The Abia State governor, Alex Otti has predicted difficult times and challenging moment ahead.
He stated his administration inherited N50 billion unpaid salaries arrears gratuities, pensions from his predecessor, Okezie Ikpeazu.
The newly elected Governor said this while delivering his inaugural speech on Monday May 29, 2023 when he assured that the problems are surmountable.
Otti noted that Abia State local and foreign debt profile is reported to be in the region of N200 billion from the PDP government.
The debt is in addition to other debts to contractors that were engaged by the State, according to the Governor who was elected on the platform of Labour Party.
He stated these challenges accounted for poorly motivated workforce, extreme youth unemployment, collapsed physical infrastructure, and poor Primary, Secondary and tertiary Healthcare delivery system in the State.
This is in addition to a broken educational system, urban waste disposal crisis and a large army of citizens, especially teachers, health workers, including medical doctors and nurses, lecturers in tertiary institutions, Local Government Authority workers and most painfully, our senior citizens, governor Otti said.
He said, “I must be frank to inform you that we have a very difficult and challenging road ahead of us. Abia State is starting, not from zero, but from an enormously negative position, while we were busy battling with the devastating effects of insincere and corrupt leadership, the rest of the world, and even many parts of Nigeria, would appear to have left us behind.
‘We have a treasury that has been criminally ravaged to the extent that we have an alleged N50 billion in unpaid salaries, gratuities, and pensions. Our local and foreign debt overhang is reported to be in the region of N200 billion, in addition to other debts to contractors”, according to the Governor.
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