The Niger State Transition Committee set up by the All Progressives Congress has disclosed that the outgoing Peoples Democratic Party government led by Dr. Muazu Babangida Aliyu is leaving a huge debt of N56 billion.
The head of the committee and Deputy Governor-elect, Alhaji Mohammed Ketso, said this on Wednesday when he presented the report at the Presidential Lounge in Minna.
The report was presented to the Governor-elect, Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello.
Ketso said the committee reviewed the debt profile of the outgoing government and discovered the debt profile submitted by their own report is N56 billion.
Bello, popularly known as Abu Lolo, while receiving the report said: “I believe each and everyone of us is concerned about the situation of Niger State as it is today.
“It is not about what we will get as individuals but it’s about how we position ourselves for the future.
“There is the need to establish new means of generating funds, new ways of managing resources.
“We do not have too much money to spend for the committees because like you said, we are inheriting over N56 billion already as a government.
“Now, we have to make some sacrifices, establish new means of generating funds, new ways of managing resources.
“Without funding, nothing can work.
“We have to be very prudent in our new way of spending and we have to cut cost.
“You may not get what we want today or what you aspire for, but if we are able to move the state and to a larger extent our nation forward, at some point you will meet your destiny.”
Assuring the committee of better scrutiny, he said: “I will go through your report and I will engage people to go through the report.
“We will look at it and probably do some more work because sometimes you have to lump up some suggestions.
“See how we can understand it better.
“We want an indepth analysis with a view to coming up with solutions.”
Ketso said: “After the committee met, it verified and ascertained five sub-sectors, namely; Political and Governance, Finance, Economics, Social and Infrastructure.
“We made observations and consolidated the report submitted by the sub-committees and made it a single report, which was sent to the PDP transition committee for them to go through and then give us the clean copy.
“We did so, but up till this moment after waiting for a very long time they responded through their letter intimating us that they have updated the earlier report given to us.
“And we decided on our own to go through the report we have and make the necessary recommendations to His Excellence to serve as a template for the incoming administration.
“In the political and governance sub-sector, we recommended to His Excellency to reposition the Local Government Authority by de-centralization.
“To strengthen the LGA so as to reduce the burden the state is now facing.
“On the Finance sub-sector, we reviewed the debt profile and we discovered the debt profile submitted by their own report is N56 billion.
“We also discussed about the recommendation on the internally generated revenue and how to improve on it because as it is now, we don’t know the level of internal revenue that the state generates.
“One of the things we have outlined for the incoming administration is how to improve on IGR.
“We also recommended that you (Governor-elect) set up a vision with a clear target.
“There is no way you will take up the leadership mandate of a state without a vision.
“It has to be clear to Nigerlites that this is his direction.”
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