Mr. Peter Obi, former governor of Anambra State, has disclosed that the nation is facing crisis because the Federal Government now spends 98 percent of its revenue on debt servicing.
Obi, who was the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) vice presidential candidate in 2019, lamented the woeful condition of the nation’s economy and concluded that the best candidate for the 2023 presidential election is the antidote to the economic woes.
Speaking with newsmen shortly after briefing the National Working Committee (NWC) of the PDP, Obi, who is a presidential aspirant, emphasised that the country should allow the best candidate to emerge in 2023, adding that that is the way out of the nation’s economic quagmire.
He said: “We are in a crisis situation. What the party can do is to allow the best candidate to emerge. Our country is in a crisis situation, we are now using over 90% of our budget to service debt. First four months of last year, we earned N1.875 trillion, we used N1.802 trillion to service debt, that is 98% of our revenue was thrown into servicing debt.
“Last year, we said that on the budget of N13 trillion, we were supposed to borrow N4 trillion but what we generated was far below so we borrowed N6.5 to N7 trillion. This year we said that we are going to generate N20 trillion to borrow only N7 trillion but I can assure you that we will borrow more than that so we have crisis on our hands.”
He suggested that the way out of the nation’s economic woes is to move the country from consumption to production. He said: “There is nothing to share again, we now need wealth creators not wealth sharers. We have been sharing wealth for a long time, we need to start creating wealth.” Speaking on the deteriorating insecurity, the former governor of Anambra State said, “We are now on the top of the list of the most fragile states. We are now on the top of the list of the most terrorised states sitting behind Yemen and Afghanistan. We are the capital of poverty in the world. We now have more people living under poverty than most big nations combined.
We now have several millions of out of school children.” Speaking on unemployment, Obi said: “Unemployment is 33% officially but when you add under employment, it is about 55%. 60% of these are the young ones who constitute the asset and the engine room of their productive age.”
He advised that the country have to deal with natural security which relates to job creation, pointing out that “you need to put food on people’s table to ensure that they are not doing the wrong thing. If they don’t know where the next meal will come from, the tendency is that they will become a tool for anything. “So we need to employ people. I know what to do in putting money into micro, small and medium scale enterprises. I have experimented on it in a small way which people can see.
“Otherwise how could a small state like Anambra end up on the day I was handing over not owing salary, pension, no contractor who has executed his job, raised certificate or supplied us goods were being owed. I left N77 billion which is over $500 million at that time in the bank. I know what we can effectively do to turn around the situation.” Obi, however, said: “I am not desperate to be a president, I am desperate to see a better Nigeria,” adding that he would respect whatever decision the party takes at the primary election.
