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Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has opposed President Muhammadu Buhari’s proposal to borrow up to $30billion from international sources.
Speaking during a lecture he delivered at the First Akintola Williams Annual Lecture in Lagos on Wednesday, Obasanjo said the borrowing plan would amount to taking the soft option capable of hurting the country in future.
In his lecture titled, “Nigeria yesterday, today and tomorrow: Governance and accountability.’’, the ex-President urged Buhari to fix the country’s economy as he promised during the campaigns rather than expressing frustration at the gloomy economic situation.
His words: “It is easier to win an election than to right the wrongs of a badly fouled situation. When you are outside, what you see and know are nothing compared with the reality. And yet once you are on seat, you have to clear the mess and put the nation on the path of rectitude, development and progress leaving no group or section out of your plan, programme and policy and efforts. The longer it takes, the more intractable the problem may become.
“I understand President Buhari’s frustration on the state of the economy inherited by him. It was the same reason and situation that brought about cry for change, otherwise there would be no need for change if it was all nice and rosy.
“Now that we have had change because the actors and the situation needed to be changed, let us move forward to have progress through a comprehensive economic policy and programme that is intellectually, strategically and philosophically based.’’
He also warned that the anger of the citizenry particularly the youth might be spurred if the current administration did not get it right in good governance and accountability.
On the Federal Government’s plan to borrow $30billion, Obasanjo said: “We immediately need loans to stabilise our foreign reserve and embark on some infrastructure development but surely not $30bn over a period of less than three years. That was about the magnitude of the cumulative debt of Nigeria which we worked and wiped out 10 years ago.
“Before that debt relief, we were spending almost $3bn to service our debt annually and the quantum of the debt was not going down. Rather, if we defaulted, we paid penalty which was added on. Economy neither obeys orders nor does it work according to wishes. It must be worked upon with all factors considered and most stakeholders involved.
“The investors, domestic and foreign, are no fools and they know what is going on with the management of the economy including the foreign exchange and they are not amused. The Central Bank must be restored to its independence and integrity. We must be careful and watchful of the danger of short-termism. Short-term may be the enemy of medium and long-term.’’