Presidential candidate of Labour Party, Peter Obi, has berated President Bola Tinubu-led administration over its recent claims of inheriting a bankrupt treasury from ex-leader Muhammadu Buhari.
On Monday, the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, said the country was running on deficit due to the liabilities it inherited.
At a meeting with investors in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, Tinubu also said he inherited liabilities from his predecessors.
Reacting on X account, Obi said the excuse had become a norm for the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The former Anambra governor said Buhari also made the same allegation when his predecessor former President Goodluck Jonathan handed over power to him in 2025, stressing that what the APC-led government lacks is transparency and accountability.
“I just read yesterday, a widely publicized 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,” Obi said.
“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.”
Obi lambasted the federal government under APC for heavy borrowings that had surged the country’s debt profile.
He also condemned the N2.17 trillion supplementary budget which had unnecessary provisions for government officials at the detriment of Nigerians grappling with hardship.
Obi said, “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.
“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 wrote.
“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.”
