Atiku reacts to Nigeria’s rising debt profile

Former Vice President of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar, has lamented the increasing debt profile of Nigeria under the All Progressives Congress led President Muhammadu Buhari led administration.

Recall that the statistics released by the Debt Management Office on Wednesday revealed that Nigeria’s total debt folio has risen to N24.9 trillion as at the end of March, 2019, compared to the N24.3 trillion in December 2019.

Nigeria’s debt stock category for the first quarter of 2019 shows that the country’s total external debt is estimated at N7.8 trillion (US$25.6 billion), constituting 31.5% of total debt for Federal government, States and the FCT.

However, in a statement on Wednesday by his Media Aide, Paul Ibe, the Peoples’ Democratic Party presidential candidate in the last general elections, observed that the situation was now at the stage where all genuine lovers of Nigeria ought to raise an alarm.

The Waziri Adamawa said the country’s increasing debt profile was becoming more than a source of concern, adding that the current administration was “turning Nigerians into beggars.”

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The statement reads: “On May 29, 2015, our national debt profile was at a very healthy N12 trillion. However, after four years of profligate spending, and even more irresponsible borrowing, our national debt doubled to N24.3 trillion by December 2018.

“As alarming as this is, what is more troubling is that between December 2018 and March 2019, the administration of General Buhari added an additional and unprecedented N560 billion debt to our national debt profile.

“What could this junta have needed that amount for? If you take those dates into account, they fall on the period of electioneering, when monies were freely distributed by officials of this government in the name of Tradermoni and other election gimmicks that were discontinued after the election.

“We find it inconceivable that Nigeria could have had such unprecedented borrowings in the midst of almost unimaginable sorrowing, which resulted in our nation becoming the world headquarters for extreme poverty and the global capital of out of school children, even as we slipped in the Corruption Perception Index of Transparency International.

“As someone who headed the National Economic Council that paid off Nigeria’s entire debt under the visionary leadership of President Olusegun Obasanjo, Atiku Abubakar has the moral authority to call those who are turning Nigeria into a beggar nation to halt the drift into unsustainable borrowing.

“We cannot continue to borrow to pay salaries and support luxuries. Already, over 50% of our revenue is going towards debt servicing, not even debt repayments.

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“We raise this alarm as responsible citizens and call on other lovers of Nigeria to speak up as we have no other nation to call our home, but Nigeria.”