‘Buhari repaying Obasanjo, Yar’adua, Jonathan’s loans,’ says Senate committee

The Chairman Senate Committee on Finance and Appropriation, Solomon Olamilekan Adeola, on Wednesday blamed past governments for Nigeria’s debt burden.

Adeola, who addressed his colleagues before the passage of the 2022-2024 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP), said the criticism of President Muhammadu Buhari’s government for plunging Nigeria into debt was unfair and uninformed.

According to him, the large chunk of Nigeria’s total debt profile estimated at N33 trillion was incurred by past administrations dating back to the military era.

The lawmaker stressed that the majority of the loans being repaid by the Buhari administration were accumulated during the military era and ex-Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, and Goodluck Jonathan administrations between 1999 and 2015.

When asked by the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, to make clarifications on issues raised by lawmakers, particularly on Nigeria’s debt profile Adeola said: “The accumulated borrowing you are talking about did not come from this administration alone.

READ ALSO: Buhari’s govt to execute 15 projects with $4bn external loan – Presidency

“It is a borrowing that stems from the days of the military to the days when the democratic dispensation started.

“It is an accumulated loan. It is not a loan that says that it is the current administration of President Buhari that has borrowed.

“It is a loan that has been borrowed by the previous administration – the Obasanjo, the Jonathan, the Yar’Adua of this world.

“And since the business of government is a continuum, the President of the day has no choice but to continue to pay back all these loans that have been borrowed by the previous administrations.

“More than three-quarters of these loans you are seeing were borrowed from the previous administrations and we are paying back. We are doing what is supposed to be done, the way it is supposed to be done.

“So, when my colleagues said that for every N67 of any loan that was borrowed, we are using to pay, he should know that more than N60 of it are loans borrowed by the previous administration. That is where we are.”

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now