Boma Achenimie 
Nigeria’s former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has expressed concern over the growing amount of debt being owned by the country, years after he left office.
Chief Obasanjo disclosed that he left the nation with about $70 billion when he left office in 2007, including a $45 billion reserve and $25 billion in a designated “Excess crude” account.
The former President lamented that there is poor quality of leadership in the country.
READ ALSO:
- Tinubu, Obasanjo, Jonathan, Others To Attend Iwuanyanwu’s Burial
- Obasanjo Salutes Yemi Esan’s Exceptional Leadership, Contributions To Nigeria’s Civil Service
- Obasanjo, IBB, Abdulsalami, Gusau Meet In Minna
Obasanjo who spoke on Thursday on News Central TV boasted that his government met a debt overhang of close to $36 billion but reduced it to about $3.5 to $3.6 billion before leaving office in 2007.
He said, “I came in 1999 and met $3.7 billion in the reserve. And I have told you, we were spending $3.5 billion to service the debts. That’s what we had.
“By the time we left eight years later, with debt relief, when I came in, we had a debt overhang of close to $36 billion.
“By the time I left, with the debt relief and clearing what we had to clear, the quantum of debt that I left was about $3.5 to $3.6 billion from over or around $36 billion.
At the same time, the reserve that was $3.7 billion when I came in went to $45 billion. At the same time, we had what we called “Excess crude”, which is what is in excess of what we budget and what we actually sell the crude.
“Normally, we are conservative in budgeting, we call it “Excess crude”. So, we had in it about $25 billion. When you add that to the reserve, we are talking about $70 billion.
“Now, the point is that I left in 2007. Today between 2007 and 2024, all that amount of money has gone; all of it. Not only that, but all the money they made all that period had gone. And today, we owe more than we owe when we came to government in 1999.”
