‘Absolute nonsense, debt worse than leprosy’ – Obasanjo replies Tinubu

ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo has reacted to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s remark that borrowing is not leprosy, insisted that borrowing is worse than leprosy because its consequences extend to generations yet unborn.

Obasanjo described Tinubu’s argument on loan as ‘absolute nonsense, arguing the country’s increasing debt burden and the capacity of its leaders to manage the economy remains a challenge.

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He recalled securing debt forgiveness of over $30bn Paris Club debt relief for Nigeria during his administration between 1999 and 2007, stated that leprosy affect an individual, but debt affect an entire generstions.

Speaking on Friday at the 3rd Ajibosin Annual Symposium, themed “Leveraging Artificial Intelligence to Solve Grassroots Problems and Accelerate National Development”, held at the amphitheatre of the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library in Abeokuta, he criticised the borrowing policies of the World Bank and IMF.

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Earlier, President contended that leprosy was not leprosy, but his administration would work hard to pay all it borrowed.

Obasanjo insisted that policies of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund were not designed to promote Nigeria’s and national development.

He said, “I was sitting with the former Prime Minister of Britain, Jimmy Callaghan. Callaghan was a sheep farmer. He was being paid four euros per annum on every sheep he owned, and they say we must never subsidise agriculture, and if we subsidise agriculture, we won’t get money from the World Bank or from the IMF.

“World Bank and IMF were not designed for us. They were built before we became independent, and that’s the people who will determine what we do. They are brilliant boys and girls; they went to Ivy League universities, Oxford, Cambridge, and all that. My children went to some of them, including Iyabo. She went to one of those schools; she went to Cornell.

“How can Iyabo be the one who will tell me how I will run my home? These brilliant boys will package everything very well academically. They tell us, and we take it, lock, stock, and barrel, and we use it. For a country of 250 million people, it is boys and girls who are not even married, let alone manage a home, who will tell us what we will do to manage our people, our country, and we swallow it, and we destroy ourselves.”

The former president also decried the loss of value of the naira, saying, “When I started my farm 47 years ago, one naira to the dollar was one naira to one dollar 85 cents. What has Nigeria done in 47 years that we now have N1,500 naira to the dollar? What have we done?

“What do our leaders know, and what do they not know? From what they know, what can they do for us? For anybody to say debt is no leprosy is absolute nonsense. Debt is worse than leprosy, because leprosy destroys only one person. Debt destroys generations.”

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