Godwin Obaseki
Godwin Obaseki, governor of Edo, says Nigeria is in huge financial trouble.
Obaseki said the federal government printed N60 billion as part of federal allocation for March.
Speaking at the Edo state transition committee stakeholders engagement on Thursday, the governor said the economy is no longer what it used to be.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Nigeria’s total public debt stock as of the third quarter of 2020 (Q3 2020) rose by N6.01 trillion within a year.
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The agency’s report noted that Nigeria’s total public debt stock constituting of external and domestic debts stood at N32.22 trillion ($84.57 billion) as of September 30, 2020.
Obaseki said the rising debt profile is worrisome as dependence on crude oil is no longer sustainable.
“Nigeria has changed. The economy of Nigeria is not the same again whether we like it or not. Since the civil war, we have been managing, saying money is not our problem as long as we are pumping crude oil everyday,” he said.
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“So we have run a very strange economy and strange presidential system where the local, state and federal government, at the end of the month, go and earn salary. We are the only country in the world that does that.
“Everywhere else, government rely on the people to produce taxes and that is what they use to run the local government, state and the federation.
“But with the way we run Nigeria, the country can go to sleep. At the end of the month, we just go to Abuja, collect money and we come back to spend. We are in trouble, huge financial trouble.
“The current price of crude oil is only a mirage. The major oil companies who are the ones producing are no longer investing much in oil. Shell is pulling out of Nigeria and Chevron is now one of the world’s largest investors in alternative fuel, so in another year or so, where will we find this money that we go to share in Abuja?”
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He expressed worry that the country has continued to borrow despite unclear means of refunding payments.
The governor said the government must live up to its social contract with citizens.
“When we got FAAC for March, the federal government printed additional N50-N60 billion to top-up for us to share,” he said.
“This April, we will go to Abuja and share. By the end of this year, our total borrowings is going to be within N15-N16 trillion. Imagine a family that is just borrowing without any means to pay back and nobody is looking at that, everybody is looking at 2023, everybody is blaming Mr. President as if he is a magician.”
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13 comments
Politicians especially lazy corrupt governor’s have finished Nigeria.
The governors are the real problems of the country, unfortunately, our people are always looking in the direction of the president.
Well! Citizens have to learn to earn from personal EFFORTS and Pay Taxes too.
If the Federal government is pro active and strong, focused and determined, do you think the states would do what they are doing? The federal government must be held accountable for all these.
Mr President is the number one problem, the governors are the next, follow by all Legistlator and the entire politician.
Mr governor, you split the beautiful speech when you said we shouldn’t blame the president.
He will the one we voted for to run this nation. If he is exusted of ideas, let him leave.
Your written English is terrible! And that smirks of low and challenged intelligence which is characteristic of people who blindly follow the crowd like you.
People like you do things simply because people are doing it. You do not take time out to do your own due diligence and find out the facts about stuff. You just jump into the fray and ‘belong.’ Well done. Keep blaming the president, ok? Let’s see if you could build a mansion with one bag of cement and a hip of sand! You would have to be a magician to do that. And that’s the point governor Obaseki was making in his speech. But you wouldn’t know that, would you?
Simple and short…
A fish gets rotten from the head. An Buhari is easily a fish out of water. He’s out of sorts with reality. This is what you get when you bring a fossil to be in charge of your affairs.
If you like lament till thy kingdom come, things shall remain the same in Nigeria. I need to ask Obaseki if he has discussed this simple economic analysis with president – if he had, what was his response? We are all in this mess. Everybody would return home with various degree of wounds. Useless government.
Is this an economic eye openers or just another kind of {Dunning-Kruger Effect]?
A great mistake sending white men away when we got independence. We need to learn the art of governance before taking over fully. I doubt if we can meet up again. People in government think to serve there family is what matters and not the nation. We are now reaping the gain.
Who is the policy maker? Who implements it? Who do we blame if not the government? Our leaders are obviously clueless, selfish and corrupt, aside these, this present system of government is too expensive and wasteful. Unless we go back to regional system of governance, we are doomed as a nation.
We have to restructure Nigeria now! Let each region be autonomous. Let each grow at his own pace to encourage healthy rivalry among the federating units. We need to look beyond oil. We need to go back to agriculture and revive our dead industries. That is the way to go! This seems to be the only way out of this quagmire.
It obviously clear that this government has failed us. We are in a country that is being run buy unbelievably sick people. They lie all the time. Well they just have to lie since in some sense, they act against the interest of the people. So the only way the stay relevant is if they keep lying. The chasm between what we are told is going on and what is actually going on is enormous.