FIRST and foremost , yours sincerely is not an economist by academic and or intellectual training, however, even as a lay man struggling to acclimatize in the midst of contemporary difficulties necessitated by the prevailing economic wretchedness this country is navigating through at this very moment of the annals of our history, I am definitively aware of the obvious signals that the indices and hand-writings on the wall are not in the best interest of the entire citizenry of this great and beloved nation of ours. Whether it is as a result of administrative ingenuity and or political greediness, If one can be permitted to share his thoughts on recent unprecedented nasty developments both within the confines of the financial structure and its resultant effects on the polity, one still can feel the devastating consequences of the unbearable unabated shrink of the socio-economic fabric of Nigeria as a developing nation. But again, the indices are not palatable and considering the tremendous agony inflicted by humanly created administrative ingenuity, obstacles and maladministration of both human and natural resource by successive governments this country is blessed with is telling more on us.
In the past few months, the price of essential commodities have rolled out of the hands of ordinary Nigerians. As it is; many citizens of this country find it difficult to have three square meals a day. Knowing too well the soaring prices of foodstuff in our respective markets, yours sincerely has long before now come to terms with the reality of where we have found ourselves and where we are heading to. The excruciating difficulties this country is facing has stripped naked many of our impoverished people in market squares.
These past days however, the burning issue which has overwhelmed and enveloped the minds of economic experts, pundits including my humble self has been that of how the country would climb over the about 35.5 trillion naira debt burden the nation is presently owing. This consist of a local debt of 21 trillion representing 61.34 percent.
Just recently, the Director General of the Debt Management Office, Ms. Patience Onihia disclosed that as at June 30, 2021, the nation’s debt stock stood at 35.46 trillion naira even as this total public debt is composed of domestic and external debt of the Federal Government, the 36 state governments and the Federal Capital Territory,(FCT). Giving a breakdown of the debt, the Director General further disclosed that a breakdown of the public debt figure under review indicates that external debt was 13.711 trillion representing 38.66 percent while domestic debt was 21.754 trillion representing 61.34 percent.
Continuing, Onihia notes that while the Federal Government accounts for 11.828 trillion of the external debt and 17.632 trillion of the domestic debt, states and the FCT’s external debt burden stood at 1.883 trillion with a domestic stock of 4.122 trillion.
Yet, just recently, while perusing one of our national dailies, yours sincerely stumbled on another disturbing developing story after it was disclosed that even as foreign borrowings escalate the Federal Government according to the news announced plans for a Eurobond issuance in the International Capital Market, ICM to raise between 3 billion and 6.2 billion dollars.
This time around, the Debt Management Office was quoted as saying that virtual meetings with investors have already been scheduled to hold “ in addition to providing funding to part-finance the deficit in the 2021 Appropriation Act, and that “proceeds are for the financing of various projects in the Act.”
President Buhari had also written a letter to the National Assembly seeking the approval to borrow fresh sums of 4,054,476,863 and 710 million in addendum to the 2018-2020 borrowing plan. In the letter, the President had explained owing to “emerging needs, there was need to raise more funds for some critical projects while seeking the parliament’s nod to also approve grant components of 125 million dollars.
Firstly, though not an economist by training, yours sincerely has a glimpse of the reasons which necessitated the formation of financial institutions in the aftermath of the World War 2 and its implications on developing nations right from the onset. It’s obvious that the introduction of some and or most of these global financial institutions out of Eurocentric ideologies were intended to further under-develop and retard the progress of these struggling nations of the world.
Out of our experiences, consistent borrowing has not helped some developing nations of the world to come out of their economic quagmire. Rather, some of these countries have been held hostage becoming but stooges of these so called advanced nations of the world. This predicament has consequently effected efforts aimed at overcoming persistent economic calamity bedeviling struggling nations of the world.
Even though some financial experts see nothing wrong with acts of nations borrowing, some of these experts are definitive on how such humongous finances should be spend particularly in developing nations of the world including Africa. In most cases, some of these African leaders are lured into collecting these monies but in the aftermath of this, these borrowed proceeds are reflected only on their families and crones to the detriment of all others.
For me, I am yet to see the resultant positive effect of consistent borrowing in this country. Nigeria as a developing nation has not successfully made use of borrowed sources for the betterment of its citizenry.
If we must speak truth to power, had all previous monies borrowed by Nigeria been fully utilized, we would not have been where we are today. We would not have been a nation facing lack of basic facilities as such.
The question our leaders must ask themselves however is; why do we keep on borrowing without anything tangible to show for it? What do we stand to benefit from all this continuous borrowing spree if and when we have nothing to show for it in this regard.
Beyond this; the present administration’s move to borrow more at its critical time of this administration life time does not speak well of its integrity at all. In this regard, I totally agree with the former President Olusegun Obasanjo that the incumbent administration should not borrow and accumulate debt while it has but a short period to spend in office.
