The Elites Network for Sustainable Development, a Kwara-based Civil Society Organization reputed for its #FollowKwaraMoney activities, has questioned the Rt. Hon. Salihu Yakubu Danladi-led Kwara State House of Assembly over the N35 billion bond recently approved for Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq-led Kwara State Government.
This was contained in a letter signed by its Director of Legal Services, Lukman Raji, and submitted to the Clerk of the Assembly on February 2, 2021.
ENetSuD relied on Constitutional provisions to ask for necessary information from the Assembly, which approved the bond.
“Our Freedom to receive information is guaranteed by Section 39(1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and we believe that the KWHA, as a legislature making laws for Kwarans subject to the provisions of the constitution, will recognize our Freedom and provide us with our requests without hindrance,” Raji said.
Apart from the fact that ENetSuD is a CSO that consists solely of Kwara citizens, Raji added that the Assembly, being the House of the people of Kwara State, is the appropriate arm of government to provide explanations to citizens on decisions taken on “our behalf”, especially on legislation and financial matters (under its approval) that affect us as citizens.
The pieces of information that we are requesting herein are of high public interest, and reasonably supersede any need for the Assembly to decline this request and conceal them from us, ENetSuD told the Clerk.
The information requested by ENetSuD from the clerk of the KWHA are as follow:
1) The exact amount of bond requested by Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq;
2) The exact amount of bond approved for the Governor by the KWHA;
3) The detailed budget of the projects that the bond is proposed for (including the name of each project, the amount budgeted for each project, the contract sum of each project, the location of each project, and the executing Ministry, Department, and Agency of each project);
4) The project codes, names of projects, and other information on the projects that the bond will be used for as contained in the approved 2021 budget;
5) The proposed payment plan for the bond;
6) The detailed information on any loan approved for the KWSG in the 2021 budget (aside from the bond);
7) The detailed information on the projects that the loan will be used to execute (including the name of each project, the amount budgeted for each project, the contract sum of each project, the location of each project, and the executing Ministry, Department, and Agency of each project);
8) The project codes, names of projects, and other information on the projects that the loan will be used for as contained in the approved 2021 budget; and
9) The debt profile of the KWSG as at today.
ENetSuD said that as a legislative arm of government vested with the power of approval of the bond before the executive can access it, all the pieces of information requested above are believed to be available with the KWHA.
“We base our beliefs on the informed assumption that the KWHA must have carefully vetted all these pieces of the necessary information and certified them as satisfactory before it approved the bond,” the letter stated.
A copy of the letter was submitted to the Secretary to the Kwara State Government, who is also the Secretary of the State Executive Council.