Last week, President Muhammadu Buhari sent a letter to the senate seeking approval for a $75 million loan from the World Bank for the Edo state government. The Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki read it on the floor of the upper chamber. In the letter President Buhari expressly stated that “the World Bank had approved a Development Policy Programme (DPO) loan budget support for the total sum of $225 million to the Edo state government in 2012 to be implemented in three tranches of $75 million per annum. “The first tranche was approved by the national assembly in the 2012-2014 federal government external borrowing plan.
President Buhari also stated that “the programme has since been successfully implemented by the state in 2014. Following this success, the bank’s board of executive directors approved the+ second tranche.  “+DPO 2, on April 29, 2015.The DPO 2 was captured in the federal government external ruling borrowing plan of 2014-2017, which is pending with the national assembly.‘’
Harmless and progressive as the request is, the  Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in Edo State   led by rambling  Dan Orbih, like a prowling demon in the land,  reared  its ugly head to  ask the  Senate and the House of Representatives to reject  the proposed $75 million loan on partisan grounds. Dan Orbih, who is a seasoned purveyor of falsehood, is now being used by agents of destabilisation and forces of darkness to launch a diabolic campaign against the development of their home state. This is politics taken too far.
Sadly, two unfortunate senators from the state are also singing the same swan song with Dan Orbih. The Senator representing Edo South whose constituency is the chief beneficiary of the loan project, Mathew Urhoghide is also calling for verification of the previous tranche to ascertain if the loan was used properly and for what it was given it for.  Is Urhoghide not from Edo? Why is he asking a question with an obvious answer which all Edo people know and appreciates? On the surface, Urhoghide’s request sounds like a good talk but what underbellies such a suggestion gave him away as an unpatriotic and  egoistically partisan. Urhoghide also veered off track to add that “Edo State cannot afford to go for such a loan now when it was presently groaning as it cannot pay salaries.” This is a false claim because the Edo State Government has been paying salaries as and when due to its workers unlike many PDP states in the country. It is one of the only few states that are able to pay salaries to date.
Senator Clifford Ordia, PDP, Edo Central is equally said to be  opposed  to the request on the grounds that it will plunge the state into further indebtedness. The unabashed Ordia failed to recognise that there is a subsisting agreement with the Edo State Government regarding the loan and that obtaining loan was one of the ways any government in the world finances development. The Federal Government of Nigeria under Goodluck Jonathan’s PDP administration borrowed $1billion to fight insurgency. Jonathan got the laon and all of that money went into his failed election. Only last week Nigerians were stunned with the revelation from Dasuki, his chief security adviser that the arms and ammunition are yet to arrive Nigeria, yet the money was gone! What has Urhoghide and Ordia got to say about that? America sustains its government with loans, even distressed as Greece, it was still granted more loans recently by the European Union to pull through its economic crisis.
Before Jonathan’s PDP government was flushed out in May they have stockpiled both domestic and external debt of over $60billion. They depleted the Federation account as being revealed by the new government. What has Orbih, Urhoghide and Ordia got to say about this? Yet they were still supporting him to hang on to power. If it was a PDP government that was in Edo State, would Ordia and Urhoghide oppose the third tranche of the World Bank loan? They certainly would not. It goes to show that they are willing to play politics with human lives and the future of the same people they claim to be representing.
Interestingly, we have a Comrade Oshiomhole-led APC government in Edo State that properly invested the first and second tranche of the loan into the Benin Water Storm project as budgeted. The contractors handling the project have done great work and the World Bank that is financing the project have sent their Engineers and evaluators to evaluate the progress of work and found it to be on course. When completed, the water storm project would largely solve the flooding and erosion problems in Benin City, Edo South Senatorial district where unfortunately Mathew Urhoghide is accidentally representing in the red chamber.
Edo people have implicit confidence that Comrade Adams Oshiomhole is judiciously managing the finances of Edo State in line with the Public Procurement Law of the state. He has accomplished so many projects and all monies borrowed by his administration have been prudently utilised.
The Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria should discountenance Ordia and Urhoghide’s warped and selfish claims and go ahead and approve the request by President Muhammadu Buhari for the $75million loan to Edo State. Not approving the request would automatically mean abandoning the water storm project. Edo people do not want any abandoned project because when the senate votes for the project to be abandoned, the same senators would come round to make it an election issue to say the project was abandoned after several millions of US dollars have been spent to take it to over sixty per cent completion level. Many residents have attested to the marvelous job, even as soon are expecting the completion of the project to save them from the menace of erosion and flooding.
Orbih and his coven members are unecessarily up in arms against Edo people and have embarked on a futile attempt to dissuade the National Assembly from going ahead to approve the loan. But they and their cohorts are sure to fail in their voodoo mission.
The Senate Deputy Chief Whip, Senator Francis Alimikhena, APC, Edo North has said it all that “the loan is very important and timely.” He hit the nail on the head when he told his colleagues in the senate that “the previous ones have been useful and effectively executed in carrying out world bank projects in the state,” and the Senate should heed Alimikhena’s warning that “people should not play politics with the proposed loan.”
If the Senate approves of the loan they would be seen to be objective and lovers of democracy and friends of Edo people and they must not hearken to the evil plots of Orbih, Urhoghide and Ordia who are now recognised as sworn enemies of Edo people.
·    Mr. Dan Owegie is a Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Edo State.

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