by Femi Adesola
Nigeria bureau of statistics, a body that oversees and publishes statistics in Nigeria, this weekend published the internally generated revenue, debt profile and ranking by the highest growth of each state via the Statistician general’s twitter handle (@sgyemikale) Dr Yemi Kale.
Osun sat at the bottom of the rankings on a negative figure of -26.99%, with Akwa Ibom and Bauchi state sitting comfortably at the bottom three, according to the infographics released by the Statistician General. The infographic revealed the state’s internally generated revenue dropped sharply from N8,884,756,040.35 to N6,486,524,226.45 in 2017.
The infographic further revealed the State’s debt profile, where the total domestic debt stands at N138,239,593287.18 and the total foreign debt stand at $96,607,386. Osun comfortably sits at the top of the table amongst Lagos, Rivers and Ogun, that have more financial capacity from FAAC and sufficient internally generated revenue to service their debt.
These has generated controversies over the years. As the major opposition party in the state, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP and some indigenous civil society organization has berated the Governor on the massive debt profile. Many believed the debt profile of the state is shrouded in secrecy as the government has never come out to tell the actual figure of the debt. It is also the general belief that this financial constraint is the reason why the government cannot pay her workers salary as at when due.
Meanwhile, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola has repeatedly justified the debt profile, that it’s grossly exaggerated just to paint his government in bad light. He maintained the debt being touted as huge debt is nothing compared with the development that the state has witnessed in the last seven years of his administration.
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