Governors call for urgent action to curtail Nigeria’s rising debt

From Abubakar Yunusa,Abuja

The governors of some states in Nigeria have called for a quick intervention to curtail the nation’s rising debt profile.

The Debt Management Office (DMO) had said Nigeria’s total public debt reached N46.25 trillion at the end of the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2022.

The state leaders, speaking on Wednesday at the recent 2023 induction programme organised by the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF), said Nigeria cannot perpetually borrow.

The governors were responding to the warnings by Ngozi Okonjo–Iweala, director- general of World Trade Organisation (WTO), that they should monitor their debt profiles, and keep careful control of expenditures.

Okonjo-Iweala had argued that it had become imperative for governors to focus on debt management because the country has challenges on the fiscal, debt, and monetary policy fronts.

Expressing his view on the issue, Bala Mohammed, governor of Bauchi state, bemoaned the nation’s debt service costs, which “accounted for 95 percent of its income”.

He warned that without action, “the nation would collapse”.

“We are going to go under unless we do something inward to really correct our own perception, our own notions and our own approaches to the management of the economy of the country,” Mohammed said.

“It is a monolithic economy. And yet, even where we are getting money, we have taken so much up front, the federation has to be looked at as a structure because states have to have a say in the management of the economy.”

Caleb Mutfwang, the Plateau governorelect, corroborating Mohammed’s stance on the need to reverse the country’s debt situation, said the federal and state governments must collaborate in order to come up with the right policies to reverse the situation.

He said the country must look for ways and means of creating wealth as a nation, so that more Nigerians would come out of poverty.

“This is both a national and subnational issue. We at the sub-national level will be collaborating with the federal government, as members of the National Economic Council, to come up with the right policies so that we will be able to reverse our debt situation,” he said.

“And of course, reversing debt is not rocket science, you have to create wealth, you have to add more money to be able to pay your debts. So, we must look at ways and means of creating wealth as a nation.

On his part, Dikko Radda, the Katsina state governor-elect, said as soon as he is sworn-in, there would be a comprehensive assessment of the state’s debt profile with a view to restructuring it, in order to meet the obligations for the people of the state.

“There is nothing wrong in borrowing to the develop, but it is wrong to borrow to spend uselessly,” he said.

By Stanley Onyekwere

The FCT Administration

Diaspora Desk Office has organised a forum, where hundreds of youth, women and vulnerable groups drawn from across the six Area Council of Abuja, were drilled on the dangers of irregular migration to foreign countries otherwise known as ‘japa’ sydrome.

It was observed that stakeholders during the sensitisation/enlightenment programme with the theme: Japa sydrome: Pains and Gains, organised for the teeming participants and integrated returnees, took turns to encourage the target groups to be always weary of the trend, in the best interest of themselves and the society in general.

In her remarks, Chairman/ CEO, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, (NIDCOM), Abike Dabiri-Erewa, while noting that no one can stop migration illegal or legal as there will always be such challenges, said people should always weigh the option and the consequences, to know which one is better for them.

Dabiri-Erewa, who said there are pains and gains and pains of Japa syndrome, which has always been there, commended the FCTA for putting the programme together, while expressing hope that at the end of it, there would be recommendations that the the Commission would be able to work on and implement.

She said: “ The most important thing is that we have to collectively as a people and government play our roles to ensure that we will shine and be the best in the world, and we will get the recognition that we deserved.

“We need to encourage the young ones in particular to do the same thing. There are frustrations, and no doubt about it, but please note that idea is that there is also opportunities that we are not seeing, and let us as a people and government open our eyes to those opportunities, and show the younger ones that maybe there is something that you can do rather than japa especially in an irregular and terrible way, so that can be better persons”.

Similarly, in his keynote presentaion, Ambassador Joe Keshi attributed the Japa syndrome to the unconducive situation of virtually every stratal of the society, in spite of the resources of the country.

According to him, “ when we preach against the trend, we mus try and balance it, and we must hold those responsible, who over the last couple of years have not made the country conducive