After the 2019 Nigeria general elections, Northern states had eight newly elected governors sworn in on May 29. They inherited debts in their respective states with different sorts of promises to improve the economy.
Statisense, a data tech company, reports that Bauchi State with Bala Mohammed as the new governor, topped the list with N138.5 billion as of June 2019.
Adamawa had N126.0 billion, Nasarawa: N109.5 billion, Borno: N93.4 billion, Gombe: N91 billion, Kwara: N76.0 billion, Zamfara: N71.9 billion and Yobe with N35.8 billion.
The eight 2019 new governors were Bala Mohammed of Bauchi, Ahmadu Fintiri of Adamawa, Abdullahi Sule; Nasarawa, Babagana Zulum; Borno, Inuwa Yahaya; Gombe, AbdulRahman AbdulRasaq; Kwara, Bello Matawalle; Zamfara and Mai Mala Buni of Yobe State.
With the exception of Bello Matawalle of Zamfara, all other seven governors secured their reelection bid in 2023.
The figures for the debts in most of the states went up significantly four years later.
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In June 2023, exactly four years after, Bauchi’s debt rolled up to N278.7b billion (N140.2bn increased), from the 2019 debt figure. Adamawa: N205.5 billion (N79.5), Gombe: N162.9 billion (N71.9bn), Kwara: N140.8 billion (N64.8), Zamfara: N118.2 billion (N46.3bn), Nasarawa: N111.4 billion (N1.9bn).
Yobe and Borno have N108.4 billion and N107.8 billion with increments of (N72.6bn) and (N14.4bn) respectively from the 2019 debts recorded.
The data showed that Bauchi and Adamawa recorded more additional debts during the period with N140.2bn and N79.5bn increments. Nasarawa and Borno states recorded lesser upticks of debts with N1.9bn and N14.4bn respectively.
