Fayemi, at 100 days in office, laments Ekiti’s N155.7bn debt

GOVERNOR Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State on Thursday marked the first 100 days of his administration with the signing of the 2018 budget, a state of the state address, flag off of new Iyin road project and stakeholders forum and launch of Ekiti Youth Empowerment Programme.

Dr Fayemi, who addressed the people of the state at the House of Assembly, claimed that his administration had “many success stories to devout within this short but remarkably significant period” but lamented that the state was indebted to the tune of N155.7billion, incurred in the last four years.

Governor Fayemi said upon his assumption of office on October 16, 2018, he promised: “to ensure we thoroughly review, document and widely disseminate the present state of affairs offs that all and sundry could know what had become of our commonwealth.”

He said in line with the promise to reveal the state’s debt profile, “I now present to you the total debt profile of Ekiti State as at 16th October 2018, which stood at N155,791,785,214.08.”

He gave the breakdown of the debts to include loans, N57,694,460,298.79; salary arrears; outstanding leave bonus; corps members allowance; outstanding subventions; pension and gratuity arrears; outstanding contract claims; outstanding furniture allowance; outstanding severance allowance; monetised vehicle arrears; outstanding warrants; outstanding FIRS obligation; traditional rulers arrears; judgement debts and other outstanding liabilities.”

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Governor Fayemi said “borrowing, in itself, cannot be considered a bad thing. However borrowing to finance white elephant, unproductive or self-serving projects, is grossly unpatriotic.”

Also as part of the day’s activities, Governor Fayemi flagged off the construction of 7.2-kilometre new Iyin Road in Ado Ekiti, noting they the road, which was first awarded by the federal government in 1978 would open up the state capital to further development and commercial activities.

The governor explained that the road was actually Ado-Efon road and that the government was taking its construction in phases, saying the Ado – Iyin section of the project was only the first phase.

He charged the people of the state to brace up for the acquisition of all land in the area, saying the government was looking at the construction of a befitting GRA in the state capital.

He said the road, which was initially designed to be a single carriageway, would now be a dual carriageway and added that it is expected to be ready in 24 months.

Governor Fayemi also launched the Ekiti Youth Empowerment Programme, where 6,300 youths would be trained in various skills acquisition in partnership with development partners such as the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) and Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

The four-phase programme, covering vocational training on agricultural business, cosmetology, carpentry, tailoring, bead-making, building and other small and medium scale business enterprises that require both little start-up capitals and a little bit higher ones.