The opposition party said it feels greatly pained by the spike in Imo’s debt profile, and states in clear terms that the administration of Senator Hope Uzodimma has mortgaged the future of unborn generations with unpayable debt stock, while also elevating treasury looting to the status of state policy.
PDP in a statement signed by its state Publicity Secretary, Collins Opurozor, and made available on Monday said with a debt profile of N220 billion, Imo today has the highest Debt-to-GDP ratio in Nigeria.
The opposition party further said it therefore, alerts Ndimo, and indeed Nigerians, to a grand plot by Senator Hope Uzodimma to borrow as much as possible and plunge Imo into debt slavery, so as to flee Nigeria with enough loots upon his imminent defeat at the governorship polls in November this year.
The statement reads, “It is on record that the widely-rejected administration of Senator Uzodimma has already gotten the malleable House of Assembly to pass a bogus budget which contains nothing but a very sinister plan to borrow, just in 2023, the sum of N354 billion.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the entire receipts from FAAC to Imo State for the year 2023 would be in the region of N70 billion. The 13% Derivation Fund would total about N9.6 billion. The State’s IGR would be N13 billion. And other interventions and grants, including UBEC, would be N28 billion. That brings the total income of the State for the year to about N120.6 billion. Yet, Senator Uzodimma has planned to fritter away the sum N475 billion within the year. The deficit, which is N354 billion, would be raised through borrowings.
“Still unsatisfied with that amount, Senator Uzodimma has again sent a supplementary budget of N118 billion to the parliament. This will also be financed through loans and squandered as usual. This shows Senator Uzodimma has already perfected plans to leave behind a cumulative debt burden of over N700 billion. It will take more than ten generations to clear this mess which the unelected regime has created in just three years.
“It is curious that in all of the landmark borrowings by Senator Uzodimma, no effort has been made to redraw the industrial landscape of the State by re-jigging investments in the hugely vital agro-industrial sector where Imo has major comparative advantage. Adapalm has remained moribund, Imo Rubber Estates and Avutu Poultry Farm have remained comatose.
“Equally, Nsu Tiles Company, Umuna Bricks Factory, Egbema Power Plant and Inyishi Aluminium Extrusion Plant are some key investments with the capacity to rev-up the local economy and employ a vast majority of the teeming unemployed Imo youths. Yet, they have been left to rot away, even when Imo under this anti-people regime of Senator Uzodimma has been officially designated by the NBS as the unemployment capital of Nigeria.”
