Chief Dan Orbih has again proved his documented history of raising hypocritical accusation of Obaseki and intellectually dishonest against former Governor Adams Oshiomhole . It is on record that Edo State accounts for the lowest debt in South-South when you combined external and domestic debts in the South-South region. EDO State chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party( PDP), Chief Dan Orbih has ignorantly accused Godwin Obaseki of ballooning the Edo State debt profile from N4 Billion in 2008 to over N300billion in 2018. In his characteristic haste to wail and accuse the performing government of Governor Godwin Obaseki of all sorts of imagined crimes and lapses, he has goofed again. All that is needed is for Dan Orbih and his PDP wailers to avail themselves of the facts. Their campaign of calumny for 2019 elections will not repair or reverse the damage which they inflicted on themselves in all their years of misrule in Edo State. They betrayed the peoples’ trust and the people of Edo State will not be fooled a second time. The downhill slide of their political fortunes is irreversible.

Dan Orbih is ignorant that the World Bank has thrown its weight behind the ongoing developmental drive of the Godwin Obaseki-led administration in Edo State, urging other states in the country to replicate the Edo model. If Edo State is highly indebted, why did World Bank throw its weight behind Edo State? Country Director of World Bank, Nigeria and Co-ordinating Director for Regional Integration Programme in West Africa, Rachid Benmessaoud, who led the bank’s delegation on a visit to the governor at the Government House, Edo State, on Thursday, said: “Obaseki has established a flagship effort that has resulted in the Edo Azura Power Plant where he brought the World Bank Group together and we are ready to replicate the model and build more Azura projects in Nigeria and West Africa.”

The Edo State Government has described as false and “fake news” insinuations making the rounds in the traditional and news media suggesting that the Governor Godwin Obaseki administration is hindered by huge inherited debt, urging Edo people and residents and other stakeholders to disregard the fake report. “Our attention has been drawn to publications with headline suggesting that the Obaseki government is hindered by huge inherited debts. We want to unequivocally state that this report is completely false and none of the media outfits that published it can provide any proof what so ever, either by voice recording or signed statement, to show that Obaseki made this comment,” Special Adviser on Media and Communication Strategy to Edo State Governor, Crusoe Osagie, said in a statement.

According to him, “The Edo State Government under the leadership of Governor Godwin Obaseki is not hindered by debt obligations. All our projects are being undertaken as planned and the terms of our facilities from the World Bank and the Federal Government are liberal with repayment period of over twenty (20) years.” He averred that “As chairman of the Economic Team, under former governor Adams Oshiomhole, Governor Obaseki negotiated most of these concessionary loans from International Development Agencies (IDAs). Thankfully, we have road and other infrastructure to show for these facilities across the state today.
The Nigeria’s debt-to-GDP ratio according to International Monetary Fund is less than 23 percent of GDP and still far away from the so-called 70 per cent ‘danger threshold.’ Nigeria ended 2015-2016 with a debt to GDP ratio of12.1 PERCENT and 18.6 percent respectively, the IMF has estimated that by the end of 2017, Nigeria’s current indebtedness would have reached 23.3 percent of the GDP

The last Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) Quarterly Review shows debt profile and a drastic drop in the revenue profile of most states of the federation. In South-South States Edo State has the lowest cumulative debt (both foreign and domestic) of N94 billion, Bayelsa State with cumulative debt of N116 billion, Rivers State with a cumulative debt of N147billion,Akwa Ibom with a cumulative debt of N162 bilion Cross River State with cumulative of N154billion and Delta State with a cumulative debt of N332 billion, According to NEITI report, Edo State has the lowest debt profile in the South-South.
I am worried that instead of ignorant analysts like Dan Orbih to discuss Nigeria’s domestic debt which accounts for 80% of Nigeria debt profile and attract 18% interest rate, most of the analysts always end up discussing Nigeria’s external debt that accounts for just 20% of Nigeria’s debt profile. This is my position, total debt profile of $57.39 billion is made up of external debt stock which accounted for 20 percent and domestic debt stock of $45.98billion( N13.88trillion) which accounted for 80 percent. How does the external debt now amounts to the highest? Ignorant analysts should stop to categorize Edo State as the most indebted states in Nigeria. The rate of the rise in foreign debt has been slower than that of domestic debt. In recent times, the Federal Government has been making attempts to increase the proportion of foreign debt, because of the higher interest rate charged on domestic debts.

Edo state is just as privileged as Lagos state in Sub-Saharan Africa, to access World Bank loans at less than 1% for 20 years, and in some cases, 10 years moratorium.
For a shared understanding of Nigeria’s domestic debt, a major source of concern is that Nigeria’s public domestic debt has experienced rapid growth over the past ten years and that debt service outlay is quite high. The domestic debt-GDP ratio is only about 10%; the total public debt-GDP ratio is 12.25%, and compares favourably with the peer group threshold of 56%. Although the debt service-revenue ratio is high, the problem needs to be unbundled so we can all agree on the appropriate solution path. Indeed, following the rebasing of Nigeria’s GDP in 2010, the DMO observed that the increase in the GDP did not enhance the country’s ability to service its debts. Nigeria’s tax revenue-GDP ratio is still below 6% compared to the average for the country’s peer group, which is 18%. Essentially, therefore, from this perspective, what is being experienced is a revenue problem which impacts the debt service-revenue ratio.

The domestic debt profile of some states is scary. The states are so much in debt that only a small amount of their allocations get to them at the end of the day because most times money for debt servicing is removed from source,” he said while addressing participants in Course 23 for security agents at the National War College, Abuja. The federal government is to raise its domestic and foreign borrowing ratio under the new debt management strategy (DMS) unveiled by the Debt Management Office (DMO) for the next four years. The DMS is about how funds are borrowed, internally and externally. It is a medium term project from 2016 to 2019 setting out the broad guidelines for four years.

The opposition party in Edo State has been criticising the ruling party in Edo State about its external debt and Nigeria’s external debt which is 20 percent of the entire debt stock without telling Nigerians the position of Edo State in the domestic debt profile which accounted for 80 percent of Nigeria’s debt profile and attract higher percentage of two digit rate.
It is wrong to say that Lagos, Kaduna and Edo, with a combined foreign debt profile are the most indebted states of the federation as far as subnational foreign debts which represent 20 percent of Nigeria’s total debt. Lagos, which has the biggest state economy in the country, retained its topmost position as the most indebted state of the federation and remain the largest state economy in Africa.
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Inwalomhe Donald writes from Benin City [email protected]