A former member of the House of Representatives for Wukari/Ibi Federal Constituency, Hon. Danjuma Usman Shiddi, popularly known as Danji SS, has called for greater fiscal accountability and transparency in Taraba State’s financial management.
In an open letter addressed to the Taraba State House of Assembly, political stakeholders, and traditional rulers, Shiddi warned that the state was “bleeding quietly” under the weight of massive debts and unchecked borrowing.
“Taraba State has accumulated financial obligations exceeding ₦1.2 trillion within just two years under Governor Agbu Kefas — an unthinkable figure for a state with an internally generated revenue of ₦10.87 billion in 2023,” Shiddi said.
He cited multiple facilities, including ₦206.78 billion in bank loans approved in 2023, a ₦350 billion bond issued in 2025, a $268.63 million (₦510 billion) ECOWAS Bank loan, and an additional ₦50 billion local government infrastructure facility from UBA, questioning the rationale and transparency of such borrowings.
Despite receiving ₦437.21 billion in federal allocations between mid-2023 and mid-2025, the former lawmaker lamented that “roads remain impassable, schools dilapidated, hospitals gasping for breath, and workers and pensioners unpaid.”
Shiddi urged the Taraba State House of Assembly to invoke its constitutional powers under Sections 128 and 129 of the 1999 Constitution to suspend further loan approvals and conduct a full audit of existing facilities.
“You were not elected to clap,” he told the lawmakers, adding that “oversight is not rebellion — it is responsibility.”
Comparing Taraba to other states, Shiddi noted that while Zamfara, Nasarawa, and Ogun pursue self-sustaining growth through IGR, Taraba has leaned heavily on debt accumulation that “now exceeds what the state can earn in four years.”
He appealed to traditional rulers, elders, and opinion leaders to advise Governor Kefas to focus on productivity over borrowing, insisting that his concerns were born out of patriotism, not partisanship.
“When Taraba was being drowned in silence, some of us raised our voices — not out of anger, but out of duty. Because when truth dies, nations follow,” Shiddi concluded.
