Indeed the Change is already taking its effect as Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State has said that President
Muham-madu Buhari would extend bailout to states to enable them offset backlog
of salaries and liabilities crippling their economic activities across the
country.
He made this known yesterday in Makurdi, the state capital,
during separate meetings with students and other union leaders from the Benue
State University, BSU.
Ortom further revealed that his predecessor, Gabriel Suswam
left behind a debt burden of over N90 billion for his administration, contrary
to the N9.2 billion debt as claimed by the former governor.
Benue is among the distressed states in the country. Others
include Osun, Enugu, Kaduna, Plateau and Imo. Most of the states or their local
governments are said to be owing between four to six months salaries of workers
amounting to several billions of Naira.
However, according to Ortom, “the list of the debt (left
behind by Suswam) include N50 billion incurred from ongoing contracts, N18
billion on certificated contracts, N12 billion on salary arrears and about N10
billion for bonds and bank facilities and loans.”
He stated that the President had agreed to avail the states
some lifeline but noted that Benue State government had concluded arrangements
to borrow funds to pay one month of the backlog of salary arrears across board
and to also ensure the take off of both the executive and legislative arms of
government.
He said the decision was prompted by the need to demonstrate
to the state work force that he was determined to address their problems and to
persuade striking tertiary institution workers to call off their
four-months-old strike.
Earlier, President of the BSU Students’ Union Government,
Bobby Taver-shima, had lamented that students of the university had been at
home for four months but assured that they would not do anything to jeopardize
the administration.
Also, a representative of the National Associa-tion of
Nigerian Students, NANS, Gideon Obande appealed to Ortom to clear arrears of
bursary owed students in order to alleviate their sufferings.
Credit
Vanguard
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