Buhari’s borrowing turning Nigeria into a beggar nation –Atiku raises alarm

Atiku Abukakar the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the last election, on Wednesday said the rise in Nigeria’s debt profile was becoming worrisome under the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.

According to him, it has gotten to the stage that all true lovers of this country must raise an alarm.

The statement released through his media aide, Mr Paul Ibe, titled, ‘Sounding the alarm before Nigeria collapses under unsustainable debt,’ stated that on May 29th, 2015, when Buhari assume office, the nation’s debt profile was at a “very healthy N12tn.”

But after four years of alleged extravagant spending and irresponsible borrowing, Nigeria’s debt rose to N24.3tn by December 2018.

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According to the former Vice-President,

As alarming as this is, what is more troubling is that between December 2018 and March 2019, the Buhari administration added an additional and unprecedented N560bn debt to our national debt profile.

What could this junta have needed that amount for? If you take those dates into account, they fell 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 borrowing in the midst of almost unimaginable sorrow, which resulted in our nation becoming the world headquarters of extreme poverty and the global capital of out-of-school children, even as we slipped in the Corruption Perception Index of Transparency International.

The former vice president further stated that as someone who chaired the National Economic Council that paid off Nigeria’s entire debt under the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, he had the moral standing to call those who were turning Nigeria into a beggar nation to stop the drift into unsustainable borrowing.

To him, it is unhealthy for Nigeria to continue to borrow to pay salaries.

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