NIGERIA’S DEBT PROFILE: ARE WE AT A DANGEROUS THRESHOLD?

Borrowing is sometimes inevitable in running a system including governance the world over. As much as this may be desirable as a way to go sometimes, it should however not be sacrosanct in a government well run for the good of the generality. For example, Chief Obafemi Awolowo did not borrow one dollar to prosecute the Nigerian Civil War and the reconstruction after the war as the Federal Commissioner of Finance. The debt profile of Nigeria was reduced considerably in 2005 after the efforts of the former Minister of Finance, Okonjo Iwela, under the administration of Chief Olusegun Obansanjo. As at 2014, the debt profile stood at N11.2 Trillion naira. Surprisingly, in just four years of the Buhari’s administration, Nigeria’s debt has doubled rising exponentially to N22.4 Trillion naira. This figure, according to ex-Deputy CBN Governor Dr. Obadiah Malafia, is not only dangerous, it is a threshold that must be avoided by any serious government. He averred that though borrowing is not all together a bad idea, what is bad is to borrow for consumption. Borrowing must be for investment purpose that should bring returns to the economy of a nation. Where this is not done, it is a drive towards a dangerous threshold that may render a nation bankrupt. What is obvious is the fact that the current administration has actually done fairly well by fighting corruption and recovering part of the stolen monies but, it is worrisome that in spite of the recoveries, Paris Club Refunds, increase in revenue returns from Government Agencies such as Ports Authority, JAMB, Nigerian Customs, the increase in the pump price of petrol from 87 naira to 145 naira, the recent increase in the world price of crude and so on, borrowing in four years was more than 100% i.e from N11 Trillion to N22.4 Trillion naira. Yet, Nigerians could hardly see, in concert terms, where all these monies have gone, because no sizeable completed project or services for the common man, by the Federal Government to support the amount of monies recovered, generated and borrowed by the Buhari led Administration. The amount of monies recovered are yet to be declared and on what it is spent is shrouded in secrecy, which negates the integrity claim and slogan of the APC led administration. The approval of Eurobond by the National Assembly for the Federal Government in the twilight of this administration is equally a thing to worry about aside the humongous amount the nation has set aside just to conduct transition from one government to another. The figure for elections has progressed from 83billion in 2011; 93billion in 2015 and 242.4billion in 2018/2019. What development projects will this borrowing be used for was not explicitly stated. Monitoring and Evaluation of such borrowing is almost ineffective and highly politicized, which renders the whole exercise a nullity and counterproductive to any development agenda.

A strange economic idea tagged ‘tradermoni’ from the APC led Government conceived and fashioned around the PDP’s ‘SureP’ was introduced to practically distribute raw cash to few selected citizen premised on no known economic theory and what value addition this will give either in the short or long run. One then wonders, what has really changed from the past policies that have continued to put Nigerians at the lowest of poverty. In all honesty, what all these point to is the fact that Nigeria certainly needs a total restructuring to address the whole gamut of administrative, political, economic, social and many other problems confronting her as a nation. Having tried a style or structure for 56 years and Nigeria has not moved but rather seems to be going backward, it is high time to restructure, for this nation to bring to the fore, her locked up latent potentials for desired development. The call for restructuring has continued to sound more even under the current administration that prides itself as INTEGRITY driven under the leadership of President Buhari. But the questions that begs for answer is the integrity issue as while some Nigerians feels Buhari is a man of integrity many feels contrary. And what exactly is about this integrity and its importance in governance, debt and financial management?

INTEGRITY is quality of being honest and having strong moral principles, or moral uprightness. It is a personal choice to hold self to consistent standard (Wikipedia). Having integrity means you are true to yourself and would do nothing that demeans or dishonours you. In leadership study, the under listed will constitute what someone that will lead a nation so divided and suspicious of one another like Nigeria in moving forward: character/integrity, sincerity, trustworthy, compassion, humility, optimism, courage, vision, communication, planning and flexibility.

Nigerians must judge in their selection process the future of Nigeria by putting in the front burner all the above attributes of leadership to determine, first and foremost, if all the elections should hold before restructuring or restructuring before election. I think so because the present structure of Nigeria lacks and will fail INTEGRITY test any day. So, relying on such a fractured structure to produce a person of integrity for an election will be difficult though not impossible. This is said with particular reference to President Buhari, who is adjudged as a man of Integrity before 2015 but, has since proven to have failed in the integrity test and as such have not come clean or better than other candidates contesting to manage the affairs of Nigeria in many ramifications. For example General Muhammadu Buhari in a lecture delivered in England in early 2015 as a man of INTEGRITY posited that ‘why should Nigeria President not fly with other Nigerian public? Why do I need to embark on a foreign trip as a president with a huge crowd with public funds? Why do I need to go for medical trip if we cannot make our hospital functional? Why do we need to send our children to school abroad if we cannot develop our university to compete with the foreign ones?’

Capital accumulation is sine qua non to development
If the President has demonstrated enough integrity as his party would want Nigerians to believe, we would have saved lots of money lost to both medical and education tourism and reduce debt that has put Nigeria in dangerous threshold. On the contrary, he has demonstrated an integrity deficit life like any other politician in Nigeria as he could not answer many yearning questions in the mind of Nigerian that has driven them to abject poverty, heavy financial burden, disease plagued and even avoidable deaths from attackers from within and outside Nigeria. A step in the direction of restructuring Nigeria will make things easier for a Buhari and any other man of integrity sincerely interested in the future of Nigeria. However, owing to the fact that the next general election is just about 120 days away, Nigerians may have to do with elections, then make a compelling demand on whoever wins the 2019 general election to initiate the process of restructuring Nigeria immediately as a foundation for further progress of every component of the nation.

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