In a series of tweets on Tuesday, Obi noted that the was little or nothing to show for the huge debts incurred by past and present administrations in Nilllo us, because we were at a loss on what we did with the huge debt, especially the over N30 trillion ways and means borrowed by the last administration, which for me, would have been the end of borrowing without any visible and corresponding investment that will benefit the nation.
“Even more worrisome is that between the end of the third quarter, Q3, and the end of the fourth quarter, Q4, of 2023, about N10 trillion was added to our debt profile, which has now taken our debts to N97.3 trillion, again, without any corresponding visible and verifiable utilization of such debts, to the and best of my knowledge, is the highest ever borrowed in one quarter.
“Last year, 2023, our total debt servicing for domestic debts stood at N4.4 trillion and that of external debt servicing was $3.5 billion, which is about N4.9 trillion. In effect, approximately N10 trillion is now set aside to service unproductive debts.
“The implication is that what we borrowed in a quarter about N10 trillion and what we spend on debt servicing, which is also about N10 trillion, are each more than the combined budgetary allocation for the four highest priority areas, which are; defence (N3.25trn), Education (N2.18trn), Health (1.33trn), and Infrastructure (N1.32trn).
“My appeal to the government of our nation is to please de-accelerate the borrowing, and let us first re-evaluate to see what has, been achieved with our previous loans so far and be able to make better decisions for the good of the nation.
“In the New Nigeria of our dream, our scarce resources will not only be duly accounted for but will be productively and prudently managed in moving our nation from consumption to production. -PO