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We Have Not Taken Any Foreign Loan In 4 Years- Ambode

Published

5 years ago

April 16, 2019

Editor

Outgoing Lagos State governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, has revealed that his four-year administration took no foreign loans despite the pressure on the state’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) due to massive infrastructure projects the administration set out to accomplish to cater to the growing needs of the estimated over 21 million residents of the state.

According to Ambode, although the foreign component of the state’s debts hovers around $1.43 billion, his administration never added to it but was committed to servicing what it inherited from the previous administrations, which has been compounded by unstable exchange rates.

The governor spoke in an exclusive interview with BusinessDay, saying his background as a financial expert and years of experience at the top level of the state’s civil service as an Accountant-General came handy in managing the resources of Nigeria’s biggest state economy to achieve outstanding results.

Statistics from the Debt Management Office (DMO) show Lagos State’s total external debt stock as at 31 December, 2018 stood at $1.43 billion. The external debt comprised $1.28 billion from multilateral source and $143.83 million was bilateral, sourced from the African Development Bank.

In addition, the state’s total domestic debt stock was N530.24 billion as at the same period of 2018.

“Talking about Lagos State having the highest amount in terms of foreign loans, truth is that I have it on record that in my four years, I never took any foreign loan. So, whatever it is that they are saying about having $1.43 billion is an accumulation of loans that have been taken by successive governments,” Ambode told BusinessDay.

“Remember also, these facilities that we call loans were taken at an exchange rate that was lower than N150. But again, this government that has not taken any of these facilities would pay back and has been paying back in the last four years on the new exchange rate which is like N360 because government is a continuum.

“That has immense pressure on the internally generated revenue. And when you have this pressure on the IGR that you are using to service these facilities without complaining, it means that you have been financially prudent to be able to use the remaining resources to do what you have outside there in terms of infrastructure development,” said Ambode.

He further explained that beyond being financially prudent, his administration has given value for money by undertaking major projects that are further improving the economy of Lagos in particular and Nigeria in general, pointing to the construction of road networks, Oshodi Transport Interchange (OTI), Lagos airport road, resuscitation of Ayinke House (maternity hospital), Ikeja, jubilee bridges, laybys, redesigning of Ojodu Berger on Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, the light-up Lagos project, among others, as legacies his successor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, will build upon.

“That is the way to explain what has been happening and the value that comes with the infrastructure that we are giving. It is like double the price of what we are putting inside when you match the issues about loans and resources. Remember also that the country was going into recession when we came in,” Ambode explained.

Courtesy: Business Day

Related Topics:Akinwunmi Ambode Lagos State Governor

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We’ve Become Embarrassment to the World, TY Danjuma Laments

Published

52 mins ago

April 20, 2024

Eric

By Eric Elezuo

A former Minister of Defence, and Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Theophilus Danjuma (rtd), has lamented that Nigeria is a war front, and has become an embarrassment to the world, while appealing to all and sundry to be their brother’s keeper and cease killing one another, in order to attract foreign investors from across the world.

Danjuma, who spoke Friday at the opening ceremony of the Nwonyo International Fishing and Cultural Festival in Ibi Local Government Area of Taraba State, said Nigeria has devolved into a war zone where citizens are killing one another.

He said: “There is no sane foreign person that will come to our country to celebrate with us if we continue to kill each other and make our roads unsafe for people to move around.

“As we are today as Nigeria we are a disgrace to the whole world. The country is a war front where our people are against our own people.

“We must put our house in order because right now we are a laughing stock to the whole world.

“We must stop killing each other. We must make our roads safe. We must stop kidnappings.

“If we are expecting this festival to be truly international, we must have peace in our State and throughout the country.”

It would be recalled that the former Minister, in rare fit of outburst, while speaking at the maiden convocation of the Taraba State University, called out the military, accusing them of colluding with terrorists in an attempt to indulge in ethnic cleansing.

Born about 86 years ago, Danjuma was the Chief of Army Staff from July 1975 to October 1978. He was also Minister of Defence under President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration.

According to Wikipedia, Danjuma was born in Takum, Taraba State (formally Gongola), Nigeria, to Kuru Danjuma and Rufkatu Asibi. Takum was mainly a farming community when Danjuma was young, and yams, rice, cassava, and beniseed were largely cultivated by families and clans. His father was a hardworking peasant whose ancestors were all highly respected members of the community. Kuru Danjuma was a farmer who traded metal parts for farming implements and tools.

