Nigeria In Financial Trouble – Obaseki

Posted by African Examiner Featured, Latest Headlines, News Across Nigeria Saturday, April 10th, 2021

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – Godwin Obaseki, Governor of Edo State, has stated that Nigeria is in huge financial trouble as the federal government printed N60 billion as part of federal allocation for March.

Obaseki disclosed this at the Edo state transition committee stakeholder’s engagement on Thursday saying that the economy is no longer what it used to be.

The Edo state governor stated that the rising debt profile is disturbing as dependence on crude oil is no longer sustainable.

“Nigeria has changed. The economy of Nigeria is not the same again whether we like it or not. Since the civil war, we have been managing, saying money is not our problem as long as we are pumping crude oil every day,” he said.

“So we have run a very strange economy and strange presidential system where the local, state and federal government, at the end of the month, go and earn salary. We are the only country in the world that does that.

“Everywhere else, government rely on the people to produce taxes and that is what they use to run the local government, state and the federation.

“But with the way we run Nigeria, the country cant go to sleep. At the end of the month, we just go to Abuja, collect money and we come back to spend. We are in trouble, huge financial trouble.

“The current price of crude oil is only a mirage. The major oil companies who are the ones producing are no longer investing much in oil. Shell is pulling out of Nigeria and Chevron is now one of the world’s largest investors in alternative fuel, so in another year or so, where will we find this money that we go to share in Abuja?”

He frowned that the country has continued to borrow even though it has unclear means of refunding payments.

“When we got FAAC for March, the federal government printed additional N50-N60 billion to top-up for us to share,” he said.

“This April, we will go to Abuja and share. By the end of this year, our total borrowing is going to be within N15-N16 trillion. Imagine a family that is just borrowing without any means to pay back and nobody is looking at that, everybody is looking at 2023, everybody is blaming Mr. President as if he is a magician.”