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| Peter Obi |
Dr. Alex Otti, the gubernatorial
candidate for APGA in the last Abia State gubernatorial election and the man
many believed secured enough popular votes and electoral spread to have been
declared winner of the said election, recently confirmed in professional
language that His Excellency Peter Obi
truly saved 155.6 million dollars in three banks before he handed over in 2014.
What
shouldn't have ever been in dispute but for the fact that Obi's predecessor had
other ideas about continuity and governance generally - all negative - became a
protracted battle where His Excellency
Willie Obiano and his advisers engaged all manner of journeymen to attempt
to deny the existence of such savings with ''near cash'', as one of the most
floated coinages of public deceit.
But
records don't lie, especially one kept in banks. Besides, a prudent man like
the vice presidential candidate of PDP in the last gubernatorial election is
never a man to make mistake in financial figures. He is not called Mr. Prudence
for nothing and many say that God created him from his mother's womb solely to
take very efficient care of public funds.
''Peter Obi is one of the few leaders of the country that has his
head properly screwed on his shoulders,'' Otti,
the former Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Diamond Bank, began. After pouring the
usual encomiums any progressive mind would on the man we fondly call Okwute,
Otti went to the meat.
''Like yours truly had done in the past, one can attest to the fact
that some $155million was invested in the tier two capital of three Nigerian
banks with maturities of about 5 years at interest rates of up to 9% per annum
to the credit of the State. As at the time the investments were made, the Naira
equivalent of the funds was about N25b. If those funds were rolled over at maturity
in 2019, they would be worth about N62b today. If interest is assumed to remain
at 9% for the past 6 years, an additional N33.5b would have accrued to bring
the present value of the investments to over N95b. This is one of the
advantages of prudence and financial literacy,'' he said.
For
the uninitiated, Otti was the Managing Director of Diamond Bank when these
savings were made. Now, why did Okwute start saving in dollars? Yes, dollars is
the safest currency to save in, especially if it is for long-term span.
Inflation and devaluation hardly affect the all-powerful American currency
while our own Naira ever suffers by steady devaluation against the
international trading currency. So reasons Okwute saved in dollars is a no
brainer actually.
The
major question is - what project/s did the very foresighted ex-governor have in
mind before taking up the task of saving in hard currency? It truly was not to
fight Coronavirus, even though a fraction of it would have been used to fight
the pandemic without harming the main goal. It was neither for road
construction nor for building flyovers. They were mainly for:
1. Industrialization of dear state.
Okwute
and his team studied China's model of industrial growth and decided to copy,
then model to suit our environment and financial capability. Regional
governments in China contributed immensely to China's economic growth. Okwute
planned to start a saving culture where by 2025-30, Anambra State would have
saved over a billion dollars. This money would be used to spring up a 1000 SMEs
all over the state. This would be in partnership with willing Anambrarians as
shareholders, with the state providing 50% of the share capital. Imagine an
Anambra with 1000 SMEs in full production! Imagine the jobs that would be created!
Imagine the IGR for the state! Imagine if Anambra would ever depend on Federal
Revenue for robust development!
2. Okwute's government already negotiated for a World Bank
interest-free loan for STEM Education.
STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and
Mathematics. The $40 million loan was to have been accessed by his
predecessor immediately he came into office to use to train Anambra youths in
the STEM field to adequately prepare them for the planned industrial revolution
in the state. It would be of little gain to build industries only to employ
Chinese to man them just because we lack adequately trained manpower. Besides,
UN study projected vacancy for over 20 million jobs in the field of modern
technology by 2020. COVID-19 may have scuttled that but Okwute wanted ndi
Anambra to be part of that global workforce.
3. Erosion Control.
Again
an interest-free loan of 60 million dollars was negotiated for Obiano's use on
take-off to tackle all erosion problems in the state. This total of $100
million dollars loan without any interest would have seamlessly been repaid
from the dollar savings by 2025, while our state would have been free of any
erosion problem within two years of Obiano's tenure as well as having
adequately trained up to about 250,000 Anambra youths in the new world order of
STEM Education and Gov Obiano would have taken all the credit!
Instead,
an acclaimed auditor, an accountant and a banker admitted he dived into
squandering the money, asking why there should be money kept in the bank while
people are hungry. A case of two extremes! Okwute may clearly have come far
ahead of his generation but some others evidently came behind schedule.
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