Peter Obi Sends Warning To Pres. Buhari Over Debt Ahead Of 2023 Election

The Presidential candidate for Labour Party in the coming 2023 election, Peter Obi, has frowned against the continous borrowing of President Muhammadu Buhari for consumption.

Obi said its time for Buhari’s administration to borrow for investment in revenue generating development projects and other productive ventures. He made this known in a statement on social media platform, Twitter.

The warning from the former governor of Anambra State, comes at a period Nigeria rose to fourth place on the list of the world’s chronic debtors, after the country was the only nation on the top five that failed to reduce its debt, rather, increased it.

Prime Business Africa had reported that India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nigeria and Vietnam are the top five debtors, according to the World Bank’s Fiscal Year 2022 International Development Association (IDA) financial statements.

Nigeria overtook Vietnam on the list after it debts rose from $11.7 billion as at June 30, 2021, to $13 billion at the end of the first half of 2022. With debt servicing surpassing revenue in the first four months of this year, the next President of Nigeria will be taking up significant debt from Buhari’s administration.

With the World Bank warning that the debt could become unsustainable, Obi, who will be vying for the Presidential post, in the statement released on Wednesday, said, “As a matter of urgency, Nigeria must stop borrowing for consumption, but only borrow to invest in regenerative development projects and other productive ventures.

“It’s ironical that states that received fiscal bailouts did not repay the loans and are still borrowing beyond their revenue earnings. Also, it has become imperative to restrict federal borrowings to the statutory 5 per cent of the previous year’s revenue.”