Buhari Will Inherit Almost Empty Treasury, APC Governors Raise Alarm

The All Progressives Congress (APC) Forum of Governors has expressed concern over the deplorable economic shape of the state of the country, lamenting that President-elect, Gen Mohammadu Buhari, will inherit empty treasure from the President Goodluck Jonathan administration on May 29. The hint was dropped by the Governor of Imo State, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, while addressing the media after the meeting of the Forum that lasted several hours at Imo Governor's Lodge on Monday night. He warned that signals are evident that it might be extremely difficult for both the federal and state governments to pay the salary of workers for the months of May and June. Commenting on the economic situation of the country, Okorocha said: “We must admit that Nigeria economy is in a bad shape and it is obvious that most governors will not be able to pay the salaries of workers in their states. There is no magic for any governor to pay salary under this preset situation.” “We hope to present it to the president-elect, Gen Mohammadu Buhari, as one of those challenges the states and federal governments are facing in terms of payment salaries. It has become obvious that both governments may not pay April and May salaries. “We have an incoming president who will inherit an almost empty treasury. The situation paints bold pictures of the challenges we have ahead of us. The truth is the state of our economy is in very bad shape which we need to discuss with the president-elect, make some projections with him and see how we can move the country forward,” he lamented. The governor while giving insight into what transpired in the meeting, said: “This is the first introductory meeting to deliberate on all that took place during the just concluded elections, the challenges, merits and demerits. The meeting also created an avenue for the APC governors to familiarize ourselves with each other. “It is on record today that APC has 22 governors-elect while we are even looking forward to getting more by the time we finish with new court processes. Part of our arrangements was to pay a courtesy visit on the President-elect to assure him of our cooperation with him,” he noted. On some APC governors missing during the meeting, Governor Okorocha said: “You know that after this tedious election campaigns most of them went out to have some rest. We have to hurriedly put together this familiarisation meeting after we were able to get an appointment to meet the president-elect. All the same, we are together,” he stated.