Godwin Obaseki, governor of Edo, says Nigeria is in huge
financial trouble.
Obaseki said the federal government printed N60 billion as
part of federal allocation for March.
Speaking at the Edo state transition committee stakeholders
engagement on Thursday, the governor said the economy is no longer what it used
to be.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Nigeria’s total public debt stock as of the third quarter of 2020 (Q3 2020) rose by N6.01 trillion within a year.
The agency’s report noted that Nigeria’s total public debt
stock constituting of external and domestic debts stood at N32.22 trillion
($84.57 billion) as of September 30, 2020.
Obaseki said the rising debt profile is worrisome as
dependence on crude oil is no longer sustainable.
“Nigeria has changed. The economy of Nigeria is not the same
again whether we like it or not. Since the civil war, we have been managing,
saying money is not our problem as long as we are pumping crude oil everyday,”
he said.
“So we have run a
very strange economy and strange presidential system where the local, state and
federal government, at the end of the month, go and earn salary. We are the
only country in the world that does that.
“Everywhere else, government rely on the people to produce
taxes and that is what they use to run the local government, state and the
federation.
“But with the way we run Nigeria, the country can go to
sleep. At the end of the month, we just go to Abuja, collect money and we come
back to spend. We are in trouble, huge financial trouble.
“The current price of crude oil is only a mirage. The major
oil companies who are the ones producing are no longer investing much in oil.
Shell is pulling out of Nigeria and Chevron is now one of the world’s largest
investors in alternative fuel, so in another year or so, where will we find
this money that we go to share in Abuja?”
He expressed worry that the country has continued to borrow
despite unclear means of refunding payments.
The governor said the government must live up to its social
contract with citizens.
“When we got FAAC for March, the federal government printed
additional N50-N60 billion to top-up for us to share,” he said.
“This April, we will go to Abuja and share. By the end of
this year, our total borrowings is going to be within N15-N16 trillion. Imagine
a family that is just borrowing without any means to pay back and nobody is
looking at that, everybody is looking at 2023, everybody is blaming Mr.
President as if he is a magician.”
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