Ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo has voiced strong opposition to President Bola Tinubu’s recent remarks defending government borrowing, labeling the administration’s stance as absolute nonsense.
Obasanjo spoke on Friday in Abeokuta, Ogun State, at the Ajibosin Platform, a public forum theme “Leveraging Artificial Intelligence to solve grassroots problems and accelerate National Development.”
In April, Tinubu said his administration would continue to borrow whenever necessary, insisting that it should not be viewed negatively.
Tinubu spoke at the State House during a meeting with Plateau leaders led by Caleb Mutfwang, the governor, and Nentawe Yilwatda, national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
“If we have to borrow, we borrow. Borrowing is not leprosy, we just have to work hard to be able to pay for it,” the president had said.
His remarks came amid rising public concern over Nigeria’s growing debt burden and the increasing share of national revenue committed to debt servicing.
Reacting to Tinubu’s comment, Obasanjo hit him hard, maintaining that leprosy can only destroy one person at a time while debt destroys generations.
The former president said: “And for anybody to say debt is no leprosy, is absolute nonsense. Debt is worse than leprosy. Because leprosy destroys only one person. Debt destroys generations.”
He also questioned the capacity of the country’s political leadership to make decisions that would improve the lives of Nigerians.
“What do our leaders know? And what do they not know? And from what they know, what can they do for us?” he asked.
The former president further criticised Nigeria’s dependence on foreign institutions, particularly the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), arguing that their policies were not necessarily designed to address the country’s peculiar circumstances.
He recalled how Nigeria was discouraged from subsidising agriculture despite what he described as the agricultural support available to farmers in developed countries.
“World Bank and IMF were not designed for us. They were not built by us. They were built before we became independent. And that’s the people who would determine what we do,” he said.
Obasanjo also warned against blindly adopting economic prescriptions from foreign-trained experts without considering Nigeria’s realities.
What You Should Know
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo criticized the federal government’s reliance on loans, warning that heavy debt burdens pose a severe threat to future generations of Nigerians compared to localized diseases.
- Positive Impact: Highlights the urgent need for fiscal discipline, transparency, and sustainable economic planning among Nigerian leaders.
- Potential Concerns: Deepens public anxiety regarding the country’s rising debt profile, escalating debt-servicing costs, and continued reliance on foreign financial institutions like the IMF and World Bank.
