff of most local councils had embarked on strike action due to non-payment of salaries.

We cannot also forget that the situation was exacerbated by the nation's  economic recession from 2016 into the 2nd quarter of 2017, due to the drastic decline in oil prices and the poor management of the economy by the Buhari regime, consequent upon which states of the federation, not only Delta,  were hard put and had necessarily to resort to borrowing to keep the states alive.

Just when it was thought that the bad time was over,  there was another economic recession in 2020, in consequence of the advent of COVID-19, the lockdown, the decline in oil prices and the global economic meltdown, all of which posed a huge financial challenge to both the federal and state governments.

The former Minister of Finance under Buhari, Zainab Ahmed, testified to this in 2021: “The crash of the crude oil prices really hit us very hard in terms of revenue. We have very low revenues, we have very high expenditures. What we have done so far is just to provide some stability to make sure salaries are paid, pensions are received every month; that we send funds to the judiciary and the legislature; that we meet our debt service obligations. That’s what we are doing. It also means we have had to borrow more than we have planned. It is a very difficult time. I cannot explain to you how difficult it is, not just for the Federal Government but also for the states. We see increasing reductions in our FAAC revenues. So, FAAC reduces and whenever FAAC reduces, it is a very difficult situation," she revealed.

Given these facts of the national economy, especially from 2016 into 2021, we saw that even the Federal Government's indebtedness rose astronomically to the extent that 97 percent of national revenue was devoted to debt servicing and, eventually, the FG allegedly started printing money.

In contrast, while many other states, at that time, owed workers salaries for long months and simply relied on bailouts by the Federal Government, it is indeed to the credit of Gov Okowa that he kept the state afloat, reasonably reduced the debt hang, steadily steered the state out of the murky waters, and still delivered on a number of capital intensive projects, ranging from the Asaba Storm Water Drainage, the ultra modern State Secretariat, the construction of over 2000 kilometres of roads and drainages across the state, the Beneku Bridge and the Trans Warri Ode Itsekiri road in which a good number of bridges were completed, the Koka flyover bridge, the correction of the Asaba Airport, the establishment of more tertiary institutions to open wider admission space for our youths, the establishment of the Job Creation Office and the YAGEP and STEP programmes which supported human capital development through skills acquisition and and entrepreneurship, and many more projects, some of which Oborevwori subsequently completed and commissioned in his first 100 days in office. 

Deltans know and can see the various projects in their communities. It is only the blind and mischievous political journeymen that do not. In the State Capital Territory, for instance, I often hear people say "Okowa try for roads o."

From this historical analysis of the state debt profile, it should be seen that, despite experiencing two national economic recessions, rather than pile more debt, Okowa ended his administration by reducing the state debt from the N636 billion he met, down to N465 billion, a reduction of about N170 billion or 27 percent. 

It is also greatly assuring of good governance to see that Governor Oborevwori has further reduced the debt with the payment of N130 billion, to cut down servicing cost and free up funds for actual development needs. 

These achievements attest to the two gentlemen's high sense of responsibility and prudence in the fiscal management of the state.

It must also be stated that Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan also inherited debts from his predecessor who also inherited debts from the administration before it, but he should also be credited for some of the bold projects into which the loans were applied, the Asaba Airport project being one of the landmarks.

Mulade also suggested that the Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission was starved of funds during the Okowa years and could not deliver on its mandate to the host communities. This is falsehood, and it derives from his ignorance or mere laziness in seeking information. 

First, it is again to Okowa 's credit that he amended the governance structure of DESOPADEC by introducing dispassionate professionals into the executive board, while the Commissioners representing the ethnic nationalities are also there to keep watch and push for their people.

With this blend, DESOPADEC has been better positioned to deliver, and if we are looking for where and how the funds were applied, we can see them in the sprawling Isoko Unity House of the Isoko Development Union; the massive Urhobo House of the UPU with its beautiful landscape by Agbarho, the 8.2km Umutu-Obi Ayima road connecting Ukwani and Ika, the Ibrede-Ofagbe road connecting Ndokwa East and Isoko land, the network of paved roads in Jesse, the ultra modern civic center in Owa Oyibu, the Students' Hostel and six 3-bedroom bungalows for visiting lecturers at the Delta State University, Oleh Campus; the Opute Hall, Ozoro; the Ultra Modern Civic Centre and Model Secondary School in Uzere; the 24 units of 2-bedroom semi-detached bungalows, multipurpose hall, portable water supply scheme with treatment plant, concrete walkway, pedestrian bridge and concrete landing jetty provided for Oboghoro and Utonlila communities; the concrete jetties at Ogheye-Dimigun community; and the Cottage Hospital in Agoloma community.

DESOPADEC also delivered the renovation of the  administrative block and construction/equipment of the ICT Center at Hussey College, Warri; Okuefe/Ugbenukoko Road, Oghara, and Ugbenu Market in Ethiope; provision of 200-seater lecture theatre at Campus 3, Delta State University, Abraka; Ogulagha Modern Secondary School, complete with boarding facilities; Ubogo/Ogbe-Udu road in Udu; Enwhe Ring road, Ubreye and Agbaza roads in Uzere; Eghwere Street road with drainage in Oghara; concrete landing jetty at Salvation City, Warri South West; steel overhead foot bridge crossing Ogono Amato Pinakiri Zion, and with 800m concrete walkway; the housing estate for Teachers and Medical Doctors at Okerenkoko; concrete pedestrian bridge with 800 meters concrete walkway at  Tsekelewu; 110 meters concrete landing jetty at Aji-Gba; concrete landing jetty at Naifor Island, Warri South; block of Science Laboratory at Aboh; skills acquisition center at Umutu, etc etc.

The list of DESOPADEC projects from 2015 to 2023, and into 2024 is long. We need not go into its interventions in the educational sector because they are inexhaustible.

From these, it is obvious that Mulade is either not informed or is merely playing the usual futile politics of the opposition in Delta State.