Xisnin:

Most states in Nigeria are bankrupt and under heavy debt burden.
You will agree with the governor if you familiarize yourself with bankruptcy.

Honestly, I understand that most states are under debts but reminding us of the fact is not what we expect from him at this time.

When want to know the steps he his taking to tackle the challenges.

omohayek:
How can it be that the same person who decided to undermine the financial sustainability of his state's educational system by declaring education "free" is now the one saying the same state is bankrupt? Was he unaware of that fact before making his grand gesture? If so, it suggests Makinde acts on impulse, and cannot be trusted with authority; on the other hand, if he did know, then his making education "free" was a gigantic act of cynical politicking, meant to buy cheap popularity at the expense of the people's welfare. Either way, this guy comes out looking utterly unfit for the position he now holds.

There's a simple way for this clown to provide irrefutable evidence for his claims, but it's one I'm absolutely certain he won't take: simply throw open the Oyo State government's books for public viewing, by publishing them in all their details on the web. I know he will never make the state's finances public as it would foreclose all opportunities for future looting of state funds, which I'm sure is the real motivation behind these new proclamations.

Sir, Mr Seyi Makinde is not a clown, rather within the few days of his inauguration he as cleared debt of civil servants in the state owed by the former administration. He s Also pay the June salary on the 25th as promised. Pensioners in the state have start receiving pensions unlike the time of the former governor. If he comes out to say the state is bankrupt, he knows what he is saying but that is not stopping Jim from working in the state. Give him time.

SAMTOBIJU:
Sir, Mr Seyi Makinde is not a clown, rather within the few days of his inauguration he as cleared debt of civil servants in the state owed by the former administration. He s Also pay the June salary on the 25th as promised. Pensioners in the state have start receiving pensions unlike the time of the former governor. If he comes out to say the state is bankrupt, he knows what he is saying but that is not stopping Jim from working in the state. Give him time.

Wow, you're quite naive!

To begin with, I know that many Nigerians have a hard time accepting this, but there is a lot more to governance than simply paying the salaries of the relatively few beneficiaries of public sector employment, things most Nigerians don't seem to give a damn about, even if they would make life dramatically better: clean water, primary healthcare, efficient sanitation, high-quality (as opposed to "free" ) primary/secondary education, etc. Simply paying salaries on time is only the mark of "working" or "performance" in the eyes of people whose expectations from their leaders have hit rock bottom.

Even if we focus myopically on just the payment of salaries, any new governor could do the same by going to the banks and borrowing at ruinous interest rates, as long as the state isn't actually bankrupt (if it were, well-managed banks wouldn't lend to them at any rate). That Makinde was supposedly able to tap multiple lines of credit to pay salaries actually undermines his claim that he met the state bankrupt, and in any case, we have no information about the terms under which these lines of credit were provided, which I'm sure is intentional - assuming they even exist, and he isn't just lying, having plundered existing state reserves he wants to pretend don't exist.

From what you've written, I suspect you are one of those few Oyo State residents benefiting directly from his payments, so I guess I understand why you think this is the be-all and end-all of governance, but you and your colleagues are only something like 5% of the state's population, and governors must rule for the benefit of the other 95% as well, not just you guys. The simplest way for Makinde to prove the doubters wrong - and justify the faith fans like you have placed in him - would be to publish the state's accounts, so we can verify that Ajimobi really was as bad as Makinde claims. In addition, this would give us a baselines to measure in 4 years how much progress Makinde has genuinely made. Why would any reasonable person be opposed to that?

Xisnin:

Most states in Nigeria are bankrupt and under heavy debt burden.
You will agree with the governor if you familiarize yourself with bankruptcy.

please I want you to define bankruptcy for us so that we can learn. You can't even declare a company been bankrupt. A company can go only go into liquidation or winding up. Seyi should go and seek advice from a financial expert before talking.He should start the work not nonsense talk. I'm sure he will also borrow to finance some key project except if he's not ready to deliver anything for us in Oyo state.

omokab:
please I want you to define bankruptcy for us so that we can learn. You can't even declare a company been bankrupt. A company can go only go into liquidation or winding up. Seyi should go and seek advice from a financial expert before talking.He should start the work not nonsense talk. I'm sure he will also borrow to finance some key project except if he's not ready to deliver anything for us in Oyo state.

