Nigeria’s former military and civilian ruler, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, has criticized the country’s mounting debt burden under successive governments despite his tenure leaving behind fortunes.
Obasanjo, who served as the President of Nigeria from 1999 to 2007, mentioned that his administration left behind approximately $70 billion which included a $45 billion reserve and $25 billion earmarked for an “excess crude” account.
In a private conversation with Kayode Akintemi of News Central Television on Thursday, Obasanjo expressed his regret over the lacklustre leadership in the country.
He noted that his administration faced a significant debt burden of nearly $36 billion but managed to reduce it to around $3.5 to $3.6 billion before stepping down in 2007.
Obasanjo 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.”
