Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has dismissed President Bola Tinubu’s defence of government borrowing as “absolute nonsense”, arguing that the burden of public debt extends beyond the present generation and threatens the economic future of Nigerians.
Obasanjo made the remarks on Friday in Abeokuta, Ogun State, while speaking at the Ajibosin Platform, a public forum themed “Leveraging Artificial Intelligence to Solve Grassroots Problems and Accelerate National Development.”
Tinubu had, in April, defended his administration’s continued resort to borrowing whenever necessary, insisting that loans should not be viewed negatively if the government could work hard to repay them.
The President made the statement at the State House during a meeting with Plateau State leaders led by Governor Caleb Mutfwang and the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda.
“If we have to borrow, we borrow. Borrowing is not leprosy, we just have to work hard to be able to pay for it,” Tinubu had said.
But reacting to the President’s position, Obasanjo argued that the consequences of excessive borrowing were far more damaging than the disease, particularly because public debt could impose a burden on generations yet unborn.
“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.
He also questioned Nigeria’s economic performance over the past 47 years, citing the sharp depreciation of the naira against the United States dollar as evidence of the country’s failure to make meaningful progress.
Recalling when he established his farm, Obasanjo said the naira exchanged at one naira to $1.85, contrasting that with the exchange rate of about ₦1,500 to the dollar, as he put it.
“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.
The former President further questioned the capacity of Nigeria’s political leaders to formulate and implement policies capable of improving the living conditions of citizens.
“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 also criticised Nigeria’s dependence on foreign financial institutions, particularly the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), arguing that their economic prescriptions were not necessarily designed to address the country’s peculiar circumstances.
He recalled that Nigeria had been discouraged from subsidising agriculture, despite the support available to farmers in developed countries.
“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.
He also warned against the uncritical adoption of economic prescriptions from foreign-trained experts, stressing the need for policies shaped by Nigeria’s realities and development priorities.
