‘The State is economically bleeding, airport project wasteful’ Says Governorship candidate
The 2023 People’s Democratic Party governorship candidate in Ebonyi State, Chief Chukwuma Odii said that the state under the leadership of governor Francis Nwifuru is “economically bleeding and hemorrhaging”.
Odii accused Governor Nwifuru of wasting the resources of the state on the enviable Chuba Okadigbo Airport, saying that there many areas the fund should have been channelled for better good of people of the state.
He said that lives of the Ebonyi people are thinning out in droves due to hunger and poverty, saying that the state today seems directionless.
A statement by the spokesman of his organization, “Anyi Ga Emeya Movement’, Moses Idika alleged that governor Nwifuru has wasted billions of naira on the airport that was deemed to have been completed by the immediate past administration in the State.
He alleged that after spending about ₦20 billion for the rehabilitation of the airport runway, the governor wasted more billions to pull the wife of the President, Senator Oluremi Tinubu and wives of governors from different states of the federation to the state to inaugurate the upgraded runway.
Odii, who accused Nwifuru of non-performance, argued that since May 29 2023 he took over the mantle of leadership, the state has suddenly nose-dived in all parameters of assessment.
“Recall that the Airport was inaugurated on May 26, 2023 by then President Muhammadu Buhari.
However, by September 2023, Governor Nwifuru announced that he had awarded a ₦13 billion contract for the airport. Already, information emanating from government sources indicate that close to ₦20 billion was spent for the rehabilitation of a three-month old runway.
“This is aside the fact that just four months earlier in April 2023, then Governor David Umahi announced that Ebonyi State Government spent ₦36 billion to build the airport.
“Despite these humongous amounts that were said to have been spent in building the airport, on Friday November 15, 2024 Governor Nwifuru again rolled out the drums to commission yet again, the runway of Chuba Okadigbo Airport.
This time, Governor Nwifuru invited the wife of the President, Senator Oluremi Tinubu who came to Abakaliki with a retinue of other first ladies and top government functionaries and with that visit, yet another set of billions of Ebonyi State allocation have been spent on re-commissioning of a runway that is barely one year old”, he alleged.
He said”airports are economically strategic investments that are planned and backed up with data of return on investment (ROI), but since the Chuba Okadigbo Airport was constructed, no kobo has been generated for Ebonyi State and there is no plan anywhere on how the airport can become economically viable.
“Perhaps the most astonishing show of profligacy amidst excruciating poverty and hunger is the wasteful spending of Ebonyi State resources on the Chuba Okadigbo Airport, Onueke at the slightest snap of finger.
“From the economy, infrastructure, education, health services, environment, human capital development and sanitation there is hardly any visible plan to extricate the people of the state from the stranglehold of poverty, disease, ignorance and mass starvation.
“In fact, a walk on the now dirty and unkept streets of Abakaliki clearly shows countless evidences of the grim reality facing Ndi Ebonyi today.
“An unfortunate fact is that Ebonyi State under the command of Hon. Ogbonnaya Nwifuru is currently bleeding, hemorrhaging and lives of the people are thinning out in droves due to hunger and poverty. Ebonyi State today is seemingly directionless.
“According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Ebonyi State has the highest poverty ratio in Southern Nigeria with a staggering 80% of its close to 4 million estimated population classified as living in poverty. According to data sourced from the office of the Debt Management Office (DMO), Abuja as published on their website, Ebonyi State is one highest indebted state in Nigeria.
“According to DMO data, as at June 30, 2024, Ebonyi State is owing external debt of $92, 655,060.01 or N157 billion.
Ebonyi State cumulative internal debt stands at over ₦70 billion that is aside from various commitments to some other domestic financial institution”, Odii claimed.
