By Louis Achi
Peter Obi, candidate of the Labour Party (LP), in the February 25 presidential election has asked the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led administration to be bold enough to publicly disclose the level of bankruptcy it inherited from the previous All Progressives Congress government of former President Muhammadu Buhari.
Obi made the declaration via a post on X (formerly Twitter) while responding to the statements coming from the National Security Adviser, NSA, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, that President Tinubu was handicapped by the bankrupt economy he inherited from Buhari.
The National Security Adviser earlier in the week, moaned that the current administration inherited a bankrupt country from the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari.
Ribadu had further said that the revenue generated by the Tinubu-led administration is being used to reimburse what was taken from the country.
However the former governor of Anambra State faulted the federal government arguing that it was not enough to claim that it inherited a rotten balance sheet without disclosing the full details thereof.
In his post on X, Obi stated: “I just read yesterday, a widely publicized story from the present APC-led Federal Government saying that they inherited a bankrupt nation from their predecessor APC administration. But the story failed to disclose what they inherited which had qualified us for bankruptcy status.
“One major characteristic of responsible governance is transparency and strict accountability. This demands that the government disclose exactly the degree of deficit they inherited.
“What is inherited should be disclosed to enable the public to know where we are and where we are headed. Recall that the previous APC Government made a similar claim in 2015 against the PDP administration that handed over to them without telling the nation what it actually inherited.
“Rather, they took our debt profile from N12.6 Trillion in 2015 to N87 trillion in 2023 when they left office without improving on any indices of development: Education, Health, Poverty eradication, and Security.
“Instead, the condition of the nation on every development index got worse, leading to the present sad state. Nigerians know things are bad, and they experience it daily. What they now want to hear regularly are measurable and verifiable steps to improve the situation.
“The present revelation also goes to buttress the argument that I have made since electioneering season that the cost of governance is too high and must be drastically reduced.
“A bankrupt country should channel every available resource into funding critical development sectors like security, healthcare, education, and eradication of poverty by addressing youth unemployment, not spending in non-essential areas. So, what we expect are measurable and verifiable steps to improve the situation.- PO”
