In this Interview on Channels Television ‘Politics Today’ monitored by Deborah Onyofufeke, the Governor of Ebonyi State, Dave Umahi, says in the last seven and half years, he has been able to offset the huge debts of the state when he took over, adding that his infrastructural development stride has made the electorate to prefer the ruling All Progressives Congress (ACP) as their chosen party ahead of the 2023 general elections

You recently presented the 2023 budget to the Ebonyi State House of Assembly, which will be your last as governor, and it was observed that the proposed budget estimate is lower than that of last year, what is responsible for this?

We have a reduction of about 4.13 per cent, compared with the 2022 budget. You know, since we are still joined in shifters from 2019, the World Bank programme and the Federal Government, precisely the Federal Ministry of Finance, it’s been a process where there is transparency and honesty in the budgeting process meaning to say that, you don’t just start putting figures, you have to do your budgeting in such that the expected total receipt will almost be equal to the budget expenditures and there is a price we usually win under sifters by just simply doing this and that’s what we’ve done, taking the knowledge on the performances in terms of the capital receipt from 2022, so, we decided to scale down, those receipts we know, will not come in 2023.

You look at the budget for education, is there any reason why there’s that significant reduction? I mean the number is very low. Those that have criticised that budget said that’s a very ridiculous percentage for education

Fifteen per cent of our budget in 2022, we had 25 per cent, 25.5 per cent, and 103 per cent projected of course to December 31 this year. So, this year, we now have 15 per cent for education. For me, it is consolidation. It is a budget of consolidation and continuity. So, there are a couple of things.

What legacy will be left behind? A few infrastructure projects here and there but you have also borrowed some money. Would you say you are leaving a very big burden for the next government?

Point of correction, it’s not a few infrastructures, we’ve turned Ebonyi state into a construction site, even 5hours, we won’t be able to mention all the infrastructures we’ve put in place in Ebonyi state. For me, the greatest legacy as an administration is one of the confidence we’ve instilled in our people, the confidence that our people can boldly say look, I am from Ebonyi State, because of the transformation that has taken place in Ebonyi state, the second one is that, I have made more business people, I have made more contractors, more engineers, than the number of politicians I’ve made. The infrastructure given is one of the things that is a must you have to do. Education is a must, and health is a must but these things are very important because when you build a people, then they will build a nation. So, these are my legacies. You know, people will be thinking I am talking about the international airport, I will be talking about the famous David Umahi University, I will be talking about the mall, and I will be talking about the concrete roads of over 1,000 kilometres of eight inches of concrete. No. My legacies should be on human capital development.

One of the reasons why people will perhaps be interested in how you spend the money of people of Ebonyi State is not only the money you’ve spent in the infrastructures you’ve done or how you have gone about it, you look at it, there is a rise in the debt profile of about 39.62 per cent, the budget of that state from the debt management office as at end of March this year is about N41bn and there are old pensions of people of the state, in all of these, you are building numerous infrastructure project. I mean, what is responsible for the priorities?

I’m saying they should be giving us kudos because Ebonyi in terms of debt profile is the least indebted state in the entire South-East, Ebonyi State is also the third least indebted state in the entire nation of 36 states and FCT and I think we’ve done very well. So, what are the facilities, we’ve only been able to access the facilities of N8bn towards the efforts of our development, and basically, the rest of the loans were loans that were inherited from the past administration, like the loans on aides, the loans on flood control measures, and so and so forth. So people will be expecting that we have borrowed. We have not borrowed. We’ve done very well in terms of managing the resources of this state.

Are there moves to borrow more before you leave office?
I don’t know. If there is a need to borrow more, you know, infrastructure is a catalyst. Catalyst in the development of any nation or any state and so, if I need to borrow more, I need to know what I’m doing with it. It’s my desire and I’m very conscious of that, you know, I hate borrowing and I am very conscious that I don’t leave debt profile for the incoming administration rather I am going to leave wealth because, you know, my first sales is that I am a good man, a good father, you know leaves wealth for his children so I am not going to leave debt. Even the one that I borrowed, this N8bn I am making every effort through the sifters, gains to pay back that N8bn before I leave office.

