Peter Obi, the Labour Party’s presidential candidate for the general election on February 25, 2023, has charged that the Federal Government has concealed the extent of the debt or bankruptcy that President Bola Tinubu’s administration will inherit in 2023.
This is a response to Nuhu Ribadu, the National Security Advisor, having previously stated that the present government took over a bankrupt nation from the previous one.
On Thursday, November 16, 2023, Peter Obi revealed this in a statement that was posted on his official X (formerly Twitter account).
In an effort to demonstrate the Federal Government’s degree of accountability and openness, the former governor of Anambra State asked it to reveal the deficit it inherited from the President Muhammadu Buhari government.
In an effort to demonstrate the Federal Government’s degree of accountability and openness, the former governor of Anambra State asked it to reveal the deficit it inherited from the President Muhammadu Buhari government.
When the Buhari administration made the same accusation against the previous Goodluck Jonathan-led administration in 2015, Obi criticized it for not disclosing the deficit inherited.
He said, the statement from Peter Obi reads, “I just read yesterday, a widely publicised story from the present APC-led Federal Government saying that they inherited a bankrupt nation from their predecessor APC administration. But the story failed to disclose what they inherited which had qualified us for bankruptcy status.
“One major characteristic of responsible governance is transparency and strict accountability. This demands that the government disclose exactly the degree of deficit they inherited. What is inherited should be disclosed to enable the public to know where we are and where we are headed.
“Recall that the previous APC government made a similar claim in 2015 against the PDP administration that handed over to them without telling the nation what it actually inherited.
“Rather, they took our debt profile from N12.6 trillion in 2015 to N87 trillion in 2023 when they left office without improving on any indices of development: Education, Health, Poverty eradication, and Security.”
He continued to emphasize how important it is to allocate public funding to development sectors like healthcare, education, and security, among others.
He said, “Instead, the condition of the nation on every development index got worse, leading to the present sad state. Nigerians know things are bad, and they experience it daily. What they now want to hear regularly are measurable and verifiable steps to improve the situation.
“Also, the alarm raised by the government about the bad state of our finances raises questions about the rationale behind some expenditure items in the supplementary budget recently signed into law.’’
Obi said that while the public waits for “measurable and verifiable steps” to improve the state of the country’s economy, the FG should lower the cost of governing.
“The present revelation also goes to buttress the argument that I have made since electioneering season that the cost of governance is too high and must be drastically reduced.
“A bankrupt country should channel every available resource into funding critical development sectors like security, healthcare, education, and eradication of poverty by addressing youth unemployment, not spending in non-essential areas. So, what we expect are measurable and verifiable steps to improve the situation.’’He said.
Remember how National Security Advisor Nuhu Ribadu bemoaned on Monday, November 13, 2023, that the current government took over a bankrupt nation from the preceding administration of President Muhammadu Buhari?
He claims that the government led by Bola Tinubu is using its resources to pay back the things that were taken from the nation.
However, despite the financial constraints that had an impact on budgetary allocations, Ribadu stated that the Federal Government would make every effort to guarantee a strong and functional defense management and apparatus in the nation.
