BMC and their crew, in order to make a fool of obasanjo are making fools of themselves. Obasanjo never referred to external debt, rather Nigeria's rising debt profile in general.

Here is the exact reporting from THE NATION. Note the highlighted lines.

Nigeria is crumbling under the huge weight of debt. Our revenue to debt ratio is very scary. In no distant time, up to 70% of our earnings would be used to service debt. If this is not worrying you as a youth in Nigeria, I wonder what would.

MODS should please take that topic off the frontpage.

Nigeria is rapidly sinking under the weight of foreign and domestic debts, and this should border us.

This was part of former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s opening lines on Friday as he presented a paper titled ‘Nigeria: The Challenges of Debt and Sustenance of Democracy.’

Speaking after Dr. Olurotimi Badero, the Nigerian American cardiologist and international nephrologist who was recently recognised as world’s first and only fully trained cardio-nephrologist, Obasanjo said: “There is a dangerous emerging trend today in Africa, and it is eerily familiar with developments on the continent in the 70s.



“Our political leaders have suddenly developed not just a taste for, but a voracious appetite for debt.

“As usual, most of such debts procured are hardly thought through.

“Predictably, ability to repay such debts is lacking.

“Unfortunately for us and unlike in the past, the new creditors are less tolerant of our limitations and inadequacies and are now demanding to manage institutions and agencies with a view to recouping their loans.”

Read Also: Obasanjo backs Buhari on Border closure
Flaunting his nearly 12 years as head of state, Obasanjo, who was guest speaker before a largely youthful audience at an event tagged ‘The Nigerian Story, Why I am Alive Campaign’, sponsored by Unity Bank, in Lagos, said: “Using debt to finance growth and/or development is a double-edged sword that must be wielded with a high degree of discipline, responsibility and foresight.”



Stressing that a well-caliberated debt for infrastructure and other developmental goals could be positive, the former president said: “Everyone knows that our governments are notoriously deficient in serious and adequate discipline and most often lack competence and consistency as well.”

He cited the case of Lagos, which borrowed to build a light rail, but which the succeeding government abandoned for its full four years even at “65% completion when it should have started paying down the loan.”

Stressing that such problem is not limited to states, he said, “The federal government built a nice looking extension to the Murtala Mohammed International Airport that looks completed from outside but not in service.

“To rub aboniki on the injury, some clowns are talking of demolishing the main airport and rebuilding from scratch. Where on earth is a poor country wasting resources that way? he queried.

Obasanjo also said defaulting on debt repayment is very easy and convenient, which also favours the creditor.

“Deliquescent behaviour allows the opportunity to impose stipulated sanctions and later appear friendly by offering to restructure your debt.

“At the end of the day, what is done is simply to add to your interest payments and other fees to the principal sum at a high premium.

“So, overnight, a debt of USD$1 million will become $5 million in spite of the fact that you had repaid $1.2 million.

“I say this without fear of contradiction. I have borrowed from banks as a private sector operator and I have borrowed as a political leader, so I believe you would understand my fears and experience about jumbo loans and my agony in getting rid of our external debts and developing a sustainable approach to address our domestic debts.”

He added that to now see all those efforts go to waste barely less than 15 years is more than disturbing to him.

Obasanjo, who noted that the situation he found the government in his second coming was such that the country owed both the Paris Club and London Club a whopping $36 billion and servicing it annually with $3bn, said the situation was, to say the least, suffocating.

He also lamented a situation where Nigeria’s debt, which stood at $10.32 billion in 2015, has risen to $81.274 billion in just four years, stressing that the nation will need to commit at least 50 per cent of its foreign earnings to service such humongous debt profile.

“As if this is not bad enough, we are currently seeking to add another $29.6 billion loan to our already overburdened debt portfolio,” he said.

The former president warned that the oil which Nigeria is banking on to pay up this debt is fast losing value, with at least 50 per cent of African countries already discovering oil and gas in reasonable quantities.

He also warned that getting debt relief like Nigeria got under him may not be so easy anymore, citing the case of Algeria, which under President Bouteflika tried to no avail to get debt relief like Nigeria did.

He said: “I fear for the future we are bequeathing to our children and to their children and their children s children.

“I believe that it will be foolhardy, irresponsible and wicked for us to tie a mill of stone around the neck of the successor generations of Nigerians.

“We need to take hard and important decisions that will facilitate a balanced allocation of resources to both capital and recurrent expenditures.”

https://thenationonlineng.net/nigeria-sinking-under-weight-of-debt-obasanjo/

How is this different from what was written?

Nigeria's debt in 2015 was not $10.32 billion. That was what the article sought to clarify

Mynd44:
How is this different from what was written?

Nigeria's debt in 2015 was not $10.32 billion. That was what the article sought to clarify

except obasanjo wasn't quoting Nigeria's external debt in his speech, as your front page article is purporting.

naijapips04:


except obasanjo wasn't quoting Nigeria's external debt in his speech, as your front page article is purporting.

Except that Nigeria's debt (both external and internal individually or collectively) was not $10.32 billion in 2015. So if he was refering to internal debt, it wasnt correct.
If he was refering to external debt, it wasnt correct.
If he was refering to external and internal debt together, which he used to compare the present total debt stock of $83 Billion, it wasnt $10.32 correct

So where did the $10.32 come from?

Mynd44:


Except that Nigeria's debt (both external and internal individually or collectively) was not $10.32 billion in 2015. So if he was refering to internal debt, it wasnt correct.
If he was refering to external debt, it wasnt correct.
If he was refering to external and internal debt together, which he used to compare the present total debt stock of $83 Billion, it wasnt $10.32 correct

So where did the $10.32 come from?

god of the gaps. Did the man say "Nigeria's external debt stock now $83 billion" ? No. So why are you attributing it to the man?

naijapips04:


except obasanjo wasn't quoting Nigeria's external debt in his speech, as your front page article is purporting.

You quoted The Nation.

The article took its excerpt from Guardian (see attached screenshot)

Here is the link https://www.google.com/amp/s/m.guardian.ng/news/nigeria-faces-impending-bankruptcy-says-obasanjo/amp

naijapips04:


god of the gaps. Did the man say "Nigeria's external debt stock now $83 billion" ? No. So why are you attributing it to the man?

Read my last reply to you.

Mynd44:

You quoted The Nation.

The article took its excerpt from Guardian (see attached screenshot)

Here is the link https://www.google.com/amp/s/m.guardian.ng/news/nigeria-faces-impending-bankruptcy-says-obasanjo/amp

This article is making inferences. The Nation actually quoted obasanjo verbatim.

naijapips04:


god of the gaps. Did the man say "Nigeria's external debt stock now $83 billion" ? No. So why are you attributing it to the man?

Obasanjo was wrong with his figures.. Is that too hard for you to understand/comprehend ?

naijapips04:


This article is making inferences. The Nation actually quoted obasanjo verbatim.

Both are inferences. The one by the Nation didnt have quotation marks either.

The article by PM News wrote the rejoiner based on what the Guardian reported and it was clearly stated there.

That Obasanjo cleared Nigeria's external debt - accumulated by successive governments - as president is not in doubt, though.

The whole wolrd knows that.