N24.9TN DEBT: Nigerians poorer, suffering due to irresponsible borrowing by Buhari’s govt –Atiku

Presidential candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the last election, Atiku Abubakar, has lamented that Nigeria’s debt has doubled from N12 trillion in 2015 to N24.9 trillion in 2019.

Buhari took over power in 2015 and got re-elected as President in the 2019 general elections. Nigeria under his government has been rated the economic capital of people living in extreme poverty as well as the poorest people in the world.

In a post on his official Twitter handle on Friday, Atiku said Buhari’s government has been “irresponsible” in borrowing and the result of it is “unprecedented sorrowing” which Nigerians are supposedly going through currently.

He wrote: “Nigeria’s debt has more than doubled from N12 trillion in 2015, to N24.9 trillion in 2019, yet we became the world headquarters for extreme poverty. Irresponsible borrowing results in unprecedented sorrowing. We mustn’t saddle future generations with debt instead of prosperity.

“As head of the National Economic Council in 2006, under the leadership of ex-President Obasanjo, we paid off Nigeria’s entire debt. It thus breaks my heart to see that after that sacrifice, Nigeria in the last 4 years returned to being a heavily indebted extremely poor nation.

“Without the checks and balances occasioned by a truly independent and self accounting Legislature and Judiciary, as co-equal and non-subordinate arms of government, we will continue to have a profligate executive that borrows to sustain its greed and not the nation’s need.

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“As it stands today, every man, woman and child in Nigeria is now not only poorer than they were in 2015, additionally, we all individually owe more than twice what we did in 2015. We may not have participated in the profligate borrowing, but we all suffer the resultant sorrowing.”

Atiku and his party the PDP, are currently challenging the declaration of Buhari and his governing All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the 2019 presidential poll.

 

 

 

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