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Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has faulted President Bola Tinubu over his remark that borrowing is not leprosy, describing the statement as “absolute nonsense”.
Obasanjo made the comment on Friday while speaking at the Ajibosin Platform, a public forum held in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.
The event was themed “Leveraging Artificial Intelligence to Solve Grassroots Problems and Accelerate National Development”.
In April, Tinubu defended his administration’s borrowing policy, saying the government would continue to take loans whenever necessary.
“If we have to borrow, we borrow. Borrowing is not leprosy; we just have to work hard to be able to pay for it,” the president had said.
However, Obasanjo said debt was more damaging than leprosy because its consequences could affect generations.
“And for anybody to say debt is no leprosy is absolute nonsense. Debt is worse than leprosy. Because leprosy destroys only one person. Debt destroys generations,” the former president said.
Obasanjo’s remarks come days after Tinubu asked the national assembly to approve a supplementary external borrowing plan of $20.52 billion and €1.04 billion to finance projects and programmes across several sectors.
The president’s request was conveyed in a letter read by Senate President Godswill Akpabio during plenary on Tuesday.
Tinubu said the proposed loans would fund projects in power, transportation, healthcare, education, agriculture, water supply, security, job creation and financial management reforms.
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Days later, the president defended his administration’s borrowing from international institutions and banks, arguing that Nigeria needs sustained infrastructure investment to achieve its ambition of becoming a $1 trillion economy by 2030.
“The real question is not how much we borrow, but what we build, what value we create and what future we leave behind,” Tinubu said in an essay titled “From Reforms to Delivery: Our Infrastructure Investment and Growth Strategy”.
However, Obasanjo questioned Nigeria’s economic performance over the past 47 years, citing the depreciation of the naira against the dollar.
The former president recalled that when he started his farm 47 years ago, the naira exchanged at N1 to $1.85.
“When I started my farm, 47 years ago, naira to the dollar was one naira to $1.85. Forty-seven years ago. What has Nigeria done in 47 years that we now have 1,500 naira to the dollar? What have we done?” he asked.
He also questioned the ability of Nigeria’s political leaders to make decisions that would improve citizens’ living conditions.
“What do our leaders know? And what do they not know? And from what they know, what can they do for us?” he asked.
Obasanjo criticised Nigeria’s reliance on foreign institutions, particularly the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), arguing that their economic prescriptions might not reflect the country’s peculiar circumstances.
He recalled that Nigeria had been discouraged from subsidising agriculture despite developed countries providing support providing support to their farmers.
“World Bank and IMF were not designed for us. They were not built by us. They were built before we became independent. And that’s the people who would determine what we do,” he said.
