The presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 elections, Peter Obi, has challenged the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led Federal Government (FG) to disclose the assets and deficits inherited from the administration of ex-President Muhammadu Buhari in the spirit of transparency and strict accountability.
The Matrix recalls that the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu had on Monday reportedly lamented that the Tinubu administration inherited a bankrupt country from the Buhari government.
Similarly, Tinubu, same Monday in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, had said that his administration inherited serious liabilities but also assets from his predecessors.
Reacting to these claims, Obi in a series of posts on X (formerly known as Twitter) on Thursday said Nigerians deserve to know and that governance is about “transparency and strict accountability”.
I just read yesterday, a widely publicised 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.
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.
Obi said the previous APC government made a similar claim in 2015 against the previous administration.
“Rather, they took our debt profile from N12.6tr 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
