Anambra election: Stop feigning ignorance about Anambra’s huge debts, Uba tells Soludo

The All Progressives Congress candidate in the November 6 Anambra governorship election, Senator Andy Uba, has asked former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN), Professor Charles Soludo, to stop feigning ignorance about the total debt liability of the state he so desperately seeks to govern.

Soludo, the candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, had while speaking on Channels TV programme, Politics Today, on Thursday shocked the show’s host, Seun Okinbaloye, and viewers when he could not put a figure to the state’s debt profile.

The Professor of Economics had been asked if he knew what the state’s debt overhang was, and how he intended to deal with it.

The APGA candidate stated that he would find out when he becomes governor.

Undeterred, Okinbaloye pressed further, pointing out that statistics from the country’s Debt Management Office indicated that Anambra owed N60 billion in domestic debt, and $116 million in external loans.

However, Soludo said: ‘We are going to verify that. Borrowed from who? Who are the creditors?”

But Senator Andy Ubah Governorship Campaign Organisation (SAUGCO) in a statement said: “We see Soludo’s demurred stance on a very sensitive issue that affects the lives of the people as cheap politics and an attempt to cover up the sins of his pay masters to the detriment of the state.

“We are, however, happy that APGA’s antics are already known to the people who are waiting to finally send them packing on November 6.

“Ironically, data released by the DMO on December 31, 2020 indicated that Anambra’s domestic debt stood at N59,013 billion as at September 30, 2020, while the state’s external debt profile was $115,886 million as at June, 2020.

“It is shocking that a Professor Soludo who should have such information at the tip of his fingers would elect to play politics with such information crucial to the lifeblood of the state, or was simply being mischievous.”

SAUGO said the professor of Economics owes Anambra people the patriotic duty of researching into what really is the debt liability of the state.

“As an irreducible minimum, the Senator Andy Uba Governorship Campaign Organisation requests Professor Soludo to undertake the urgent task of finding out the exact and total debt liability of Anambra Stat; for, in accomplishing this task, Professor Soludo would have rendered an invaluable service to a people he so eagerly craves to govern,” Victor Afam Ogene, Director, Media and Publicity of the organisation, said in a statement.