The N6 billion loan facility that Governor Inuwa Yahaya has secured in just 70 days after his assumption will entrap Gombe state into needless debt conundrum.
This was disclosed on Thursday by Alhaji Dahiru Hassan Kera, a former special adviser on media and publicity to Governor Ibrahim Dankwambo.
He said the governor’s claims while addressing APC leadership in the state that he had borrowed about N2.5 billion to pay May and June salaries and another N3.4 billion for malnutrition is outrageous and alarming.
He said the World Bank loan to tackle malnutrition in the state was hastily obtained without any due diligence and fiscal impact assessment by the Inuwa-led administration.
“It is sad that the APC administration, has in less than three months, accumulated a N5.9 billion debt without a corresponding impact. It is clear that the Inuwa’s regime is recklessly mortgaging the state and future of our children,” he said.
He added that “the recent loan agreement signed by the State Government and ANRiN is an outright misplacement of priority for a government that said it does not have means to sustain the tertiary institutions established by the previous administration in the state.
“Inuwa inherited a state that has been on a viable pace of development set up by his predecessors, and instead of consolidating on this enormous gains, he’s now embarking upon on loan jamboree, accumulating debt, engaging in unnecessary political witch-hunt and setting up committees upon committees to the detriment of the state”
The Dankwambo’s ex-spokesperson said the establishment of countless committees and task force on virtually everything under the sun by the APC administration in the state “validates our stands that Inuwa and APC are not ready for governance. They are just accidental leaders.”
He said the governor should know that “making the red tape longer by setting up dozens task force and committees won’t improve the governance index in the state.”
Kera said the tactics deployed by Governor Yahaya to attract public sympathy by ceaseless criticisms of the former administration as excuse for his gross incompetence “will not in any way stop us from asking for what he has promised people.”