“It is not just that we are borrowing money but the money is not being well utilised. If our founding fathers borrowed this way, we would have gone [extinct] by now.” ––– Nasir El Rufai in 2012
The infighting and bad blood in Kaduna and several other states over the debts incurred by immediate past governors is the very reason Peter Obi, a former governor and the standard bearer of the Labour Party in the 2023 general election will always feature serious discussions about good governance. That’s also why Obi has remained relevant a decade after leaving the gubernatorial saddle of Anambra State. Obi made Anambra the first state to initiate the Sovereign Wealth savings, the first of its kind in Africa south of the Sahara. When many governors were leaving huge debts, Peter Obi left prized assets equivalent to $500 million in investment, including $156 million in dollar-denominated bonds.
The Debt Management Office (DMO) rated Anambra then as Nigeria’s least indebted state. Despite visible and measurable achievements recorded in various sectors, Anambra under Peter Obi did not borrow funds or raise bonds for public projects. As of the second quarter of 2023, Nigeria’s public debt stood at N87.9 trillion, which was very disturbing, leaving many wondering what we did with the huge debt, especially the N30 trillionplus ways and means borrowed by the Muhammadu Buhari administration. The borrowing had gone without any visible and corresponding investment that would benefit the nation.
Even more worrisome is that between the end of the third quarter, Q3, and the end of Q4 of 2023, about N10 trillion was added to our debt profile, driving up our debts to N97.3 trillion. Again, there is no corresponding visible and verifiable use of such debts. This is the highest ever borrowed in one quarter. In 2023, domestic debt servicing gobbled a princely N4.4 trillion while external debt servicing hit $3.5 billion, (approximately N4.9 trillion). In effect, about N10 trillion is now set aside to service unproductive debts. In his numerous debt alerts, Peter Obi had warned about the implication of this endless borrowing by federal and state governments: “We borrowed in a quarter (about N10 trillion and what we spend on debt servicing (also about N10 trillion) each exceeds more than the combined budgetary allocation for the four highest priority areas, namely defence (N3.25 trillion), education (N2.18 trillion), health (N1.33 trillion), and infrastructure (N1.32 trillion).”
Two key things stand between Nigeria and good governance. They are corruption and government borrowings. The duo is rooted in Nigeria’s polity. They are intertwined as one fuels the other. Financial experts have said repeatedly that there is nothing wrong with borrowing, but the question is borrowing for what? On a private level, any individual who borrows money to visit a joint to squander borrowed money is not going to be counted among the responsible in society. Ditto for a government that borrows for consumption. When you borrow for consumption and concurrent issues, you are mortgaging the future of even an unborn child. But when you borrow to invest you are hoping that even the unborn child will arrive to benefit from it. So borrowing for investment is highly encouraged for leaders who are committed to using public funds judiciously.
What makes a leader who borrows for investment unable to achieve the desired goal is corruption. Already, graft is the bane of Nigeria’s public service. The immediate past president and state governors during their time went on binge borrowing that pushed up the nation’s debt profile. The recent vehement reaction of the El Rufai’s to the harmless remarks by Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna State on the huge debt he inherited from his predecessor is indeed the reason for this week’s musings. Here is a clear case of the proverbial old woman discomfited at the mention of dry bones. At a Town Hall meeting of Kaduna leaders of thought, Governor Sani put his stewardship into facts and figures. In the process, the governor brought up the state’s debt profile, identifying it as a major drawback to meeting public expectations of him. He had inherited $587 million, N85 billion, and 115 contractual liabilities from the immediate past administration of El-Rufai.
He lamented that the huge debt had eaten deep into Kaduna’s federal allocations. But despite the debts, the governor assured the people that he remained resolute in steering Kaduna to the path of progress, using the available lean resources. The brutal reaction that trailed this seemingly innocuous confession of the Kaduna chief executive has opened a new chapter in our polity with a son act ing as the attack dog for his godfather. What we are used to is hirelings taking on anybody who dared to challenge or try to make their principal look bad in the public eye. In this instance, the child is the attack dog. This shows in the public space that the governor’s disclosure of the debt profile did not go down well with godfather El Rufai.
The matter is so touchy that they would not wait to hire any defenders. Responding to the governor’s rendition of the debt details, the son of the ex-governor, Bashir El Rufai, launched an irreverent tirade: “These guys have realised that they are wholly incompetent and the only way to mask their innocence is to deflect. From a governor [who] is always sleeping in Abuja to a litany of incompetent aides who were only rewarded for foolish political reasons. “One would think that from all the FAAC allocations these unserious clowns have changed to dollars… debt would be the least of their problems.” From all indications, these reprisal verbal barbs might have been intended to intimidate the governor and stop him from going along this trajectory.
But what happened to the APC women leader in the state for trying to side with El Rufai against the governor is instructive and establishes the fact that the governor was not cowed at all and might have already rolled up his sleeves for a fight to finish over the debt issue. The women leader, Maryam Suleiman, allegedly was suspended from APC for criticising Governor Sani over debt remarks. The party said in a letter signed by the Kaduna State Chair and Secretary, Badarawa/Malali ward, Ali Maishago and Zakah Bassahuwa, respectively, that it had taken disciplinary action against Ms Suleiman. The document cited gross misconduct. In the suspension notice dated March 31, 2024, signed and delivered on Easter Day, the party asserted that the women leader had been suspended over purported actions that tarnished the governor’s reputation.
The suspension letter further alleged that Ms Suleiman had been involved in orchestrating thuggery against the governor’s political adviser, Manzo Maigari. Ironically, the same El Rufai who is bitter today that his borrowing spree was being exposed had said in 2012 that Goodluck Jonathan “was borrowing at the expense of the country’s future.” He even backed his criticism with a quote from John Adams: “Sword and debt are two ways to conquer and enslave a nation.” But who is surprised at this? El Rufai and indeed every politician if they have their way, their past should be blocked and never to be heard again except for positive purposes.
Nigeria is not new to open quarrels of the godfather/godson nature. They have persisted since 1999. Even President Bola Tinubu as Lagos’s maximum godfather had it rough with his godson, Akinwunmi Ambode. The latest of such squabble still raging is from Rivers State where the Federal Capital Territory Minister, Nyesom Wike, is engaged in a brutal war with his godson and governor, Similaya Fubara. Underneath all the din about betrayal and counter-betrayals between ex-governors and their successors are issues of political influence to be able to control the people’s resources for selfish purposes. It is the same story all over. Devious infighting is going on but none is in the public interest. That remains the tragedy of our democracy…the apparent fiscal indiscipline to public wealth. God help us.
