Obasanjo Faults Tinubu On Borrowing

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has faulted comments attributed to President Bola Tinubu that borrowing is not leprosy, saying the president’s position is “absolute nonsense”.

Obasanjo spoke on Friday in Abeokuta, Ogun State at the Ajibosin Platform, a public forum themed:  “Leveraging Artificial Intelligence to solve grassroots problems and accelerate National Development,” warned that mounting debt could damage generations of Nigerians.

Tinubu had in April defended his administration’s borrowing policy, saying the government would continue to borrow whenever necessary and insisted that it should not be viewed negatively.

The president stated this at the State House during a meeting with Plateau leaders led by Caleb Mutfwang, the governor, and Nentawe Yilwatda, national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

He said, “If we have to borrow, we borrow. Borrowing is not leprosy, we just have to work hard to be able to pay for it.”

The president’s remarks had since attracted criticism because of Nigeria’s growing debt burden and the increasing national revenue committed to servicing of debts in the country.

Obviously not amused by Tinubu’s comment, Obasanjo argued that the consequences of debt transcends the current generation, noting that leprosy can only destroy one person at a time while debt destroys generations.

Obasanjo said: “And for anybody to say debt is no leprosy, is absolute nonsense. Debt is worse than leprosy. Because leprosy destroys only one person. Debt destroys generations.”

Obasanjo who recalled when he started his farm 47 years ago, the naira exchanged at N1 to $1.85, picked holes in the current economic management of the country.

“When I started my farm, 47 years ago, Naira to the dollar was one Naira to $1.85. Forty-seven years ago. What has Nigeria done in 47 years that we now have N1,500 to the dollar? What have we done?” he fumed.

Obasanjo also further questioned the knowledge and capacity of the country’s political leadership to make decisions that would improve the lives of Nigerians.

“What do our leaders know? And what do they not know? And from what they know, what can they do for us?” he asked.

He also faulteded Nigeria’s dependence on foreign institutions, particularly the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), arguing that their policies were not necessarily designed to address the country’s peculiar circumstances.

According to him, Nigeria was discouraged from subsidising agriculture in spite of the agricultural support available to farmers in developed countries.

“World Bank and IMF were not designed for us. They were not built by us. They were built before we became independent. And that’s the people who would determine what we do,” he said.

Obasanjo cautioned against blindly adopting economic prescriptions from foreign-trained experts without considering Nigeria’s local circumstances.