Peter Obi the Labour Party presidential candidate in the February 25 presidential election, has urged President Bola Tinubu to tell Nigerians the true state of Nigeria’s financial standing, after National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu claimed that the country is broke.
While speaking at a conference in Abuja, Mr. Ribudu had claimed that former President Muhammadu Buhari emptied the treasury, that is why the country’s econmy is struggling under Tinubu.
But writing on his X page Thursday, Mr Obi stated: “I just read yesterday, a widely publicised story from the present APC-led Federal Government saying that they inherited a bankrupt nation from their predecessor APC administration. But the story failed to disclose what they inherited which had qualified us for bankruptcy status.
“One major characteristic of responsible governance is transparency and strict accountability. This demands that the government disclose exactly the degree of deficit they inherited. What is inherited should be disclosed to enable the public to know where we are and where we are headed.
“Recall that the previous APC government made a similar claim in 2015 against the PDP administration that handed over to them without telling the nation what it actually inherited.
“Rather, they took our debt profile from N12.6 trillion in 2015 to N87 trillion in 2023 when they left office without improving on any indices of development: Education, Health, Poverty eradication, and Security.”
He said rather than spend money on luxury, the government need to divert funds to the development of critical sectors that would revamp the economy.
“Instead, the condition of the nation on every development index got worse, leading to the present sad state. Nigerians know things are bad, and they experience it daily. What they now want to hear regularly are measurable and verifiable steps to improve the situation.
“Also, the alarm raised by the government about the bad state of our finances raises questions about the rationale behind some expenditure items in the supplementary budget recently signed into law.
“A bankrupt country should channel every available resource into funding critical development sectors like security, healthcare, education, and eradication of poverty by addressing youth unemployment, not spending in non-essential areas. So, what we expect are measurable and verifiable steps to improve the situation,” the tweet concluded.
