Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 general elections says Nigeria, under the leadership of President Bola Tinubu is number three highest debtor to World Bank.
Obi, who spoke in an exclusive interview with News Central TV also said Nigeria will soon climb to number one on the World Bank debtor list with the way things are going.
“Look at our debt, rising irresponsibly. There is nothing wrong in borrowing. Borrowing, for any government globally is accepted. People make reference with every other countries today. I have compared so many countries with the issue of borrowing”.
“Even countries people cite, like Singapore. Singapore today owes over 100 percent of their GDP but they have a clear law that all borrowed money must be for investment”.
“Japan owes over 200 percent of their GDP but the money Japan borrowed, most of their debts apart from being domestic were used for the economy and the people of Japan. Today, China has huge debts but you could see where those debts were invested in”.
Speaking further, Obi said Nigeria has nothing to show for all the loans the federal government has collected since the All Progressives Congress (APC) came to power in 2015.
“Today, we are the number three highest debtor to World Bank. That happened within the past one year. We actually estimated that the way we are going, we will soon be the number one highest debtor. We are a country without anything to show for it”.
“Bangladesh is within those three highest debtors of World Bank but we could see the different. In 2015, when this APC government started, our debt was a third of what it is today”.
