By OBINNA ORIAKU
“Never throw stones inside the market, you may not tell whose head it would eventually land.” The Governor, as an opposition leader, didn’t consider this wise saying when he made frantic efforts to frustrate and kill the ADFB loan. Owing to bad politics, he lost sight of the humongous infrastructural benefits to the state,instead was determined to thwart what should have become a huge political capital and significant milestone to the previous administration.
My concern today is however the deliberate concealment of critical information, especially the details of the last meeting with Abia Government, Federal Ministry of Finance team and ADFB team, which signalled the official drawdown of this loan. Instead of transparency in coming clean with news about this loan , what we witnessed was an intentional media blackout, with aides spinning misleading narratives.
Today, Nairametrics media and Punch Newspapers of 15th July 2025 have confirmed that the $263.8 million loan was concluded during that last teams meeting held in Umuehim Nvosi. But unfortunately, the public was kept in the dark while government propagandists pushed tales of “trust” and “credit” that never belonged to them.
Those of us who have remained critical of this administration do so because of its unapologetic culture of secrecy, propaganda and deception. Abia state government narrative about the ADFB loan is a sham built on media validation, not about good governance or results.
We saw how they struggled to acknowledge that this loan initiative started even before Ikpeazu’s administration, they failed to tell their gullible readers that Abia’s cocktail of ADFB loan of $263.8m was approved in April 2023 by the board of ADFB led by our brother Femi Adesina. They wanted their social media audience to credit them with such magical performance. They forget that external loan of this nature takes average of three to four years to process even with the best of support from Federal Government.
Congratulations should go to the real patriots who made this loan possible. But we must ask the hard question,with the current surge in federal allocations, is this loan still necessary×
Agreed, World Bank or ADFB loans are not structured like commercial bank loans, they come with softer terms. But what guarantee do we have that this loan will be transparently managed, given the entrenched opacity that defines this government? Let us not forget that the ADFB loan adds an additional ₦400 billion to our debt burden of the State . Unlike local or domestic debts that can be dressed up with doctored reports, repayment of this external debt will be handled strictly by the Federal Ministry of Finance and the CBN, it gives no room for manipulation.
I must publicly thank those who actually contributed to the realisation of this project, especially Mr. Emeka Ononiwu, whose doggedness and personal sacrifices were invaluable. He was never paid a kobo while I served. I know how many times I personally secured just flight tickets for him as he pursued this loan and whatever expenses he incurred while at Abuja was take care of from his private pocket. He rejected mouth watering offers from other states to swing this loan just because he is an Abian.
When we talk about efforts made to frustrate this loan people think we are just being funny . I will list the little I still remember.
Abia state presented our external loan request with about 6 other states including Enugu ,their $50 million from French Development agency for their water project. I presented our loan request before the joint committee on Foreign and local loans headed by Sen Shehu Sani and Sen Enoh committee on appropriation.
Sen TA Orji was also there to give the background support. We had Rt Hon Eziuche Ubani , Bar Bob Ogu as members of our team.
1) After the presentation, the man behind the frustration wrote series of petitions trying to stop Abia from being part of the federal government borrowing plan which included Abia.
2) When those petitions failed, they ran to compromise staff of Clerk of national assembly. They ensured they deliberately started using different figures for the loan amount and changed the loan purpose while conveying the approval .They call it communication from National assembly to SGF office and federal Minstry of finance.
3) That deliberate insertion of false figures and loan purpose were done on two different occasions while communicating their approval to Federal Ministry of finance and SGF office.
Unfortunately,correcting these deliberate errors lasted over seven months , then, other states that presented with us like Kano , Kaduna had drawndown .
4) We had to run to Sen Ike Ekweremadu and Sen Abaribe when we discovered the strategy of those behind this unpatriotic act who stepped in to help stop the sabotage happening at the office of the Clerk of the National assembly. Chief Ncheta Omerekpe played a significant role with his relationship with the clerk’s office being a contractor with national assembly.
5) They ran to Sen Shehu Sani while he was holidaying in London and told him to shut down this loan as Abians are agianst the loan . Sen Shehu Sani, from what we were told asked them “if this is the way we will run Biafra if we eventually get it ”
6) They made Isiagu clothes for some miscreants at lagos , took them to meet the then National assembly chairman on appropriation who is from lagos stating same old story that Abians dont want this loan .
7) Few days to Sallah of 2018, while one of our consultant was at ADFB office with empty hand to follow up as usual on the loan , same group came with Hilux jeep filled with Sallah gift items to the officals of ADFB in the spirit of the Sallah but the real reason was just to stop this loan .
In November 2022 during the campaign for 2023 election, they openly acknowledged that they wrote to stop the loan because Abians were not aware of the loan . I now ask Nde Abia , are we now aware of this loan? . Do we still need additional N400 billion considering current allocations . Last week N1.8 trillion was shared as FAAC for the month of June 2025. This is the highest amount shared since Nigeria emerged and Abia should get close to N27b IGR inclusive. What has happened to our IGR that should be used to support allocation.
NEW ABIA VALIDATION JUNKIES !!!
There is absolutely no magic or special trust that made Abia to access this fund from Africa Development Bank as claimed by this government of propaganda and validation junkies. It is pertinent that the lie is killed once and for all. The truth is far from it. These donor/ development agencies are not blind, they are fully aware of the infamous N6 billion per kilometer road contracts in Abia state . That alone disqualifies any talk of “trust” in this government.
The real credit goes solely to one Dr Aliyu Ahmed after our brother Emeka Ononiwu, a retired Permanent Secretary from the Federal Ministry of Finance during President Buhari’s regime. Dr. Ahmed because of his personal relationship with Emeka Ononiwu, took it upon himself to personally follow up on Abia’s request since 2017, through all the sabotage and frustration deliberately thrown at the project. He stood for Abia state and not for Okezie Ikpeazu administration.
Even in retirement, he ensured that this (ADFB) project fund was not among those stood down by the Federal Ministry of Finance. He reminded them that $1.5 million grant had already been spent by ADFB on project for project calibration and designs , thus; it would be reckless to let that go to waste.
Sincerely, no one else deserves credit for keeping this project alive except the patriotic Aliyu Ahmed and the current Minister of Finance who had the sense to listen to his submissions. Many other states’ requests were stood down due to the dire financial situation the Federal Government inherited in 2023. Abia’s was saved by Aliyu’s integrity understanding the pains the previous government had gone through in pursuit of this loan , definitely not this government’s performance.
But do we actuallyneed additional N400b given that this Abia state government have forgotten all they said about growing Abia IGR ( internally Generated Revenue) which is still below N2Billion monthly ,just because removal of fuel subsidy and floating of Naira took the monthly allocation from N6Billion to N27Billion they had planned with, before being sworn in on May 29th 2023.