The National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, had on Monday, November 13, 2023, lamented that the Tinubu government inherited a bankrupt country from the immediate past administration of Muhammadu Buhari.
Ribadu added that the revenue generated by the current government is being used to offset the debt incurred by the Buhari-led government.
Tinubu also expressed a similar view while speaking in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, on Monday, saying his administration inherited serious liabilities and assets from his predecessors.
But Obi, a former Anambra State Governor, said Nigerians deserve to know what the current government inherited from its predecessor in terms of assets and liability in the spirit of transparency and strict accountability.
He made this known in a reaction he shared on his X (formerly Twitter) account on Thursday, November 16, 2023, where he also faulted the Buhari government’s failure to disclose the deficit inherited from the administration that preceded it.
He said, “I just read yesterday, a widely publicised story from the present APC-led Federal Government saying that they inherited a bankrupt nation from their predecessor APC administration. But the story failed to disclose what they inherited which had qualified us for bankruptcy status.
“One major characteristic of responsible governance is transparency and strict accountability. This demands that the government disclose exactly the degree of deficit they inherited. What is inherited should be disclosed to enable the public to know where we are and where we are headed.
“Recall that the previous APC government made a similar claim in 2015 against the PDP administration that handed over to them without telling the nation what it actually inherited.
“Rather, they took our debt profile from N12.6 trillion in 2015 to N87 trillion in 2023 when they left office without improving on any indices of development: Education, Health, Poverty eradication, and Security,” Obi’s tweets read in part.
The former governor further stressed the importance of spending public funds to develop critical sectors like education, security and healthcare, among others.
“Instead, the condition of the nation on every development index got worse, leading to the present sad state. Nigerians know things are bad, and they experience it daily. What they now want to hear regularly are measurable and verifiable steps to improve the situation.
“Also, the alarm raised by the government about the bad state of our finances raises questions about the rationale behind some expenditure items in the supplementary budget recently signed into law,” he stated.
He also reiterated the need for the Federal Government to reduce the cost of governance, saying the citizens are waiting for measurable and verifiable steps to cushion the economic hardship.
“The present revelation also goes to buttress the argument that I have made since electioneering season that the cost of governance is too high and must be drastically reduced.
“A bankrupt country should channel every available resource into funding critical development sectors like security, healthcare, education, and eradication of poverty by addressing youth unemployment, not spending in non-essential areas. So, what we expect are measurable and verifiable steps to improve the situation,” the tweet concluded.
