Ahmed Joda, the Chairman of the transition committee put in
place by President Muhammadu Buhari to interface with the former administration
of President Goodluck Jonathan for a smooth handover of power on May 29, has
stated that the former president left behind a N7 trillion liability.
This
figure contradicts claims by officials of the administration that the country’s
debt profile stood at N1.3 trillion. Mr.
Joda made the disclosure in an interview he granted the Daily Trust newspaper,
published on Sunday.
Mr.
Buhari’s deputy, Yemi Osinbanjo, had said shortly before the handover of power
that the new government would be inheriting a debt of $63 billion.
However,
the former Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, promptly rose to the
defence of Mr. Jonathan’s administration, saying of the $63 billion debt, the
administration only incurred $21.8 billion.
She
also said the $63.7 billion cited by Mr. Osinbajo included multilateral and
domestic loans by successive federal and state governments since 1960.
Speaking
on Sunday, however, Mr. Joda said, “We were told at the beginning of the
exercise that the government was in deficit of at least N1.3 trillion and by
the end people were talking about N7 trillion; everything is in a state of
collapse.
“The
civil service is bloated and the military and police, if you are a Nigerian,
you know what they have been facing for a long time; everywhere is in a mess
and these things have to be fixed”.
No comments:
Post a Comment