Governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State has declared that any government that does not borrow money is not serious.
The governor, who took over from Godswill Akpabio, few months back, stated this on Tuesday when he paid a courtesy visit to the Punch Place, the corporate headquarters of Punch Nigeria Limited, Magboro, Ogun State.
The governor said debt profile of the state should not get anyone worried because even developed countries like the United States had incurred debts in the region of trillions of dollars.
Asked if it was true that his predecessor, Senator Godswill Akpabio, left an empty treasury, he simply said, “What is the motive of holding money? You don’t just hold money to go and keep it in the treasury. Money is not supposed to be in the bank but to be used for something else. Any government that doesn’t owe is not serious because even America today is indebted to China to the tune of $1.3tn.
“If you pull out that amount of money from an economy do you think they will survive? They cannot. So, why are we shying away from owing? We should owe. As a state government I will not shy away from it but I will not collect money to go and do something that will not generate money.
“If developed nations are borrowing to progress, why wouldn’t I borrow? If you don’t owe, you cannot develop.”
When asked to explain how the state government spent the billions of naira, which accrued to the state from the Excess Crude Account, Emmanuel said the state government had spent a lot on federal infrastructure in the state.
He said, “The money received from the Excess Crude Account was N266bn and we put N145bn on federal assets. As of today, we have not got a reimbursement of one naira. So, if you deduct that, you will understand things better. And even though we are the largest producer of oil, since that state was created, the Federal Government has never built one kilometre of road in my state.
“There is no Federal Government presence in the whole state, not even one. Even the federal university in my state, the internal roads and infrastructure in it are done by the state government. The teaching hospital owned by the Federal Government is equipped by the state government.
“Even the hostels were built by the state government. So, the Federal Government presence in my state has been near zero. We even have a federal approval for reimbursement of the funds but it has not come. The past state government administration inherited a total decay of infrastructure but today things are different,” he added.
