Obasanjo, Yar’Adua, Jonathan responsible for Nigeria’s high debt under Buhari – Senate

Solomon Olamilekan Adeola, a senator representing Lagos West Senatorial District in the National Assembly, on Wednesday, has blamed the three former presidents; Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Yar’adua and Goodluck Jonathan governments for Nigeria’s debt burden.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain and the Chairman Senate Committee on Finance and Appropriation said a huge part of Nigeria’s total debt profile roughly estimated at N33trillion was incurred by past administrations, dating back to the military era.

President Muhammadu Buhari’s government has been criticised and accused of plunging Nigeria into debt.

In what could be described as a veiled reference to the Buhari government, ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo on Monday said it is criminal to accumulate debts for the next generation.

But Adeola who addressed his colleagues before the passage of the 2022-2024 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP), said the criticism of President Muhammadu Buhari’s government for plunging Nigeria into debt was unfair and uninformed.

According to him, the large chunk of Nigeria’s total debt profile estimated at N33 trillion was incurred by past administrations dating back to the military era.

The lawmaker stressed that the majority of the loans being repaid by the Buhari administration were accumulated during the military era and ex-Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, and Goodluck Jonathan administrations between 1999 and 2015.

When asked by the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, to make clarifications on issues raised by lawmakers, particularly on Nigeria’s debt profile Adeola said: “The accumulated borrowing you are talking about did not come from this administration alone.

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“It is a borrowing that stems from the days of the military to the days when the democratic dispensation started.

“It is an accumulated loan. It is not a loan that says that it is the current administration of President Buhari that has borrowed.

“It is a loan that has been borrowed by the previous administration – the Obasanjo, the Jonathan, the Yar’Adua of this world.

“And since the business of government is a continuum, the President of the day has no choice but to continue to pay back all these loans that have been borrowed by the previous administrations.

“More than three-quarters of these loans you are seeing were borrowed from the previous administrations and we are paying back. We are doing what is supposed to be done, the way it is supposed to be done.

“So, when my colleagues said that for every N67 of any loan that was borrowed, we are using to pay, he should know that more than N60 of it are loans borrowed by the previous administration. That is where we are.”

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