Bankrupt states: Why successors may not speak up against predecessors

Except for a few of the newly inaugurated governments, most of the governors whose states are reeling un- der economic quagmire occa- sioned by the fiscal rascality that characterised the regime of their predecessors, may not be able to speak up against such ignoble roles played by the past state chief executive officers.

While Nyesom Wike is slug- ging it out with Chibuike Amae- chi in Rivers State over alleged profligacy while in office; while Abubakar Sani Bello and Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu are at log- gerheads over touted empty treasury in Niger State, and Si- mon Lalong is crying foul over the amount of debt Jonah Jang is believed to have left behind, Udom Emmanuel, governor of Akwa Ibom State, believes his predecessor, Godswill Akpabio, should rather take a bow and move on.

While Isa Yuguda and his wives are almost being dragged to Golgotha by the new adminis- tration of Governor Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar in Bauchi State for allegedly amassing stupendous wealth at the expense of the poor masses of the state; Aminu Masari and Ibrahim Sh- ema are not seeing things from the same perspective over the alleged high level of corruption that left Katsina State’s treasury empty during the latter’s administration; Nasir el-Rufai is screaming aloud over Mukhtar Ramalan Yero’s perceived fis cal rascality that mortgaged the future of Kaduna State and while Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State is taking Emmanuel Uduaghan, his predecessor, to task over N637.22billion debt profile of the state, Darius Dickson Ishaku, governor of Taraba State and Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State, appear to have decided to allow the “sleeping to lie.”

Ishaku and Ikpeazu refused to declare war against their predecessors.

In Taraba, the new governor was said to have inherited accu- mulated debts of over N27billion from his predecessors.

The debts were accumulated during the reign of Garba Umar, former act- ing governor and Sani Abubakar Danlandi who was reinstated by a Supreme Court ruling in November last year.

Upon his reinstatement, Danladi set up a committee to probe Umar over the handling of state finances, but nothing came out of the probe until he bowed out on May 29.

Umar was alleged to have dragged the state into a huge debt totaling about N20bil- lion.

During his short period in power, Danladi was said to have dragged the state deeper into debt bondage.

Although he decried the level of indebtedness of the state dur- ing his inaugural speech, Ishaku has yet to go hard on anybody to recover the alleged misappropri- ated government funds.

For Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State, “probe” is the word.

He has vowed to extricate the state from what he called its stringent mort- gage to financial institutions over a cumulative debt of N637.22 bil- lion.

Okowa made the disclosure during his maiden address to the state House of Assembly, saying: “The state is grappling with a revenue bond and indebtedness totaling N89.62billion to com- mercial banks while outstanding contractual obligation is N538, 601,962,421.50.”

Analysts who spoke with BusinessDay said either that such incumbents are gagged by the circumstances that brought them into office, or their per- sonal decisions not to start a war early in the day.

Critics are of the view that Ishaku have reasons to go hard on his predecessors over mis- management of funds but might not do so given the fact they (his predecessors) contributed directly or indirectly to his emer- gence as the governor.

The states which are owing workers, according to the Ni- geria Labour Congress (NLC) are Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Benue, Cross River, Ekiti, Imo, Jigawa, Kano, Katsina, Kogi, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Oyo, Plateau, Rivers and Zamfara.

While those governors that emerged from the opposition party are accusing their prede- cessors of leaving an empty trea- sury, those that were anointed by their predecessors have main- tained sealed lips even though they inherited months of unpaid workers’ salaries.

In Abia, one major concern workers, teachers and pension- ers had when May 29 was ap- proaching was how the backlog of their unpaid salaries, pen- sions and gratuities would be settled since the government of Theodore Orji was expiring on that day.

Many were also very certain that Okezie Ikpeazu may not be able to successfully settle the huge salary arrears, at least, in the foreseeable future, with other numerous headaches he inherited from his predecessor.

On his part, Ikpeazu was thinking that the immediate past administration would settle sal- ary issues before the handover date.

He was quoted as saying in a phone-in programme in Pacesetter FM, Umuahia, a few days to May 29 that “govern- ment has promised that it will pay all the arrears of salaries before it hands over on May 29 and when we come in, we will make the payment of salaries first charge.”

But that expecta- tion could not materialise as Orji exited office without liquidating the outstanding salaries.

A load-down of categories of workers whose salaries are yet to be paid include, the State Teach- ing Hospital (nine months); the Hospital Management Board (eight months); Abia State Uni- versal Basic Education Board (six months); Abia State Polytechnic (five months); local government workers (four months); and teachers (three months).

Speaking on the Abia situ- ation, an analyst who claimed to be sympathetic to Ikpeazu administration because of the “level of humility he exudes” said: “I really sympathise with Governor Okezie Ikpeazu.

The state, since 1999, has been badly run, particularly in the last eight years. I have read a lot about the state and when I saw the news on the refuse heaps in Aba, I nearly wept for the man.

This is because he has come to carry the can of another person.

For the refuse, the magnitude I saw on television to dot the city, it means that the immediate past administration was totally inept.

“The governor does not need to start early in the day to throw tantrum. Of course you remem- ber the role that Orji played for his emergence. At least, for now he should honour him. Talking about probe now will be infantile and in bad taste. I like the way he is going about it as if nothing was amiss. The other day, he slashed his salary by 50 percent and the emoluments of political office holders under his purview. He also announced a cut in his trav- elling allowances by 50 percent until the backlog of salaries and allowances owed workers are cleared. These are signs that he knows what he is doing.”

Akwa Ibom is also one of the states listed as being indebted to its workers.

Members of the opposition also allege that the immediate past administration of Godswill Akpabio is indebted to the tune of several billions of Nigeria.

A commentator, who identi- fied his name only as Okom told our correspondent that what is happening in Akwa Ibom as in some other states is the “politics of non-disclosure”.

“In a situation where you are made a governor by an outgoing governor- he just picked you against the wish of everyone else and sponsors you to vic- tory, even if he claims that it was the project of installing you as governor that drained the state’s purse, will you argue that? That is the case with Akwa Ibom State.

Udom Emmanuel, I don’t need to tell you how he emerged because you are a journalist. But he emerged through the process of imposition by Akpabio. So, he does not have any moral high ground to scream aloud that he met an empty treasury or unpaid salaries,” Okom said.

Moreover, many Nigerians are yet to understand why some governors with baggage of salary arrears running into seven to 10 months still won a re-election in the April 11 gubernatorial election.

Before the gubernatorial elec- tion on April 11, an off-season election had been held on Au- gust 9, 2014, in Osun State where Rauf Aregbesola was returned as governor.

Today, the governor is being accused of owing about seven months’ salary arrears.

The question that is being asked by observers is why the elector- ates, even the affected workers in the state, decided to vote for him.

Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State was able to defeat Emeka Ihedioha, immediate past deputy speaker, House of Representatives, even with a baggage of 11 months of unpaid salaries.

Okorocha is the chairman of the APC Governors’ Forum who led others last week to seek a bailout from the Federal Gov- ernment.

ZEBULON AGOMUO