Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, has boasted that he left over $50 billion in Nigeria’s foreign reserve while leaving office.
The former leader made this revelation on Tuesday in Abeokuta, Ogun state capital at a programme organized by NerdzFactory Company at the Safe Online Youth Fellowship Bootcamp.
The event was supported by Meta, according to the organisers.
Obasanjo’s remark comes on the heels of the fluctuations in Nigeria’s foreign reserves due to the current economic turbulence.
According to reports, the country’s foreign reserves have been struggling around $32 billion, creating a serious forex crisis and persistent devaluation of the naira.
The incumbent, Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been trenchantly criticised for the current ecomomic hardship in the country as a result of the austerity measures introduced by his administration.
The measures which have brought untold hardship to Nigerians include the removal of petrol subsidy, convergence of the foreign exchange market, amongst others.
The former leader said, “When I came in as elected President, I wanted to get debt relief because we were spending $3.5 billion every year servicing debt and the quantum of the debt was not going down. Today, I can say that I made Nigeria better than I found it from an economic perspective.
“I found $3.7 billion in the reserves and we were spending $3.5 billion to service our debt. By the time I left, we had a debt of about $36 billion with the debt relief, and I left with a debt of $3.6 billion. Also, I left a reserve of over $50 billion. I also achieved excess crude for the country worth over $25 billion.”
Meanwhile, the former president has been dragged by not a few Nigerians for his recent perceived romance with the incumbent, whose administration he had in the past criticized.
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