Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Monday at the Inaugural conference of the Ibadan School of Government and Public Policy held at the International Conference Centre of the University of Ibadan has said the current fiscal challenge facing the country must be addressed creatively.
Obasanjo said; “The Minister of Finance recently announced that the 2016 budget deficit may be increased from the current N2.2 trillion in the draft document before the National Assembly to N3 trillion
“It will be recalled that a few years ago we rescued Nigeria from its creditors with the deal in which the Paris Club of sovereign creditors wrote off USD 18 billion of debt,
“It was Africa’s largest debt cancellation. Nigeria then used windfall earnings from oil export to pay off another USD 12 billion in debts and arrears,”
He added that corruption has been the greatest single challenge the country is faced with, stating that; “We set up the ICPC and the EFCC to tackle it head on. Today, corruption drains billions of dollars from our economy that cannot afford to lose even a million dollars.
“It seems we are just beginning the fight against corruption afresh. Until recently, it seems corruption had returned with a vengeance, taking seat at the very heart of government.
“We must kick corruption out because it destroys almost everything and I am not talking about corruption of money; corruption of attitude, nepotism, favouritism, they are corruption in different forms,‘’