I Disagree That Gov. Bello’s N10b Loan Was Used For Payment Of Salaries As Claimed

With all sincerity, I hope Kogi State government will prove me wrong. I read with anger reports where Governor Yahaya Bello said he got N1.2 billion from the last tranche of Paris Club Refund. That is untrue as official reports from his government told the whole world in December that Kogi state received N6.2 billion.

According to official reports, “the state net statutory allocation for the month of November shared in December is N3,070,711,628.05. The value added tax(VAT) for the same period is N823,520,284.97.  Therefore,the net state statutory distributable income for the month of December is N3,894,231,913.02. The 21 local government areas in Kogi state received a net statutory allocation of N2,664,875,020.83 for the month of December. The Value added tax(VAT) for the same period is N564,089,140.13 Hence, the local Government areas distributable statutory allocation is N3,228,964,160.95.”

In total, Kogi State and her 21 local governments received N7,123,196,073.98 from the federation account in December 2017. Add the N6.2 billion Paris Club Refund with the alleged N1 billion monthly IGR and the questionable N10 billion loan and you will arrive at N24.3 billion in December alone!

At a recent meeting with labour leaders in the state, government said the state monthly salary total is N2.6 billion. Now, let’s look at simple arithmetic, government announced that it paid 60% salaries for four months to civil servants across board (though, majority claimed they got 50%);

Kogi State Monthly Salary Total – N2.6 billion

60% of monthly total – N1.56 billion

60% salary X 4 months = N6.24 billion

This figure is what state government needed to pay all state workers 60% salaries for four months! The Paris Club alone is enough to defray this! When then did the governor obtain extra N10billion loan???

With an announced inflow of N24.3 billion into Kogi state government coffers, if you remove N6.24 billion needed for four months salaries at 60% across board, we should have a balance of N18.06 billion. Yes, I know you paid local government workers between 40-50% salaries in December as well. Let’s say you spent N6.24 billion on local government salaries (though, we all know you didn’t spent up to that), sir, we should have a clean balance of N11.82 billion in our coffers now. This still leave us with questions on the veracity of your claims that you borrowed N10 billion to pay salaries.

I am sure the state government does not expect us to keep records of these monies when they issue official press statements announcing the inflows. Sorry, we are monitoring and keeping records. Is the state government servicing debts? Which administration plunged us into the debts and for what purpose? We are entitled to verifiable information from government.

Practically, Bello only used the Paris Club Refund for salaries. He didn’t use the N10b loan for salaries.

We demand to know what Bello used, or intend to use the N10b loan for!

– Adamu Ojonugwa writes from Lokoja.