Bankruptcy claim: Disclose degree of deficit inherited from Buhari’s govt, Obi tackles FG

The Labour Party’s Presidential candidate for the February election, Peter Obi, has urged the Federal Government to transparently reveal the extent of the deficit inherited from the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari. 

This call comes in response to National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu’s recent statement, where he expressed concern about the alleged financial challenges inherited by the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration from the preceding Buhari-led government on Monday.

Obi, in a statement shared on X, urged the Federal Government to formally declare its inheritance from the previous administration, providing clarity for the public on its stance. 

The former Governor of Anambra State contested the government’s narrative of bankruptcy, emphasising that transparency and strict accountability are integral components of responsible governance.

The statement read: “I just read yesterday, a widely publicized 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.

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“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.

“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.

“The present revelation also goes to buttress the argument that I have made since electioneering season that the cost of governance is too high and must be drastically reduced. 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. PO.”