Folks, remember, last month, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was explicit
about it that Jonathan’s administration was not leaving an empty
treasury for Buhari.
She responded to the claim by Vice President-elect, Prof. Yemi
Osinbajo, that the Jonathan administration will be leaving a $60
billion debt burden for the in-coming government.
She said that Nigeria’s total debt indeed stands at $63.7 billion but
it is the totality of all the debts incurred by successive governments
since 1960.
“No $60 billion was accumulated under the Jonathan
administration,” she said.
She added: “Current debt stock includes both federal and state
governments debts made up of $9.7 billion external debt or 15 per
cent of total debt stock and $54 billion or 85 per cent domestic debt
stock.
“Nigeria is still repaying the multilateral loans it collected on
concessionary terms with as long as 40 years maturity periods.”
The breakdown of the accumulated domestic stock is $18.575
billion outstanding by 2007, $17.3 billion accumulated between
2008 and 2011 and $18 billion accumulated between 2012 and
2015.
“This is so because of something that happened in 2010 because of
the salary increment under Yar’Adua administration which
increased civil servants salaries by 53 per cent.
“Those bonds have been rolled over and government had to
weather the difficulties because resources to fund such increase
were not there,” she said.
She described Nigeria’s debt to GDP ratio as one of the lowest in
the world.
On the domestic debt stock, she said 20 per cent is owed by state
governments with Lagos state having an external debt burden of
N1.169 trillion while the balance of 80 per cent belongs to the
federal government.
Reviewing her tenure, Okonjo-Iweala said she has no regrets in
serving the country and declared that anyone called upon to serve
Nigeria should consider it a privilege.
“Some people criticise from afar but some came home in spite of
challenges to serve,” she said.
She faulted suggestions that the economy was mismanaged,
saying: “The economy is reacting to the forces of demand and
supply but there is hope for the country. Only that people will have
to make sacrifices.
“The out-going government, she said, achieved a lot but she
lamented that “there are very serious attempts to rewrite history.”
Meanwhile, there is still no respite for motorists and commuters
across the country as the fuel scarcity persisted yesterday.
Therefore, folks, Gen. Buhari is only buying time with all those lies
he spews out there. They are aimed at distracting the attention of
Nigerians that Buhari lacks what it takes to rule a democratic
government.
Folks, come to think of it, Okonjo-Iweala had earlier before now
warned the incoming government on the impact of dwindling oil
price on Nigeria’s economy
The country with the richest economy in Africa has to beg for credits
to pay government salaries. Nigeria is borrowing money to pay its
expenses, Nigeria’s finance minister reveal – and that’s going to be
a huge problem for Buhari’s incoming government.
Minister of finance in the outgoing Goodluck Jonathan’s
government Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala revealed that Nigeria has no
money to pay salaries to government workers.
Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala blamed falling oil prices in that
situation. Oil prices, which nearly halved, caused what she called a
“difficult cash crunch” as they oil revenues provide nearly four fifths
of total revenue for Nigerian government.
“We have front-loaded the borrowing program to manage the cash
crunch,” Okonjo-Iweala told lawmakers in a speech concerning the
approval of the 2015 budget, which had to be revised three times
due to oil price slump.
“Out of the 882 billon naira budgetary provision for borrowing, the
government has borrowed 473 billion naira to meet up with
recurrent expenditure, including salaries and overheads“, she
added.
That means that the treasure has no funds for capital expenditure
this year, having to borrow money simply to meet the ends in
wages fund. Nevertheless, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala tried to remain
optimistic, stating that inflation is quite stable and remains within
single digits, while the economy is even expected to grow moderate
at 4.8 percent this year.
Nevertheless, this is going to be a huge challenge for the incoming
government of Muhammadu Buhari as it has to face the costs of
servicing loans, accompanied by naira’s inflation and growing food
prices.
Empty treasury is a serious obstacle on the way to fulfill
Muhammadu Buhari’s election promises. Besides that, some critics
say that financial crisis caused by the decreasing oil prices has
been worsened by presidential election campaign in Nigeria, which
some consider to be the most expensive elections Nigeria has ever
held.
Please, can someone tell Gen. Buhari that Nigeria has never had a
surplus budget before? That governments come on board and look
for ways to source their revenues. And that the governors who
swarmed around him today were told to save for rainy days, but
they rejected it. The rainy days are here, lies and propaganda are
embellished as truth for gullible Nigerians. One thing is sure, you
can’t fool the people all the time.
Even as it is right now, the immediate past Minister/Deputy
Chairman National Planning Commission (NPC) Dr. Abubakar
Olanrewaju Sulaiman, Tuesday faulted claims by President
Muhammadu Buhari that his administration met an empty treasury.
Suleiman said the former administration as at May 29 left behind
the sum of US$2billion, adding that the sum would have been
higher if not the governors insistence on sharing the fund.
President Goodluck Jonathan presenting his hand over notes to the
President-Elect, General Muhammadu Buhari during the official
presentation of Handover notes to the President-Elect at the Aso
Chambers, State House, Abuja. Photo by Abayomi Adeshida
He warned that the former President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan must
not be criminalized and painted a plunderer and looter of the
nation’s treasury before the generality of Nigerians.
The clarification was in response to the President’s statement
during an interactive session with journalists in Abuja, where he
was quoted to have said that his government met “virtually an
empty treasury.”
President Buhari reportedly said that it was adding a disgrace that
Nigeria cannot pay salaries of its workforce.
Expressing his dismay over the President’s statement, Sulaiman in
a statement in Abuja described the report as “unscientific and
unfair”, stressing that the immediate past administration “left
behind close to US$30billion.”
He said, “Government can’t tell us that there is no Excess Crude
Account(ECA), Sovereign Wealth Fund(SWF) or are we saying the
Federal Inland Revenue Service(FIR) and related agencies had not
in the last one month been generating revenue?
“Until they are able to prove they had no receipts from these
government agencies in the last one month before Nigerians can
now buy into Mr. President’s claims of an empty treasury.”
He recalled that under the Jonathan’s administration,Nigeria was
rated the largest economy in Africa and 26th largest in the world,
querying how come such a government would leave behind an
empty treasury.
He said: ”Money made by government is meant to be spent, and this
the immediate past administration did responsibly. Every
government, even in the so-called western world, including the US
which today remains one of the largest debtor nations in the world,
government operates on deficit.
“Is it not on record that President Obama inherited US$3 triillion
debt, a collapsed banking sector and mortgage industry,yet he
never raised any alarm. None of these has happened in Nigeria
under Jonathan.
“Under Jonathan,Nigeria became the largest Africa economy and
26th in the world amidst deadly security challenges and dwindling
international prices of oil. In spite of all these, the FG never owed
salary.
“Upon inception of Jonatha’s administration, it is on record that the
price of oil at the global stage was over 100 dollars per barrel and
at the close of the administration, it dropped to 46dollars. Yet, there
wasn’t collapse of government and federal civil servants were paid
as at when due.
“It will be misleading therefore for our respected President
Muhammadu Buhari and indeed the ruling APC to claim to have met
an empty treasury.”
He further reminded the new government that “aspiration to
governance is a call of meeting and confronting challenges
headlong. So, we urge the APC-led government to hit the ground
running as promised Nigerians by confronting the challenges.
“We are not in doubt of the capability of Mr. President to do it. He
should therefore get to business, put in place structures and
personnel to redeem the pledges made to the Nigeria.”
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