Atiku to Buhari: Don’t Be a Vampire to Nigerians
- Bayo Adetu
- September 5, 2019
- NEWS
- 0 Comments
Following Nigeria’s increased debt burden under President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has advised the number one citizen not to be a “vampire generation that squanders the financial lifeblood of Nigeria and bequeath financial bondage to the next generation.”
Atiku was reacting to a current statistics released by the National Bureau of Statistics stating that Buhari’s government spent a whopping N610.2 billion to service domestic debts between January and March 2019. The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential candidate said this means the country is spending more on debt servicing this year than its combined budget for education and youth development.
In a statement by his media adviser, Paul Ibe, on Thursday, Mr Atiku hinted that “The National Bureau of Statistics has released Q1 statistics which revealed that in the first quarter of 2019 (January to March), General Buhari’s regime spent a whopping ₦610.2 billion on debt servicing for domestic debts. Note that these monies were spent on servicing (paying interest) debt, not in repaying debt.
“What Nigeria has spent on servicing domestic debts, so far, is more than the combined entire budget for education and youth development for the whole of 2019. How did this happen? How could an administration double our national debt from ₦12 trillion in 2015 to ₦24.9 trillion today and still have no tangible evidence of development to show for it? “The deeper we go into unsustainable debt, the more of her independence Nigeria loses to her creditors. The older generation should sacrifice for the youth. We must not be a vampire generation that squanders the financial lifeblood of Nigeria and bequeath financial bondage to the next generation.”