A Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, governorship aspirant in Edo State, Pastor
Osagie Ize-Iyamu, has disclosed that the Adams Oshiomhole-led administration in
the state received over N1 trillion in the last seven and a half years from the
Federation Account and Internally Generated Revenue,
IGR, but lamented that the
fund was squandered on highly inflated projects that were not evenly distributed
across the state.
He also accused the state government of focusing on two sectors of the
economy to the detriment of other critical sectors, regretting that the evils of
poverty and unemployment were not tackled while agriculture, industry, tourism,
sports, housing and other sectors were neglected Pastor Ize-Iyamu, a former
Secretary to the Edo State Government, disclosed this in a paper entitled, Edo
State Economy: The Way out, he presented at a town hall meeting, yesterday, in
Benin, organised by a group, House 2 House Support Initiative.
According to him, “Edo State Government in the past seven and a half years
received over N1 trillion as revenue from the Federation Account and IGR. This
is unprecedented in the revenue profile of the state since its inception.
This huge revenue was unfortunately not used to grow the economy of the state
but squandered on highly inflated projects that were not evenly distributed
across the state.
“They were restricted to one or two sectors to the detriment of other
critical areas.
The evils of poverty and unemployment were not tackled while sectors such as
agriculture, industry, tourism, sports, housing, solid minerals were
ignored.
Existing factories like Bendel Brewery, Edo Line, Edo Courier, Edo Hotel and
Bendel Insurance have been allowed to collapse.
“A government that chooses deliberately to ignore agriculture, industry, tourism, sports, solid minerals, etc cannot be seriously concerned about the economy of the state.
The present government has, however, made serious effort at increasing the internally generated revenue of the state from N300 million monthly when they came in to N2billion monthly. This is commendable.”
No comments:
Post a Comment