Some people thought what we are saying is a pile up of debt, no. What we did thereafter was that the time given on the refinancing arrangement with the First Bank was used to process access to the capital market which is the ultimate for investment purpose. So, we used the capital market to absorb the credit line. Osun takes N3.4 billion every month from the federal allocation, but for the ease of calculation let us say we take N5 billion and that means the maximum we can get in a year is N60 billion. N60 billion in four years makes it N240 billion. Out of the money, we pay N2.6 billion to workers every month, including pension and gratuity; let us say we run government every month with N900 million. Ifyou deduct all these, what is less for development every month is N1.5 billion and, for four years, it is N60 billion. In absolute terms, no bank will give the state more than itscapacity and they will not even give you exactlywhat you have because the risk is huge, they can only give you 50 per cent of your worth. So, our debt profile is within the limit of N30 billion. We must add that there are two agencies in Nigeria monitoring debt of government. They are the Debt Management Office and Central Bank. A newspaper, few months back, published the list of debtor- states in Nigeria and Osun was not listed among them. In the CBN too, Osun is not listed. If Osun is in a debt trap, we could not have paid May salaries when we have not received April allocation. Many people think your courage in governancecan work against you come 2014. Let us see what will happen in 2014. But, really, we have been badly affected by military rule to the extent that we have even lost our spirit to resist oppression. We are people with dignity and pride. It is in defence of the minimum threshold that Rauf Aregbesola is here and I am so sure that our people are so committed to stand by us because we are a people with history, tradition, custom and value. There is no doubt in my mind that we enjoy the total support of our people, we are looking forward to 2014, and, by the grace of God, we shall defeat whoever raises his head to challenge us. We are so confidence, becausewe represent the choice of our people; there isno threat at all. How are you carrying along your party members? If they are not carried along, they will not be here; I believe that our party members are properly carried along. There is a distinction between the progressive in power and the ones who are not even qualified to be called anything, they are reactionaries who believe that the only reason for being in power is to appropriate the peoples wealth, but we are saying that is not the purpose of government. The government is there to relieve the people of their burden and stregthen them to stand on their own and give the government back interms of taxes. It is observed that many of your road projects are being carried out on the federal roads. Are you working on reimbursement from the Federal Government? We are working on it, but it is not easy. You might want to know that we have not yet been refunded the N1.3 billion spent by the last administration on Akoda/Old-Garage stretch of the Federal Government road. So, if they have not paid us the investment that the last PDP administration made on a part of the road, you can only assume that whatever we do, we only pray that they will be responsible enough to refund our investment. But whetherthey pay us back or not, we are committed to serving our people and we are not looking back. Some people are saying that the airport you claimed to be constructing is being financed by the Federal Government. How true? On the aiport, I must say that it has been named Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO) Abiola Airport. And no government is doing it other than the government of Osun. Though, no airport can be so called without the approval of the Federal Government and we have gotten that approval, it will be fallacious for anybody to say that because the FG must approve, that translates to ownership. What are you doing to further assist the youths, especially to assist them in self-sustainable programmes like agriculture? Firstly, the National Bureau of Stastistics has established that there is no state in Nigeria that has the kind of effective programme of Osun on youth development. Secondly, the same bureau has established that Osun has the lowest rate of unemployment in Nigeria. We have committed about N2 billion to assist farmers in this state. We are also allocating farmlands to farmers free of charge; we have provided free transportation through rail for farmers to take their produce to Lagos for saleand so many others. Many people have become rich through our assistance, while some can only afford to feed themselves through it, that is life, but we will not relent in our committment
Posted on: Sun, 21 Jul 2013 05:25:42 +0000
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