RECENTLY, Senator Olubunmi Adetunmbi, ACN, Ekiti North, made a baseless statement concerning Enugu State in the Senate. He claimed that Enugu State is in a financially critical state and that she is facing bankruptcy.

He did not state the basis of his assertion and offered no extraneous proof. He did not explain whatever informed the, but simply tossed out such a weighty statement. The senator is wrong and we believe that a retraction and an apology from him would be in order.

Does the senator know that since May 2007, Enugu State has paid salaries on time, every month, without fail? Does he know that Enugu State, without borrowing,has paid October, 2011 salaries even when the federal allocation for the month of October 2011 has not been shared, even before the ‘healthy states?’

Does he know that this is not the first time such has happened and that Enugu State does in fact pay monthly salaries, on time, every month, whether monthly allocations have been shared for the month or not? Does the senator know that Enugu State is not owing a single contractor despite the massive infrastructural projects that Governor Sullivan Chime has embarked upon since 2007? Does he know that Enugu State was the first state to pay the minimum wage in the South East, and was perhaps one of the first two or three in the whole country to first pay the minimum wage?

Does he know that Enugu State was buoyant enough not only to pay the minimum wage but to also to clear the minimum wage arrears beginning April, 2011?

Does the senator know that unlike some other states, Enugu State has not rushed to the capital market to raise long-term bonds to finance the numerous infrastructural developmental projects that Governor Chime has embarked upon since 2007. The senator and I know that bonds are debt, and that the proceeds from such bonds, if misused, could spell future financial doom for the states in question.

Thus states such as Lagos (N15bn) in 2002, Lagos (series 1-N50bn), Lagos (series II-N57.5bn), Imo (N18.5bn), Kwara (N17bn), Niger (N6bn), Bayelsa (N50bn), Kaduna (N8.5bn), Ebonyi (N16.5bn), Ogun (N50bn), Delta (N5bn) in 2007), Kebbi (N3.5bn) in 2006, and Yobe (N2.5bn) in 2002 are in a comparatively more precarious situation than Enugu State.

Again, the senator should know that Enugu State did not rush to the capital markets to raise bonds/ borrow and perhaps mortgage her financial future. Instead Governor Chime has used a sound and uncanny fiscal sense to manage the little allocation/IGR that Enugu State gets every month.

Does it not amaze the senator how Governor Chime has achieved so much with so little?

Does he know that since May 2007, Enugu State has religiously paid up her counterpart contributions for almost all of her syndicated-funding projects? Does he know that Enugu State has invested heavily and prudently in key sectors of her economy? Does he know that with her sound investments in agriculture and food production that Enugu State is geared to achieve self-sufficiency in food production by 2013 (well short of her earlier goal of 2015)?

Does he know that Enugu State’s wise investments in physical infrastructure especially in the metropolis is now paying off with increasing investor interest in the state, and a population boom through migration from other states to Enugu State, and healthy and increasing real estate values, a returning manufacturing/ industrial base, and a down-ward unemployment index, and a rising middle class etc?

We cannot believe that the senator did not know these things before he made such a baseless claim against Enugu State in the hallowed halls of the Nigerian Senate.

Furthermore, senator, on the matter of the revenue allocation formula between the federal, state, and local governments, we also understand that he and Senators Ndoma-Egba, James Manager, Sola Adeyeye, etc, would like an upward review of the allocation formula so that state governments would end up with a higher percentage than the federal government as is currently the case.

We understand that he wants to portray that the current financial state of the state governments compel his desire for an upward review, but he did not have to attach a false, baseless and irresponsible label on a fiscally prudent and exemplary state such as Enugu in order to make his point. In conclusion, Senator, you were wrong. A retraction and an apology from you would be in order.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/11/enugu-not-bankrupt-an-open-letter-to-senator-adetumbi/

Enugu / Gov Chime - well done,