Don't be confused by terms and processes. You can actually declare a company to be bankrupt.
You need to brush up on your financial education.

omohayek:

Maybe this is true, but it's about time governors started providing verifiable evidence of this by publishing their state accounts, instead of asking the public to simply take their word for it. Only when citizens are able to say with certainty where state funds are going will they be able to make a rational assessment of whether the funds are being used sensibly, so why are all the state governors opposed to such openness?

Think of it this way, if he claims that the states is buoyant and have a large
reserve, would you take his words for it?

Governors are not required to do the bold.
Since citizens only decide during elections, you may file an FOI request to
get it or better prepare a bill to require the state's balance be made public
after every swearing-in of governors.

I am not aware of any recently sworn-in governor opposing such move, maybe
you can point me to some?
It is just like accusing someone of hiding their age when you never asked in the
first place.

Xisnin:


Don't be confused by terms and processes. You can actually declare a company to be bankrupt.
You need to brush up on your financial education.

A company can't be declared bankrupt go and read about bankruptcy and liquidation before talking. Are you an accountant or what? How much would you be owing according to a bankruptcy act before you can be declared bankrupt?

Xisnin:

Think of it this way, if he claims that the states is buoyant and have a large
reserve, would you take his words for it?

Governors are not required to do the bold.
Since citizens only decide during elections, you may file an FOI request to
get it or better prepare a bill to require the state's balance be made public
after every swearing-in of governors.

I am not aware of any recently sworn-in governor opposing such move, maybe
you can point me to some?
It is just like accusing someone of hiding their age when you never asked in the
first place.

Why should the onus be on citizens to jump through onerous hoops to get such information, rather than on the governments to make said information easily available? Why is it that as a Nigerian I can easily dig through the finances of California's state government

http://www.ebudget.ca.gov/
https://lao.ca.gov/Budget
http://www.dof.ca.gov/Budget/

even though I'm not even an American, but I can't do the same when it comes to Lagos, Ogun or Oyo? It should NOT take filing a FOI request to obtain information about what public funds are being used for: governors are not kings but public servants, and ordinary citizens are their masters, not their supplicants. This was a reality Ajimobi failed to heed, and here is Makinde already repeating the same mistake in his first days in office.

With your absurdly pro-impunity viewpoint, it's no wonder our politicians take us for granted.

sparog:


Don't tell me to keep quiet mister

And how do you know he is not lying?

Lie detector

He should leave stories and focus on turning around the finances of the state, that's when we will appreciate him.

I'm a lie detector and I'm sure he's saying the truth, Sai PDP

omohayek:

Why should the onus be on citizens to jump through onerous hoops to get such information, rather than on the governments to make said information easily available? Why is it that as a Nigerian I can easily dig through the finances of California's state government

http://www.ebudget.ca.gov/
https://lao.ca.gov/Budget
http://www.dof.ca.gov/Budget/

even though I'm not even an American, but I can't do the same when it comes to Lagos, Ogun or Oyo? It should NOT take filing a FOI request to obtain information about what public funds are being used for: governors are not kings but public servants, and ordinary citizens are their masters, not their supplicants. This was a reality Ajimobi failed to heed, and here is Makinde already repeating the same mistake in his first days in office.

With your absurdly pro-impunity viewpoint, it's no wonder our politicians take us for granted.

You are confusing budget with states assets.
Even in Nigeria, you don't need an FOI to get the state or federal budget.

How many bills have been passed by social media complaints and rants?
None

If you want to know the full details of your states assets. File for FOI.

omokab:
A company can't be declared bankrupt go and read about bankruptcy and liquidation before talking. Are you an accountant or what? How much would you be owing according to a bankruptcy act before you can be declared bankrupt?

You don't get to ask questions.
I have passed that stage of academic Q&As.
Companies declare bankruptcy all the time all over the world.

[quote author=Xisnin post=79900439]
You don't get to ask questions.
I have passed that stage of academic Q&As.
Companies declare bankruptcy all the time all over the world.
[/quoteThe key difference is bankruptcy is only for individuals and liquidation is only for businesses. State vs process – Bankruptcy is a state during which the individual is considered to be unable to repay his or her debts. Liquidation is a process that distributes a company's assets and shuts down the company permanently.

