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By Beatrice Gondyi
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has described President Bola Tinubu’s stance on borrowing as “absolute nonsense,” warning that debt is worse than leprosy because it destroys generations rather than individuals.
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.”
The former president was reacting to Tinubu’s comment in April that his administration would continue to borrow whenever necessary, insisting that borrowing should not be viewed negatively.
“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 during a meeting with Plateau leaders led by Governor Caleb Mutfwang and APC National Chairman Nentawe Yilwatda at the State House.
But Obasanjo fired back on Friday, saying: “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.”
The former president also questioned Nigeria’s economic management over the past decades, recalling that when he started his farm 47 years ago, the naira exchanged at N1 to $1.85.
“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 leadership, asking: “What do our leaders know? And what do they not know? And from what they know, what can they do for us?”
He also criticised Nigeria’s dependence on foreign institutions, particularly the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, arguing that their policies were not designed to address the country’s peculiar circumstances.
“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 warned against blindly adopting economic prescriptions from foreign-trained experts without considering Nigeria’s realities.
Tinubu’s borrowing comment had come amid rising public concern over Nigeria’s growing debt burden and the increasing share of national revenue committed to debt servicing.
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