Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has slammed the President Muhammadu Buhari administration for allegedly plunging the country into debt.
Atiku, who was the presidential candidate of the PDP in the 2019 general election, stated this in a statement shared on his verified social media accounts.
He said that as Head of the National Economic Council under the Olusegun Obasanjo presidency, he oversaw the paying off of Nigeria’s debts but the Buhari administration has since returned the nation to the dark days.
The statement read, “Nigeria’s debt has more than doubled from ₦12 trillion in 2015, to ₦24.9 trillion in 2019, yet we became the world headquarters for extreme poverty. Irresponsible borrowing results in unprecedented sorrowing. We mustn’t saddle future generations with debt instead of prosperity.
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“As head of the National Economic Council In 2006, under the leadership of ex President Obasanjo, we paid off Nigeria’s entire debt. It thus breaks my heart to see that after that sacrifice, Nigeria in the last 4 years returned to being a heavily indebted extremely poor nation.
“Without the checks and balances occasioned by a truly independent and self accounting Legislature and Judiciary, as co equal and non subordinate arms of government, we will continue to have a profligate executive that borrows to sustain its greed and not the nation’s need.
“As it stands today, every man, woman and child in Nigeria is now not only poorer than they were in 2015, additionally, we all individually owe more than twice what we did in 2015. We may not have participated in the profligate borrowing, but we all suffer the resultant sorrowing.”
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