Constituted Authority himself will not like this on the news

Na wa o. My guy no try at all. Our politicians need to understand that the way they project their states have a direct effect on how the state is perceived. Which investor will want to invest in a state that even the governor says is bankrupt? Which companies will want to open branches in a place that is bankrupt? Which workers or young families will relocate to a place that advertises itself as bankrupt? He will soon come and be complaining that nobody wants to invest in Oyo

what about psychologically? morally and mentally? are they also bankrupt mentally?

In Nigeria we depend on oil

but a good idea is better than barrels of crude oil

if the state is indebted, can't you generate money?

omohayek:

Why should the onus be on citizens to jump through onerous hoops to get such information, rather than on the governments to make said information easily available? Why is it that as a Nigerian I can easily dig through the finances of California's state government

http://www.ebudget.ca.gov/
https://lao.ca.gov/Budget
http://www.dof.ca.gov/Budget/

even though I'm not even an American, but I can't do the same when it comes to Lagos, Ogun or Oyo? It should NOT take filing a FOI request to obtain information about what public funds are being used for: governors are not kings but public servants, and ordinary citizens are their masters, not their supplicants. This was a reality Ajimobi failed to heed, and here is Makinde already repeating the same mistake in his first days in office.

With your absurdly pro-impunity viewpoint, it's no wonder our politicians take us for granted.

Does one need to be a rocket scientist to know most states are bankrupt or in bad financial state?

With the collapse in oil prices which was the states primary source of revenue and their refusal to slash recurrent expenditure such as that spent on a bloated civil service by downsizing, it should be obvious to all that the states are in deep financial mess!

In the US, when politicians campaign promising lower taxes and an increase in government spending and still balance their budgets, the electorate ask how as It doesn't add up

Here in Nigeria, even well educated Nigerians are guilty of such dismal thinking, blaming the deep financial mess on corruption rather on what it really is- the crash in oil prices and poor Internal Revenue collection. Added to this are the senseless revenue loss through the multiple exchange rates and continued fuel subsidies

Xisnin:


You are confusing budget with states assets.
Even in Nigeria, you don't need an FOI to get the state or federal budget.

How many bills have been passed by social media complaints and rants?
None

If you want to know the full details of your states assets. File for FOI.

States typically ignore FOIA. They claim they're not obligated since it applies only to federal institutions. Yu can see Lagos as an example. Either supreme court has to decide if it does apply to them or state assemblies should be lobbied to domesticate it.

grandstar:


Does one need to be a rocket scientist to know most states are bankrupt or in bad financial state?

With the collapse in oil prices which was the states primary source of revenue and their refusal to slash recurrent expensive such as that of civil service by downsizing, it should be obvious to all that the states are in deep financial mess!

In the US, when politicians campaign promising lower taxes and an increase in government spending and still balance their budget's, the electorate ask how as It doesn't add up

Here in Nigeria, even well educated Nigerians are guilty of such dismal thinking, blaming the deep financial mess on corruption rather on what it really is- the crash in oil prices and poor Internal Revenue collection. Added to this are the senseless revenue loss through the multiple exchange rates and continued fuel subsidies

Seriously , since independene till now , we have still been on this slashing civil servant salaries ish.

Why don't we ever learn ?

grandstar:


Does one need to be a rocket scientist to know most states are bankrupt or in bad financial state?

With the collapse in oil prices which was the states primary source of revenue and their refusal to slash recurrent expensive such as that of civil service by downsizing, it should be obvious to all that the states are in deep financial mess!

In the US, when politicians campaign promising lower taxes and an increase in government spending and still balance their budget's, the electorate ask how as It doesn't add up

Here in Nigeria, even well educated Nigerians are guilty of such dismal thinking, blaming the deep financial mess on corruption rather on what it really is- the crash in oil prices and poor Internal Revenue collection. Added to this are the senseless revenue loss through the multiple exchange rates and continued fuel subsidies

Poor is an understatement .

Our tax to gdp ratio is second to the last in the world. The last is war torn Afghanistan

grandstar:


Does one need to be a rocket scientist to know most states are bankrupt or in bad financial state?

