Senator Kaka, PDP, others kick against Ogun bond bill

As the executive bill seeking an enabling law to raise bonds and other financial instruments passed through first reading at the Ogun State House of Assembly last Thursday, some stakeholders have kicked against the move.

The Peoples Democratic Party, the Peoples Party of Nigeria, the National Association of Nigerian Students, and Senator Adegbenga Kaka, have cautioned the Governor Ibikunle Amosun-led administration against using such financial instrument to access fresh loans.

Kaka, who is member of the Action Congress of Nigeria, spoke against the bill in Abeokuta alongside leaders of the PPN, the PDP and NANS.

He argued that state government should first determine the value and economic viability of the projects it wanted to embark on before taking loans for the purpose in order not to further plunge the state into financial problems.

He challenged the Amosun administration to let the people of the state know the true and current debt profile as well as the repayment sources of the loans it planned to secure.

The lawmaker, however, stressed that the repayment plan for such loans should not exceed the lifespan of the current administration.

Similarly, the Ogun State PPN Director of Organisation, Deji Kalejaiye said the people of the state must resist the government’s plan to take fresh loans through bond.

Also, the Senator Oladipo Odujinrin-led PDP in Ogun State urged all well-meaning citizens of the state “To rise up against the plan to mortagage their lives by the ACN government in the state.”

The party in a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Bidemi Osunbiyi, said that the alleged plan by the state government to obtain loans through the bond would enslave the future generations in the state.

It recalled that Governor Amosun was one of those prominent Nigerians who called for mass action on the pages of newspapers in 2010 against his predecessor for wanting to take similar step.

NANS on its own part described as “desperate” the alleged move by Governor Amosun administration to access the capital market through the instrumentality of the bond.

The association in a communiqué issued at the end of its National Executive Meeting held at the Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro and jointly signed by its National Vice President, Adeyemi Azeez and Secretary General, Thomas Hilejime, urged the Ogun State House of Assembly members to reject such a bill.

But in a reaction, the Ogun ACN Publicity Secretary, Mr. Sola Lawal, described the PPN utterances as that of a party seeking relevance.