By; JACOB ONJEWU DICKSON, Kaduna.
Senator representing Kaduna Central, Senator Shehu Sani has said that the Paris club funding has not been judiciously utilised by several states governors who could not adequately manage the loans and debt collected.
Sani who is the Chairman Senate Committee on Foreign Debt said rather than control and manage the loans, it was turned to largesse.
Sani disclosed these while he was responding to a group of professional Women who paid courtesy visit on him in Kaduna Monday 20th March, 2016.
He said: “The Paris Club fund has been shared to states without any mechanism to ensure transparency and accountability.
“The senate that supposed to perform an oversight function has been completely excluded from the knowledge and activities of how such funds should be disbursed,” he said.
According to him, “States governments have strangulated themselves with debt in the last 17 years that do not commiserate with the amount of money being given to them.”
Senator Sani who strongly kicked against criticism of President Buhari by some governors, warned that, no state governor has the moral right to criticise President Buhari.
“We thank God for Buhari for tolerating their critiscim. And those who want to criticise Buhari should also have a heart of taking criticism.
“All parts of the country must work towards generating revenue not relying on the Federal Government allocations.
“The degradation and impoverishment in the Niger Delta is the highest colosal injustice that is going on in that region,” Sani said.
He aslo accused the Northern leaders of not laying a good foundation for the north, adding that even those who have oil blocks are using it for themselves and their family members.
“If Sardauna of Sokoto had the mindset of setting up NNDC a multinational company with investment in hotels, agriculture and banking institutions, it should have been well funded for it to serve as a beacon of development to northern Nigeria.
The Senator also advised that for the north to move forward, it must rid of intolerance to strengthen the unity within the region.
“Either you are a Christian or a Muslim, it is unfair to treat others as outcasts, we must consolidate on our already existence as a people.
“We must invest in agriculture and in manufacturing. Nigeria must have a commercial outpost outlet that will export our goods to South Korea, China, India amongst other nations,” Shehu Sani maintained.
Responding on the educational system in Nigeria, he said that most of the free education formula by government is simply deceptive.
“A free education that has no quality is not free at all. The political elites have been deceiving Nigerians; they will tell you they have funded the hospitals to a standard and don’t attend it, and also the schools to world standards and their children don’t attend that school,” he said.
Sani however noted that “Women hold the key to counsel the young ones, adding that 30 per cent of the Paris Funds should be given to the women.