The question now is, if you are borrowing, whatever policy decision you are making, as a governor, what the priorities are, and having said earlier, your decision either to borrow to build infrastructure, where do you place the pensions of the people of Ebonyi State?

We’ve been talking about pensions and gratuity and pension for the balance of that. My administration has not owed any pension or gratuity, we rather have paid a lot of backlog of pension and gratuity when we came on board. The balance of pension and gratuity in Ebonyi State at the state level is N3bn. We met the backlog of pension and gratuity in 2015 when we came on board and what we did as a priority was to use our Paris Club to offset over 70 per cent of this debt, where we have N3bn for our pension and gratuity and that will completely pay off the debt.

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So, there are plans to pay them. The good news is they should be expecting that they will get their payment. It’s captured in the budget. That’s what you are telling us now governor?

It’s in the budget and that’s why you have the budget of the ministry of finance to be 19 per cent which is the highest what do we intend to do, to pay off the N8bn loan we took from the UK and to pay off the N3bn for pension and gratuity and to pay off about N3.5bn of retention fees to contractors and so, we have that intention not only that, we also have the intention to give a kind of allowance to every civil servant in Ebonyi State for Christmas package.

Now, before I move into politics, the issues of N41bn or more are debt burden on the state, this is what you will be leaving for the next administration and that is going to be a difficult one for whoever becomes the next governor of Ebonyi State, you regret this circumstance that you probably will be leaving behind isn’t it?

I don’t understand the application of N41bn, but don’t forget that we met more than N41bn when we came on board. Let me explain to you the circumstance of the so-called N41bn, we came on board and met the Abakaliki Flood Control which was about a N12bn project, initiated by the past administration, of course, we inherited it and we’ve been offsetting it. We also have our loan with African Development Bank, for the development of 198 kilometres of Ring Road, which is very important cutting across 18 local government areas of the state and this is not a loan that you pay off once. It is staggered over several years so we’ve paid these loans, we’ve reduced these loans and the only loan we can say we took is the N8bn which is towards our airport and our construction and so, we are very happy with our debt profile and this debt, are not debt that you have to repay today. So, this is very important. I think you should be commending us for being very prudent in our resource management knowing fully well the meagre resources we have here, and knowing fully well our place in terms of allocation, and yet we were so disciplined as not to borrow compared to the numbers of infrastructure we put on place. We are very proud of our performance and I’m sure that God is also very proud and happy with us.
Do you fear that your party may not be able to retain power knowing fully well that you left the PDP for the APC and those who are saying that the APC does not have as much ground in Ebonyi State?

If somebody tells you that there is another political party in Ebonyi State apart from APC, you should ask the person to shut up. In the sense that what I have done in Ebonyi State, you cannot controvert that. I am very proud of what APC has done in Ebonyi State and you cannot take on that. None of them is capable of taking on that and by the 22nd of this month, we are going to have a rally and I’m announcing that no support should come from any other state of South-East. Only Ebonyi people and I are going to put in that field 50,000 Ebonyans to come and welcome our presidential candidate as that is the strength of APC just by 24hrs call. So, there is no opposition party in Ebonyi state, it’s only APC all over.

They are accusing you of intimidation and fear tactics, how true is that?

Nobody is intimidating anybody. I’m not the first governor that is making an executive order, banning without permission, the use of schools, and marketplaces for rallies without permission. So, let me put the record very straight, what we have said is that if there is a boarding school, especially a female boarding school we don’t want political rallies to take place there because there have been in the past, cases of rape. Raping the girls in the name of political rallies and so, what we have said is if you want to use any of the primary or secondary schools, please, we would like you to take permission from the ministry of education and we said the ministry of education you cannot withhold access.

What do you mean?
What we mean is that a political party that is going to campaign, including APC in Ebonyi State which is going to hold a rally in schools and market places, must have means of passing waste. They must have means of cleaning up the premises when they finish. They must have meant that if they destroy the school infrastructure they have to replace it. So we have not banned anybody from use of these premises we are simply saying.