With the collapse in oil prices which was the states primary source of revenue and their refusal to slash recurrent expensive such as that of civil service by downsizing, it should be obvious to all that the states are in deep financial mess!

In the US, when politicians campaign promising lower taxes and an increase in government spending and still balance their budget's, the electorate ask how as It doesn't add up

Here in Nigeria, even well educated Nigerians are guilty of such dismal thinking, blaming the deep financial mess on corruption rather on what it really is- the crash in oil prices and poor Internal Revenue collection. Added to this are the senseless revenue loss through the multiple exchange rates and continued fuel subsidies

My problem isn't with the general premise that the states are in various degrees of financial distress - indeed, I myself have said as much, when at the time of the recent increase in the national wage, I noted that only 1 or 2 of the 36 states came even close to being viable even with the N18k minimum. Without federal allocations and repeated bailouts, most of Nigeria's "states" would either pack up shop in the space of a few weeks or carry out massive retrenchment to cut their suits to fit the size of their taxpayers.

That said, there's a difference between saying a state's finances are unsustainable (as is obviously true for the vast majority), and claiming as Makinde has done that the state is "bankrupt", and that he's somehow postponed the day of reckoning by borrowing to pay wages, all right after abolishing fees for primary and secondary schooling. Such measures do not speak to a politician attempting to seriously tackle with a catastrophic financial situation; his self-contradictory actions reek of cheap politicking, attempting to paint Ajimobi as horribly reckless so he can later play the hero, all the while siphoning from the state's funds for his own nefarious purposes. I see no reason why I should give the benefit of the doubt to Makinde or any politician who has wheeled out similar rhetoric, as all it would take for them to validate their assertions would be to submit to a level of openness about state finances they will never agree to. People telling the truth about how they are responsibly spending public funds (and how their predecessors are to blame for any problems they meet when they take up office) should have no qualms about sharing the details of what they've done with all that money.

omohayek:

My problem isn't with the general premise that the states are in various degrees of financial distress - indeed, I myself have said as much, when at the time of the recent increase in the national wage, I noted that only 1 or 2 of the 36 states came even close to being viable even with the N18k minimum. Without federal allocations and repeated bailouts, most of Nigeria's "states" would either pack up shop in the space of a few weeks or carry out massive retrenchment to cut their suits to fit the size of their taxpayers.

That said, there's a difference between saying a state's finances are unsustainable (as is obviously true for the vast majority), and claiming as Makinde has done that the state is "bankrupt", and that he's somehow postponed the day of reckoning by borrowing to pay wages, all right after abolishing fees for primary and secondary schooling. Such measures do not speak to a politician attempting to seriously tackle with a catastrophic financial situation; his self-contradictory actions reek of cheap politicking, attempting to paint Ajimobi as horribly reckless so he can later play the hero, all the while siphoning from the state's funds for his own nefarious purposes. I see no reason why I should give the benefit of the doubt to Makinde or any politician who has wheeled out similar rhetoric, as all it would take for them to validate their assertions would be to submit to a level of openness about state finances they will never agree to. People telling the truth about how they are responsibly spending public funds (and how their predecessors are to blame for any problems they meet when they take up office) should have no qualms about sharing the details of what they've done with all that money.

You can't slave for 2 masters and that's what Makinde is doing. With these his statements and contradictory actions, it portends doom for Oyo state.

urahara:


Seriously , since independene till now , we have still been on this slashing civil servant salaries ish.

Why don't we ever learn ?

The problem isn't really the salaries they are getting but rather, their bloated size, their disgracefully level of productivity and high levels of corruption, cronyism and nepotism. The civil service should not be used for reducing the unemployment rate in the country and the states.

grandstar:


The problem isn't really the salaries they are getting but rather, their bloated size, their disgracefully level of productivity and high levels of corruption, cronyism and nepotism. The civil service should not be used for reducing the employment rate in the country and the states.

It has been said that the size of the civil service of ekiti today is more than what obafemi awolowo used to run the entire south south and south west combined !!!!

urahara:


It has been said that the size of the civil service of ekiti today is more than what obafemi awolowo used to run the entire south south and south west combined !!!!

Wow! I'm shocked!

post=79891298:
We heard that yesterday.

Do the right thing about it,

You are the Guv.

When PMB and Osibanjo were feeding us same stories u did not think differently abi.