I Left $70bn In Nigeria’s Coffers But We Now Owe More Debt –Obasanjo

Posted by African Examiner Featured, Latest Headlines, News Across Nigeria Friday, October 25th, 2024

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – Former Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo has lamented that the size of debt being owned by the country, years after he left office in 2007 is intimidating.

Obasanjo, while speaking on Thursday in an exclusive interview with Kayode Akintemi of News Central Television, stated that he left as president about $70 billion, including a $45 billion reserve and $25 billion in a designated “excess crude” account.

The former Nigerian leader lamenting about the deficit of good leaders in the country stated that his government met a debt overhang of close to $36 billion but reduced it to about $3.5 to $3.6 billion before he left office in 2007.

He said: “I came in 1999 and met $3.7 billion in the reserve. And I have told you, we were spending $3.5 billion to service the debts. That’s what we had.

“By the time we left eight years later, with debt relief, when I came in, we had a debt overhang of close to $36 billion. By the time I left, with the debt relief and clearing what we had to clear, the quantum of debt that I left was about $3.5 to $3.6 billion from over or around $36 billion.

“At the same time, the reserve that was $3.7 billion when I came in went to $45 billion. At the same time, we had what we called “Excess crude”, which is what is in excess of what we budget and what we actually sell the crude. Normally, we are conservative in budgeting, we call it “Excess crude”. So, we had in it about $25 billion. When you add that to the reserve, we are talking about $70 billion.

“Now, the point is that I left in 2007. Today between 2007 and 2024, all that amount of money has gone; all of it. Not only that, but all the money they made all that period had gone. And today, we owe more than we owe when we came to government in 1999.”