Victor Ezeja
AdminLabour Party’s (LP) presidential candidate in the February 25 election, Peter Obi, has stated that the current government’s claim of inheriting a bankrupt country from the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari “buttresses the argument that I have made since electioneering season that the cost of governance is too high and must be drastically reduced.”
The National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, stated this on Monday, adding that the revenue generated by President Bola Tinubu-led administration is being used to repay what was taken from the country. This was about the same time that Tinubu disclosed in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, that he inherited serious liabilities from his predecessor but won’t make excuses.
However, in a series of tweets via his X page on Thursday, Obi called on the Federal Government to disclose the deficit inherited from the previous All Progressives Congress (APC) administration even if to portray its level of transparency and accountability. This was as the former Anambra governor faulted the Buhari government for failing to disclose the deficit inherited when it made the same claim in 2015 against the preceding Goodluck Jonathan-led government.
“I just read yesterday, a widely publicized 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 tweeted.
The Labour Party standard bearer further stressed the significance of spending public funds on development sectors like education, security and healthcare, among others.
“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,” he stated.
Obi also pointed out that the Tinubu government should reduce its cost of governance, as the citizens await “measurable and verifiable steps” to ameliorate the nation’s economy.
According to him, “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.”
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