Obasanjo Hits Buhari Again, Says Borrowing Is Criminal

By James Orji

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has slammed President Muhammadu Buhari for accumulating more debts for the country. The ex-president who is a major critic of the government described the act as criminal.

The former president made the comment on the crest of last week’s request by President Buhari to the Senate to borrow over $4 billion. The president said in the letter to the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawal that the funds will be used for “emergency needs”.

The development did not sit well with many Nigerians, including the opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP who accused the president of taking the country to the point of no return over his decision accumulate huge debt. The president’s party the All Progressives congress, APC said the loan is justified.

The Debt Management Office, DMO put the nation’s total debt stocks at N33 trillion. If the Senate approves the latest request, the debt figure would have risen to over N35 trillion with the administration responsible for over 75 per cent of the total, considering that the debt stood at just over N13 trillion when Buhari took power in 2015.

This is not a cheery news, according to the former president who claimed that a huge part of borrowing under the administration is spent on consumption, adding that Buhari is piling up debt for unborn Nigerians.

Obasanjo who had written several letters to Buhari in the past criticizing his style of leadership negotiated the country out of debt from Paris and London Club of Creditors while he was president between 1999 to 2007.

The former president said the debt has become even more worrisome, citing the country’s incapacity to pay back its creditors.

According to him “If you want to build a commercial house and you go and borrow money, and you have 50 per cent of your own money and you borrow 50 per cent and in five years, you pay the 50 per cent that you borrowed. That is a wise thing to do. But if you have to go and borrow money for you to be able to feed yourself and your family, that is a stupid thing to do.”

“If you are borrowing and accumulating debts for the next generation and the next generation after them, it is criminal. What are you borrowing for?

“If we are borrowing for recurrent expenditure, it is the height of folly. If we are borrowing for development that can pay for itself, that is understandable. Then the payment, how long will it take to pay itself?”

“When I came into government as elected President, we were spending $3.5 billion to service debts. Even with that, our quantum of debts was not going down.”

The PDP had last week warned in a letter to the Senate not to approve the loan request because, according to the party it will not be used for intended purposes.

The letter signed by the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan read in part “More alarming is that the debts that APC is hanging on Nigerians are for nebulous projects whose scopes, utilities, locations and contractors are largely vague; a development that validates apprehensions of a huge swindle on our nation at the expense of innocent Nigerians, including generation yet unborn.

“Our party holds it as an act of wickedness that individuals who know that they will be leaving office in less than two years will be accumulating debts instead of seeking ways to reduce the liability they have brought upon our nation.

“The APC knows it will not be around after May 29, 2023. That is why it is pushing our nation into a deeper economic quagmire with foreign loans, which are largely diverted to the personal pockets of their corrupt leaders.”