BREAKING NEWS, Politics
PETER Obi, former Governor of Anambra State, has advised governors not to use the Paris Club refunds to pay workers’ salaries. He suggested that the money should be used in a planned manner that would be of benefit to the people. He stated this while on a discussion programme on Classic FM, Lagos.
“States should be made to save the refunds. They have enough to pay salaries and meet their other obligations. There is no reason for any Governor not to pay salaries. Why must we share everything? We must develop a culture of saving. By now we should have changed our Constitution to say that we should save 10% of our oil revenue. We must realise that we must deprive ourselves of Epicurean comfort and prepare adequately for the rainy days,” Obi said.
On how to overcome economic recession, the former governor said that basically economies were driven by faith, urging leaders of Nigeria’s to always behave, by action and in words, in a way that would elicit confidence in the economy. He said that while he was not averse to borrowing, “there should be a clear plan on what to do with the money and how to pay back.”
On sustainable development of the country’s transport sector, Obi advocated concession, including airports and roads, but cautioned that they should be given to the right persons who would do the work well and not to cronies or family members of people in Government.
When asked about the talk in Anambra that he was able to deliver as Governor because he had more money with which to work, Obi emphatically said it was not true. His words: “First, I do not know why some people are concerned with comparing me and those that took over from me. The assertion of receiving 25% of what I received is totally unfounded. Let us take our first three years; go and check the statistics from the Ministry of Finance, those that took over from me actually received more than I did in the period under review. At that time, I did not complain; I utilised whatever we received and was even able to save out of it. Remember, at that time our IGR (Internally Generated Revenue) was smaller; we did not receive any extra as Paris Club Refund, even the small extra we received here and there, we saved them.”
Obi noted that the managing of economies is not achieved by dwelling on comparisons or by delivery of good speeches, but by effective management of money. He said that in his efforts towards fiscal discipline, a lot of people said they were not happy with him, but insisted that those that govern states must realise that the business of governance is not about making individuals happy, but about contributing to the building of public wealth and welfare. “I am not stingy but I have an allergy to money being used wrongly,” he submitted.
On the way forward for the country, Obi advised investment in education, especially by government partnering with the Church. His words: “If we don’t invest in our children now what will we do when they are old? Government has no business running schools; that was why we handed over mission schools to the owners. Our job should be supervision, not transaction.” – News Express
— Mar 27, 2017 @ 7:58 GMT
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Dear Reporter/ Moderator
I did agree with ever lovable Peter Obi, this is one ex governor you ever love to listen to, but I have always disagreed with his idea of saving state funds when there a lot of projects to embark on.
In pure management you don’t go saving money when that money will be useful some where. The money you save when there’s lots of project to embark on to fast track development, more so when you cant say for sure that the one taking over would likely be as prudent as you are.. In the case of A Anambra state, there were many sectors that has not received enough attention (funding)to give it a true fac, Many towns and communities have not received matching attention of government to enable their true potential come into bear.
The commerce sector(the main sector easterners are best for) in the east have not also received enough attention.
The education who which has shown to be best managed in his tenor os yet to attained a competitive height when compare with institutions in other African nations.
With the few identified sectors yet to be funded well, why will we stack the fund to be used in all these projects in a cooler for use in rainy days whiles we are facing worse than a rainy day. The same money you save could be subject of devaluation and may not fund same project if was used earlier.
Having said all, Mr peter obi is the best politician to watch.