Former Vice President and presidential candidate of
the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the general election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has said Nigeria had
taken almost as much foreign debt in the last three years as it had taken in 30
years before 2015 combined.
Atiku, who described the current debt situation as
frightening, stated that it is not just because of the amount, but because of
such unprecedented borrowing.
The former vice president in his verified tweeter
handle on Tuesday said: "We have emerged as the world headquarters for extreme
poverty and the global capital for out-of-school children. It begs the
question: ‘what were the funds used for?’
Quoting the former United States President, John
Quincy Adams, who once said: ‘There are
two ways to conquer and enslave a nation. One is by the sword, the other is by
debt," Atiku said: "He may
have very well been referring to Nigeria of the last three years."
The PDP presidential candidate in the last general
election said the business of government is too serious to be left in the hands
of politicians, explaining that: "We must all ask questions because if
they throw away the future, it is not going to be their future they are
throwing away, it will be all our futures."
According to the former vice president, the fact
that Nigeria currently budgets more money for debt servicing (₦2.7 trillion)
than it does on capital expenditure (₦2.4 trillion) is already an indicator
that Nigeria has borrowed more money than it can afford to borrow. “And the
thing is that debt servicing is not debt repayment. Debt servicing just means
that Nigeria is paying the barest minimum allowable by its creditors,” he said.
He said while spending 50 percent of the current
revenue on debt servicing, “this administration wants to take further loans of
$29.6 billion! To say that this is irresponsible is itself an understatement."
Atiku said: "As a businessman, one of the very
first things I learnt is that you do not take loans except you are expanding
your business. Even as an individual, when your income cannot fund your
lifestyle, you are challenged to grow your income, not your borrowings.
"Even if this administration borrows $1
trillion, it will never be enough because their challenge is one of capacity.
They are not using the funds they already have wisely. They do not need more
debt. They need more intellectual capacity.”
He said the money the Buhari administration wants
to borrow to fund its Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) could be
acquired without sinking the country into further debt as all it requires is
visionary leadership and business acumen.
According to Atiku, "In my economic blueprint,
I said rather than turn in regular losses, which it has consistently been doing,
the best thing to do with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is
to reform it.
"Of course, the administration paid
propagandists went into overdrive, accusing me of planning to sell the NNPC to
my friends. But just last week, Saudi Arabia’s ARAMCO, the most profitable
company in the world, took that route and almost broke the global stock market
with the most successful initial IPOs in world history, bar none. Ironically,
Saudi ARAMCO raised $29.4 billion via this IPO. Just the amount this
administration wants to borrow." Such could have been Nigeria’s story, but
for its failure of leadership.
"By reforming the NNPC, Nigeria can raise the
$29.6 billion the Buhari regime wants to borrow, and we will raise the money
without going into debt."
He said if the Buhari administration had taken that
route, not only would Nigeria have attracted Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into
Nigeria, it would have attracted confidence into the economy, and also shows
that Nigeria has a thinking leadership.
"Take the example of the Nigeria Liquefied
Natural Gas (NLNG) company. This is a joint venture between the Nigeria Government
and the private sector. Yet, while the NLNG declares very handsome profits in
billions of dollars every year, the NNPC declares loses! This is a proof that
the NLNG model works, and the NNPC model does not," ha stated.
Atiku said in Moody, the world’s preeminent rating
agency, has just downgraded Nigeria. Ghana, a nation with only 15 percent of
the population of Nigeria, now attracts more Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) than
Nigeria, and Rwanda, a country with less than 15 percent of Nigeria's mineral
endowment, has an economy that is growing at twice the rate of Nigeria’s
economy.
Accordingly, the former vice president said the problem
is not revenue and the challenge is not Nigerians, explaining that the issue is
leadership.
He explained that while there is scant information in
the Medium Term Expenditure Framework for what the loan would be used for, he could
not help but read a communication from the presidency to the effect that one of
such projects would be the digitalisation of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA)
and other similar projects.
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