Nigeria overburdened by debts – Atiku

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has said that Nigeria is now saddled with a heavy and almost unsustainable debt burden.

The Wazirin Adamawa spoke yesterday at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House) on: ‘The Importance of Strengthening State Economic Management Systems.’

Abubakar said despite the progress made within a decade that saw Nigeria moving from being the third largest economy in Africa, Nigeria was yet to meet up with her potentials.

“The question becomes why is Nigeria not living up to the promise of her potentials? “More specifically, why are we saddled with a heavy and almost unsustainable debt burden twelve years after President Olusegun Obasanjo and I provided the leadership that paid off Nigeria’s entire foreign debt of $32 billion in one fell swoop?

“After paying off a monumental debt accumulated by previous governments, then President Olusegun Obasanjo on April 22, 2006 said ‘Nigeria will not owe anybody one kobo’. Today, almost exactly 12 years to the day, you can almost say Nigeria now owes everybody more than one kobo,” he said.

Atiku said Nigerian states had been reduced to parastatals of the Federal Government addicted to the monthly allocation they received from Abuja after 19 years of uninterrupted democracy.

“We must commit to a new development agenda with focus on wealth creation by the federating units, rather than wealth distribution from Abuja to state and local government capitals,” he said.