The Federal Government has described the statement by Atiku Abubakar, former Vice President and Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, which claimed, among other things, that Nigeria’s debt to revenue ratio was 99 per cent, as scaremongering anchored on a false premise.
The government made this known in a statement signed by Segun Adeyemi, Special Assistant to the President, Office of the Minister of Information and Culture, where Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the Minister of Information and Culture was quoted as saying that the government welcomes constructive criticism, adding that it should be based on ‘verifiable facts rather than conjectures and innuendos.’
“There is no doubt that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar loves our country and wishes it well…One can only hope that his resort to the use of such words as ‘precipice’, ‘foreclosure’ and economic ruin’ does not reflect anything but best wishes for the country at this time,” the statement read.
In addition to questioning the debt to revenue figure which Mr Abubakar attributed to the Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper, Alhaji Mohammed said “we are not able to ascertain the source of the first quarter figures of N943.12 billion for debt servicing and N950.56 billion for retained revenue, which he also quoted.”
The former Vice president’s claim that debt servicing does not equate to debt repayment was dismissed as “wrong and ill-informed.” The minister explained that the debt service provisions in the annual budgets include principal repayments, interest payments and all other applicable charges.
Contrary to Mr Abubakar’s assertions, the government claimed that Nigeria’s debt to GDP ratio is one of the lowest in the world at 19 per cent as of December 31, 2019, adding that efforts were on to increase revenue in order bring down the ratio of debt service to revenue.
“We have said that in the face of massive infrastructural decay, no responsible government will sit by and do nothing. This Administration’s borrowing, therefore, is aimed mostly at revamping our infrastructure,” Alhaji Mohammed said.
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