Peter Obi challenges FG’s bankruptcy claim and demands transparency regarding inherited situation

The presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, is running on February 25th. He has challenged the Federal Government to disclose the national debt that President Bola Tinubu’s administration has accrued.

The National Security Advisor, Nuhu Ribadu, lamented on Monday that the current government had taken over a bankrupt nation from the previous one led by President Muhammadu Buhari.

He asserts that the money Tinubu’s administration has made is being utilised to restore what has been pilfered from the nation.

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On Thursday, though, the former governor of Anambra State said in a series of tweets on his X profile that the FG ought to make public the deficit that it inherited from the previous administration of the All Progressives Congress in order to show how accountable and transparent it is.

When the Buhari government claimed in 2015 that the previous Goodluck Jonathan-led administration had an inherited deficit, Obi criticised it for not disclosing it.

In the tweets, the author stated, “I recently came across a widely reported article from the current APC-led Federal Government claiming that they took over a bankrupt country from the previous APC administration. However, the narrative omitted to mention what they inherited, which would have made us eligible for bankruptcy.

Transparency and stringent accountability are two important aspects of responsible government. This requires the government to reveal the precise amount of the deficit they inherited. To help the public understand where we are and where we are going, what is inherited should be made public.

Remember how the previous APC administration claimed in 2015 that the PDP administration had given them the reins without disclosing to the country what it had really inherited?

Instead, when they left office in 2023, our debt profile had increased from N12.6 trillion in 2015 to N87 trillion, all without any improvement in the areas of security, health, education, or the fight against poverty.

The LP presidential candidate emphasised again how important it is to allocate public funding to development sectors like healthcare, education, and security, among others.

Rather, the country’s state declined on all development indices, culminating in its current depressing situation. Nigerians are aware of the dire situation they live in every day. Now, what they want to hear on a daily basis are quantifiable and validated actions to make things better.

“Moreover, the government’s alarm about the dire situation of our finances begs the question of the justification for some of the expenditure items in the recently passed supplemental budget,” he said.

Obi said that while the public waits for “measurable and verifiable steps” to improve the state of the country’s economy, the FG should lower the cost of governing.

The information that has come to light further supports my claim that, ever since election season, the expense of government has to be significantly cut.

“Instead of spending money on non-essentials, a bankrupt nation should allocate all of its resources to vital development sectors like healthcare, education, security, and reducing youth unemployment. Thus, we anticipate taking quantifiable and validated actions to make improvements,” the tweet said in its conclusion.