Buhari Enslaving Nigerian Children With Debts, Atiku Warns

By Funmi Olakunle

Atiku Abubakar has again warned that Nigeria is heading towards a debt trap having more than doubled its debts to N24.9 trillion since 2015 and will spend N2.5 trillion paying for the interests in 2019.

The amount to be spent on servicing the debts he lamented, is more than the 2019 capital budget outlay.

He spoke in a press statement issued by his media adviser, Paul Ibe on Thursday.

Lamenting the development, the former vice-president who said it was a thing of pride serving as chairman of the National Economic Council in the Olusegun Obasanjo administration which paid off the country’s entire debt stock, he said:

“As if to vindicate the former Vice President, the National Bureau of Statistics has released Q1 statistics which revealed that in the first quarter of 2019 (January to March), General Buhari’s regime spent a whopping ₦610.2 billion on debt servicing for domestic debts. Note that these monies were spent on servicing (paying interest) debt, not in repaying debt.

“To put this in perspective, in the first three months of 2019, what Nigeria has spent on servicing domestic debts, so far, is more than the combined entire budget for education and youth development for the whole of 2019.

“How did this happen? How could an administration double our national debt from ₦12 trillion in 2015 to ₦24.9 trillion today and still have no tangible evidence of development to show for it?

“The reason is that no matter how much resources you give a man who does not know how to create wealth, it will never be enough.

“If the current trend continues, Nigeria will have spent ₦2.5 trillion on debt servicing by the end of 2019, a figure that is more than our capital budget. Can a nation survive like this?

“Atiku Abubakar wishes to sound a note of warning, that the deeper we go into unsustainable debt, the more of her independence Nigeria loses to her creditors. The older generation should sacrifice for the youth. We must not be a vampire generation that squanders the financial lifeblood of Nigeria and bequeath financial bondage to the next generation.

“For the avoidance of doubt, not long ago, Atiku Abubakar had outlined a robust strategy for the funding of the country’s development needs without resort to indiscriminate borrowing.”

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