He started his education at St Bartholomew’s Primary School in Wusasa and moved on to the Benue Provincial Secondary School in Katsina-Ala where he was the captain of the school cricket 1st XI team; he received his Higher School Certificate in 1958. In 1959, Danjuma enrolled at the Nigerian College of Arts, Science, and Technology in Zaria (Ahmadu Bello University) to study History on a Northern Nigeria Scholarship.

However, by the end of 1960, Danjuma had left the university to enroll in the Nigerian Army.

Danjuma’s military sojourn will be incomplete without a recount of the role he played on the July 29, 1966, when he, alongside other officers of northern extraction, stage a retaliation coup, killing the Head of State, General Aguiyi Ironsi, and his host, Lt. Col. Adekunle Fajuyi, in Ibadan, Oyo State.

The operation, code named July Rematch, also had Murtala Mohammed, Buka Suka Dimka, Muhammadu Buhari, Sani Abacha, Musa Usman, Ibrahim Taiwo, Ibrahim Bako, Ibrahim Babangida, and others as participants.

Though Danjuma had denied the roles he supposedly played in the coup and killings of the two ranking officers, reports detail as follows: “Danjuma picked up Nigeria’s first military Head of State General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi and first military Governor of the former Western Region Lt Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi (who was hosting Aguiyi-Ironsi at his residence in Ibadan) from the side of the road, as there were escaping an ambush orchestrated by Danjuma, Mohammed, Dimka, Buhari and others.

“Danjuma held them captive in the back of his car and drove off to an isolated area in Oyo state, where he ordered them to get out and shot them in cold blood.”

The events of that day turned out to be the harbinger of a 30 months catastrophic war, which claimed millions of lives, especially from the South East region of the country.

Today, Danjuma is in the habit of giving back to the society, using his TY Danjuma Foundation. The foundation has continued to take care of persons and institutions the distinguished soldier come across with.

“To show my gratitude to my country and to the Almighty God, I give,” he said

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Breaking: Wike Plans to Attend Thursday’s PDP NEC Meeting

Published

3 days ago

April 17, 2024

Eric

By Eric Elezuo

The immediate past Governor of Rivers State, and Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mr Nyesom Wike, may have concluded plans to attend the much advertised National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), billed to hold on Thursday, in Abuja.

Impeccable source, who is in the know, told The Boss that the minister, whose membership of the PDP is yet to be revoked even as he frolicks with the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), and serving in the President Bola Tinubu government as a minister.

The Source told The Boss that Wike’s impending presence at the NECeeting on Thursday is not unconnected with plans, already hatched with some governors, to weaken the opposition PDP.

“Yes, we have on good authority that FCT minister, Wike is planning to attend the NEC meeting tomorrow all in a bid to weaken the fabrics of the PDP, and pave the way for the continuation of the Tinubu administration come 2027, and by extension, relapse Nigeria to a full blown one party state.

“From every indication, Wike and his co-travellers, are bent on unleashing the same crisis ravaging the third force, Labour Party, and Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso’s Nigerian National People’s Party (NNPP) on the PDP for the APC to remain the only political party in the country, and ensure that Tinubu has no challenger, come 2027,” the Source said.

It would be recalled that Wike has boasted over and again that there’s no opposition against Tinubu’s re-emergence in 2027, and that they have made sure of that. He has been compensated with the Ministerial job after he withdrew support for his party, and supported the APC and Tinubu to emerge as national government.

The Source further revealed that in the attempt to actualize the intended one party state, a lot of funding is ongoing to ensure that concerned stakeholders are ‘settled’ handsomely.

Wike, prior, during and after the 2023 general elections, has been floating in between the two major political parties; the APC and the PDP. While he claim to still be a member of the PDP, he is functioning as a minister in an APC government, mocking the inability of his party to discipline him.

Political stakeholders have concluded that the outcome of Thursday’s PDP NEC meeting will determine the path Nigeria’s political trajectory will take, and that it may portend the end of multi-party system and political democracy if Wike succeeds in his plan.

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Bribery, Corruption: APC Suspends National Chairman, Ganduje

Published

5 days ago

April 15, 2024

Eric

The All Progressives Congress ward in Ganduje, Dawakin Tofa Local Government Area, has suspended the party’s National Chairman, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje.

The party ward legal adviser, Halliru Gwanzo, announced the suspension while addressing newsmen in Kano State on Monday.

Gwanzo cited allegations of bribery against Ganduje levelled by the Kano State Government as the reason for the suspension.

“We decided to suspend Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje from the party due to the seriousness of the allegations against him,” Gwanzo said.

Meanwhile, efforts to contact the Chief Press Secretary to the APC National Chairman, Mr Edwin Olufo, failed as his mobile phone was unreachable.