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FG needs bailout more than states –Bauchi gov

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Governor Mohammed Abubakar of Bauchi State has said that the federal government needs financial bailout as much as the states, and does not have the resources to bailout the state.
Abubakar described the issue of bailout to states as a mirage, adding, that up till now, he was yet to get the bail out for his state from the designated bank.
Abubakar while speaking during a visit to Daily Trust headquarters in Abuja, said “Bailout has turned out to be a mirage, actually. I am not criticizing the federal government, they meant well, they had a good intention to do a bail out, but they realized that they too needed a bail out. They just don’t have the money to do a bailout.
“So, after all the talks, all the grammar and everything, I was a member of the committee of four that discussed with the governor of the Central Bank after the last but one FEC meeting in respect of this bail out. All the promises did not materialise, at the end of it all, we were asked to nominate banks.
“And when we nominated the banks, we thought money was going to be paid into the accounts in the banks but at the end of the day, letters were written by the Central Bank to the banks to avail us with soft loans as a bail out.”
He said he was able to settle most of the outstanding salaries with the help of some civil servants.

Read also: Osinbajo explains bailout to states

“When I came in…they (civil servants) came to me and said ‘sir, we have hidden some accounts from the last government because we saw them going crazy spending everything’. Through that… I saved money as I went along, the first federal allocation, I saved some money out of it and right now, I am doing some little savings. You will be surprised that in a situation of very serious lack, I am still saving, I have an account, I have opened an account separate from where the government account is and I saved some money. Through that kind of measure, I was able to make up one month salary and I paid it before Sallah.
“When that was done, there was some bit of relief and then immediately after, we went for a meeting and we were able to get some money from the Federation Account and I dedicated the entire money into paying another month’s salaries.
“Then along the way came the LNG money, it wasn’t a bail out! It wasn’t a bail out! LNG monies are monies that belong to the federation but in the past, the federal government was cornering it.
“So, when the new government came in, they now got a full disclosure from the NNPC that we have this $2.1 billion to be shared and it was shared and I then devoted the entire money. You have read some allegations about some states that used it to buy some other things but I used the entire amount I got into paying salaries”, he said.

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