Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has criticised President Bola Tinubu’s defence of government borrowing, describing his claim that “borrowing is not leprosy” as “absolute nonsense”.
Obasanjo spoke on Friday in Abeokuta, Ogun State, at the Ajibosin Platform, a public forum themed “Leveraging Artificial Intelligence to solve grassroots problems and accelerate National Development.”
In April, Tinubu defended his administration’s decision to borrow when necessary, insisting that borrowing should not be viewed negatively.
The president made the remarks at the State House during a meeting with Plateau State leaders led by Governor Caleb Mutfwang and All Progressives Congress (APC) National Chairman Nentawe Yilwatda.
“If we have to borrow, we borrow. Borrowing is not leprosy, we just have to work hard to be able to pay for it,” Tinubu had said.
However, reacting to the comment, Obasanjo argued that debt was more destructive than leprosy because its consequences could affect generations.
“And for anybody to say debt is no leprosy, is absolute nonsense. Debt is worse than leprosy. Because leprosy destroys only one person. Debt destroys generations,” he said.
The former president also questioned Nigeria’s economic performance, comparing the naira’s value against the dollar when he started his farm 47 years ago with its current exchange rate.
“When I started my farm, 47 years ago, naira to the dollar was one naira to $1.85. Forty-seven years ago. What has Nigeria done in 47 years that we now have 1,500 naira to the dollar? What have we done?” he asked.
Obasanjo further questioned the capacity of the country’s political leaders to make decisions that would improve the lives of Nigerians.
“What do our leaders know? And what do they not know? And from what they know, what can they do for us?” he asked.
He also criticised Nigeria’s dependence on foreign institutions, particularly the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), arguing that their policies were not necessarily designed to address the country’s specific economic realities.
Recalling Nigeria’s agricultural policies, Obasanjo said the country had been discouraged from subsidising agriculture despite the support available to farmers in developed countries.
“World Bank and IMF were not designed for us. They were not built by us. They were built before we became independent. And that’s the people who would determine what we do,” he said.
The former president also warned against blindly adopting economic prescriptions from foreign-trained experts without considering Nigeria’s peculiar circumstances.
