19th August, 2015
The Coalition of Human Rights Defenders (COHRD) has flayed Akwa Ibom state Governor Udom Emmanuel over his request to convert debts owed by the state to federal government bonds. The group in a statement said such conversion amounts to failure of governance in the state.
On Tuesday, August 18, 2015, the governor had in a letter to the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, requested approval to convert debts owed and obtained from commercial banks in the country by former governor Godswill Akpabio’s administration to federal government bond.
The group in a statement said the development “is another incontrovertible evidence of the gross failure of governance in Akwa Ibom State and the shameful, scandalous and criminal waste of public funds by the erstwhile administration. For us, this is a tacit admission by Mr. Udom Emmanuel that indeed the state is in financial crisis and comatose. The proposal which seeks to convert and restructure the bad loans to bond with the assistance of the Debt Management Office (DMO) will have a tenor of between 15-20 years. The implication is that for the period, the state will have the responsibility of servicing the bond which will be a huge burden on the next generation”.
It was gathered that the governor in the letter said the arrangement centred on restructuring commercial bank loans into federal government bond as a measure to restore fiscal stability to the state. He further hinted that the National Economic Council meeting held on June this year with the title
“Options for liquidating unpaid salaries by state government”, makes it possible for the state to take advantage of the initiative in partnership with the Debt Management Office (DMO) and the Federal Ministry of Finance.
But the statement signed by Inibehe Effiong, Convener, Coalition of Human Rights Defenders (COHRD), said “regrettably, Mr. Udom Emmanuel did not state in his letter the exact amount of money owed commercial banks in the country by the state government. This we believe is wilful and deliberate. It is a continuation of the culture of running government without any modicum of regard to the dictates of transparency, accountability and good governance”.
The group urged the President Muhammadu Buhari administration to consider requests by state governments to convert their loans to federal government bonds on individual merit due regards being paid to whether such loans were properly utilised by the affected states in consonance with the accountability mantra of the government.
The group further noted with concern the alleged failure by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to duly investigate petitions on embezzlement of funds by the former administration.