The former Vice President who was also the Presidential candidate of the February 2019 general election, Atiku Abubakar has rebuked President Buhari over the countries rising debt profile.
Atiku expressed concern that Buhari’s decision to keep borrowing foreign loans while ignoring the indicators of the flashing warning sign was an act of irresponsibility.
He questioned the new move by President Buhari to borrow more $29.9 billion dollars to finance infrastructure while earmarking debt servicing more than the capital project in the year 2020 Appropriation is enough to tell Buhari that the country is biting more than it can chew.
Contained in an article signed and issued today Tuesday by Atiku, he said Nigeria is spending more money than it should.
The statement partly reads; “The fact that Nigeria currently budgets more money for debt servicing (₦2.7 trillion), than we do on capital expenditure (₦2.4 trillion) is already an indicator that we have borrowed more money than we can afford to borrow. And the thing is that debt servicing is not debt repayment. Debt servicing just means that we are paying the barest minimum allowable by our creditors.
Atiku stated that Nigeria does not need to borrow as he offered his campaign programme as panacea: he urges the Buhari administration to re-engineer the NNPC and adopt the NLNG model in its governance. The NNLG, a joint venture, declares billions of dollars as profit every year, the NNPC, he said, declares losses.
“The money the Muhammadu Buhari administration wants to borrow to fund its Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) could be acquired without sinking the nation into further debt. All it requires is visionary leadership and business acumen.
He further stated, “In my economic blueprint, I said that rather than turn in regular losses (which it has consistently been doing), the best thing to do with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation is to reform it. Of course, the administration’s paid propagandists went into overdrive, accusing me of planning to sell the NNPC to my friends. But just last week, Saudi Arabia’s ARAMCO, the most profitable company in the world, took that route and almost broke the global stock market with the most successful initial IPOs in world history, bar none. Ironically, Saudi Aramco raised $29.4 billion via this IPO. Just the amount this administration wants to borrow,” he wrote.
Mr Atiku called on Nigerians youths to call on their various Senators to reject the loan, describing the power cabals behind Buhari government as “Ravenous Cabal”.
He accused the administration of planning to squander the money after they might have taken the loan which generation yet unborn will suffer to repay it back.
