‘Your govt more reckless with borrowing,’ Jonathan hits back at Osinbajo

The battle over which administration has thrown the Nigerian economy into greater poverty as a result of reckless borrowing and corruption continued on Tuesday with former President Goodluck Jonathan knocking Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo over his claim that the former President left Nigeria with huge debts and ruined the economy due to alleged corruption.

Osinbajo had during a lecture entitled, “Restructuring and the Nigerian federation,” delivered at the 40th anniversary of Association of Friends in Lagos on Monday, taken a jibe at the Jonathan administration for mismanagement of the country’s resources.

Jonathan’s knock came via his aide, Reno Omokri, who considered Osinbajo as not having the moral rights to indict the former President, noting that the latter had only recently been indicted by the House of Representatives for alleged corruption.

The statement credited to Omokri reads: “How can Vice President Osinbajo, a man who had just been indicted by the House of Representatives in one of the biggest corruption scams ever in Nigeria’s history, have the gall to point accusing fingers at Dr. Jonathan, a man that is celebrated internationally for his efforts at achieving Nigeria’s best rating in Transparency International’s annual Corruption Perception Rating when Nigeria improved 8 paces from 144 to 136 in 2014?

“Having read through the sordid details of Prof. Osinbajo’s corruption as revealed in the indictment by Nigeria’s House of Representatives, it is easy to understand why Nigeria made her worst ever retrogression in Transparency International’s annual Corruption Perception under him this year, moving 11 paces backwards from 136 to 148.

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“On the issue of debt, the fact remains that in the entire 16 years that the Peoples Democratic Party governed Nigeria, the total amount of money borrowed was ₦8.06trn. These are facts sourced directly from the Budget Office controlled by the Buhari administration.

“However, in only three years, the All Progressives Congress-led administration of President Muhammadu Buhari has borrowed a total of ₦10trn. With this fact in hand, where does Vice President Osinbajo have the moral authority to point leprous fingers at former President Jonathan?

“The claim by Vice President Osinbajo that former President Jonathan left $63bn in debt is also a false claim. The Jonathan administration inherited $42.23bn in debt in 2011 which were debts borrowed by the states and the Federal Government.

“Throughout the five years that he was President, former President Jonathan incurred the wrath of several state governments because his administration refused to guarantee their foreign loans.”

He added, “On Tuesday, November 13, 2018, the Debt Management Office revealed that in just 2017 alone, the Buhari administration borrowed ₦2.4trn to fund their budget deficit. This is besides other loans that they took in 2017 alone. That money is more than the funds borrowed by the Jonathan administration in five years!

“To show to Nigerians the profligacy and ineptitude of the current administration, I draw their attention to the fact that between July and August 2018, the Buhari administration claimed it had shared $322m Abacha funds recovered by the Jonathan administration to the poor. Then a week after it made that announcement, the Buhari government borrowed $328m from China.

“The question is this, why would you share out $322m one week only to borrow the same amount next week? Why not use the Abacha funds to fund government activities instead of adding to the already strained debt burden?

“These are questions that Vice President Osinbajo should answer rather than making false allegations against former President Jonathan.”

The war of words between and among contending forces in the run up to the 2019 general elections is expected to gain momentum as parties jostle to win the minds of eligible voters.

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