As part of the unjustifiable and scandalous legacies left by the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration, Nigeria is currently battling with the increasing weight of huge debts and the attendant servicing, virtually crippling the national economy. Incidentally on the eve of his departure from office, Buhari still put up a spirited defence of his actions concerning borrowing. Speaking on May 22 – one week to his handing over – he defended the huge debt profile bedevilling his administration saying that it invested in infrastructure as a deliberate way to fight poverty and create jobs for economic development and prosperity. Speaking at the virtual commissioning of three bridges, three secretariats and one road project undertaken by his administration, he said: “We do not act on infrastructure by accident. It has been a deliberate choice for our government as a tool to fight poverty, to create economic growth and employment and to open the path of prosperity for our people.”

He emphasised that while he shared the concerns of Nigerians, the debts are tied to projects that have been executed in very transparent circumstances and are there for everyone to see. Buhari added that the wealth of other nations is traceable to their investments in infrastructure made possible by debts redeemed over decades. However, currently the media is awash with the news item that the immediate past government spent a whopping 106% of total revenue on debt servicing! This amounts to N5.65 trillion, while recording a revenue shortfall of N1.4 trillion in the first half of 2023.

We consider this situation alarming, is it not? Of course, it is. But unfortunately, that paints only part of the dark picture of the government’s handling of the resources available to it. In fact, according to the Budget Implementation Report the Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) recorded revenue inflow of N3.63 trillion and another N1.67 trillion from independent revenue sources. But this represented a huge decline from N4.04 trillion revenue in the 2022 budget. Yet, the total expenditure of the government stood at N14.63 trillion, leading to a shortage of N9.30 trillion. The amount decreased compared to the N21.82 trillion expense in the approved budget. Going into the specifics, analysis of the total spending showed a transfer account for N810.12 billion, a recurrent debt of account for N5.03 trillion, a capital expenditure of N3.13 trillion and N2.14 trillion spent on the capital development fund. But that was not all there was to the parlous administration of our common patrimony. The non-debt recurrent expenditure included: Personnel cost at N3.49 trillion, overhead costs at N371 billion, while other servicewide votes consumed N715 billion.

And the CRF pension was N387 billion. But just when concerned Nigerians feel that they have had enough of the profligacy bedevilling Nigeria’s leadership, with specific regards to how the economy is being managed, the recent news report is that the Nigerian government spent,(or is it wasted) almost all its revenue, amounting to 95% of it in the first half of 2023 in debt servicing! In fact, serious concerns have been raised in recent years by the Debt Management Office (DMO), the Nigerian Economic Summit Group, and international bodies such as the Open Society Initiative for West Africa, the World Bank and the Washington-based financial institution over the vulnerability and unsustainable level of Nigeria’s huge debts. And of course, it’s servicing. According to the DMO, the sordid economic situation is reducing the resources that should have been channelled to infrastructural development and other key areas such as quality education and healthcare delivery.

On their part, both the Economic Summit Group and the Open Society are of the view that Nigeria ranks amongst the eleven West African countries unfortunately mired in the debt trap. Some others include Benin Republic, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Senegal and Gambia. The World Bank has hit the nail on the head by stating that Nigeria’s debt is both vulnerable and costly. But much as we appreciate the DMO for making available details of the figures on income and expenditure, the burning questions still flare in our sweaty faces. For instance, what has been happening to the billions of revenue the public is told came from crude oil sales, and other incomes from the Customs and Immigration Services, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Value Added Tax (VAT) and the huge sums credited to the Abacha loot? Worse still, the empirical evidence on ground is that in terms of decrepit infrastructure, low Human Development Index (HDI), in addition to low access to safe drinking water, nutritious food, education and healthcare cannot justify the huge local and foreign debts taken by the political leaders in office. The clarion call, this time around is for the federal and state governments to take a critical look at their spending pattern. They should re-think a paradigm shift from high spending on recurrent expenditure and institute sacrifice in governance, so as not to leave huge debts on the lean shoulders of the younger generation to battle with.

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