BREAKING: “Civil Servants Earning Living Wage”: PDP Alleges Nigerian Gov Wasted N2bn on Foreign Trips

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of Kwara state of spending N2 billion on foreign trips within nine months in 2024.

The opposition party in Kwara state alleged that the trips had yielded no tangible benefits for the state.

AbdulRazaq accused of misusing public funds on trips

In a statement by its publicity secretary, Olusegun Adewara, the PDP alleged that the governor had spent over N5 billion on overseas trips in the past two years without attracting any foreign investment, citing a recent report by the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

As reported by The Punch, the PDP criticised Governor AbdulRazaq for prioritising foreign trips while Kwara state grapples with a 48 percent poverty rate.

Buttressing its point, the opposition party highlighted that Grade Level 8 civil servants earn only N75,000 under the new minimum wage of N70,000, making Kwara’s pay scale the lowest in the North Central region.

“Civil servants in the state are earning far below a living wage, while funds that could have addressed the challenges are frivolously squandered on foreign junkets,” the statement added.

EFCC, ICPC told to probe Kwara gov

It therefore called on the anti-corruption agencies, including the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), to investigate the state’s finances under AbdulRazaq’s leadership.

As of the time of filling this report, the state government is yet to react to the allegations by the PDP.

The chief press secretary to the governor, Rafiu Ajakaye, and the commissioner for communication, Bolanle Olukoju, are yet respond to PDP’s allegation.

29 governors spent N2trn on refreshment, others

Meanwhile, Legit earlier reported that a recent data showed that 29 Nigerian governors spent about N2 trillion in the first three quarters of 2024 on refreshments and other recurrent expenditures.

The January to September 2024 budget implementation data were gathered from their states’ websites after the governors started receiving a 40 per cent increase in their federal allocation.

The report indicated that the governors did not meet their target in terms of internally generated revenue and got N533.29 billion in loans, while N658.93 was spent on servicing the loans.