Expunge corruption, restrict borrowing to achieve RHA, Okechukwu tells Tinubu
…says Nigerians must be allowed to breath
By Tom Okpe
Former Director General of the Voice of Nigeria, VoN and founding member of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Dr Osita Okechukwu has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to expunge corruption and external borrowing to achieve his ‘Renewed Hope Agenda’ of the administration.
He advised that Mr President, to as a matter of urgent national importance, SOS, Save Our Soul, Nigerians from ‘Debt Trap’ so as to fulfill his dream for the country, and allow the citizenry to breathe.
Okechukwu, after perusing the 2025 national budget, appealed to Tinubu, that he is making this humble appeal, as Benjamin Franklin admonished that, “he who goes a borrowing, goes a sorrowing,” hence the imperative of setting up a high powered panel of inquiry to reexamine our debts so as to unravel genuine and less than transparent debt transactions.
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The former DG made this known, while speaking with selected journalists in Abuja on Sunday, lamenting that he cannot factor how the ‘Renewed Hope Agenda’ will bring the intended succor to Nigerians, when we are owing all manner of debts both local and foreign, prohibitive interest rate of treasury bills, plus dangerous dollar denominated loans, and short term EuroBond; therefore, the imperative of Fiscal Restructuring of Debt Service.
He cautioned that huge debt burden is a threat to our nascent democracy and will drain resources meant for health, education and poverty alleviation, regretting that the budget for Defence, N4.91tr; Infrastructure, N4.06tr; Education, N3.52tr, and Health, N2.48tr, altogether totalling N14.97tr, which he said is far less than N15.8trillion budgeted for Debt Service.
“There is no more fuel subsidy, kudos to Mr President; unfortunately, humongous debt service has become the new elephant anti-production in the room.
“Yes, fuel subsidy is gone, albeit fuel subsidy regime which had links with the helplessness and squandermania that governed the sordid debt exercise.
“Do we forget outliers like when Dr Iweala, WTO President instituted a panel which probed and found that the fuel subsidy was riddled with corruption, upon which the culprits resorted to kidnap of her mother,” he queried.
“Accordingly Mr President should dust up Iweala’s file and other bad loan files with the intendment to recover monies and return Nigeria to productive economy,” Okechukwu retorted.
He further stressed that it is with nostalgia that one recalls the first loan Nigeria took from Paris Club was $13.1 million in 1964 for the construction of Niger Dam and the Nigeria’s debt relief deal with same Paris Club of creditors under President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration in 2005.
He narrated that our cancelled debt in December 2004 was $35.994 billion and paradoxically, our debt burden today is N121.67 trillion equivalent of $91.46 billion USD.
“The only break fetters of debt burden like in 2005 is fiscal restructuring in other words, high power multilateral panel of inquiry to ascertain our actual debt and look for debt cancellation.”
When asked what must be done to remedy the situation, Okechukwu opined that he agreed totally with President Tinubu that we must make bold decisions, even though it may be painful, adding;
“Accordingly, the necessary bold decisions at this critical junction is not excessive taxation or high tariffs, but multilateral high powered panel of inquiry of eminent local and international statesmen to reexamine our domestic and foreign debts as the only answer to SOS, Nigerians from Debt Trap.
“Also, expunge corruption and restrict borrowing to only critical infrastructure via humanitarian groups like SUKUK and friends of Nigeria,” he added.
