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Nigeria is rapidly sinking under the weight of foreign and domestic debts, and this should border us.

This was part of former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s opening lines on Friday as he presented a paper titled ‘Nigeria: The Challenges of Debt and Sustenance of Democracy.’

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Speaking after Dr. Olurotimi Badero, the Nigerian American cardiologist and international nephrologist who was recently recognised as world’s first and only fully trained cardio-nephrologist, Obasanjo said: “There is a dangerous emerging trend today in Africa, and it is eerily familiar with developments on the continent in the 70s.

Flaunting his nearly 12 years as head of state, Obasanjo, who was guest speaker before a largely youthful audience at an event tagged ‘The Nigerian Story, Why I am Alive Campaign’, sponsored by Unity Bank, in Lagos, said: “Using debt to finance growth and/or development is a double-edged sword that must be wielded with a high degree of discipline, responsibility and foresight.”

Stressing that a well-caliberated debt for infrastructure and other developmental goals could be positive, the former president said: “Everyone knows that our governments are notoriously deficient in serious and adequate discipline and most often lack competence and consistency as well.”

He cited the case of Lagos, which borrowed to build a light rail, but which the succeeding government abandoned for its full four years even at “65% completion when it should have started paying down the loan.”

Stressing that such problem is not limited to states, he said, “The federal government built a nice looking extension to the Murtala Mohammed International Airport that looks completed from outside but not in service.

Obasanjo also said defaulting on debt repayment is very easy and convenient, which also favours the creditor.

He added that to now see all those efforts go to waste barely less than 15 years is more than disturbing to him.

Obasanjo, who noted that the situation he found the government in his second coming was such that the country owed both the Paris Club and Look neon club a whopping $36 billion and servicing it annually with $3bn, said the situation was, to say the least, suffocating.

He also lamented a situation where Nigeria’s debt, which stood at $10.32 billion in 2015, has risen to $81.274 billion in just four years, stressing that the nation will need to commit at least 50 per cent of its foreign earnings to service such humongous debt profile.

The former president warned that the oil which Nigeria is banking on to pay up this debt is fast losing value, with at least 50 per cent of African countries already discovering oil and gas in reasonable quantities.

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He also warned that getting debt relief like Nigeria got under him may not be so easy anymore, citing the case of Algeria, which under President Bouteflika tried to no avail to get debt relief like Nigeria did. Thenationonlineng