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Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has expressed concern about the amount of debt the country holds several years after leaving office in 2007.
He revealed he left the country with about $70 billion, including $45 billion in reserves and $25 billion in a designated “excess crude oil” account.
He lamented the low quality of leadership in this country.
The politician boasted that his government was nearly $36 billion in debt, but that by the time he left office in 2007, he had reduced that debt from about $3.5 billion to $3.6 billion.
He made the announcement in an interview with News Central Television on Thursday.
Mr. Obasanjo said, “I came in 1999 and raised a reserve fund of $3.7 billion. And I told you, we were spending $3.5 billion on debt servicing. That’s what we had.
“By the time I got the debt relief and retired eight years later, I had nearly $36 billion in excess debt when I joined the company. The amount went from over $36 billion to about $3.5 billion to $3.6 billion.
“At the same time, our reserves went from $3.7 billion when I joined to $45 billion. At the same time, we also had what we call ‘excess crude oil.’ This exceeds the budget and the amount of crude oil actually sold. We are typically conservative in our budgeting and call it the “oil glut.” That means about $25 billion was in there. Add this to reserves and you get about $70 billion.
“The important thing here is that I quit in 2007. Today, between 2007 and 2024, all this money is gone. All of it. And all that money is gone. And today we have more debt than when we took office in 1999.”
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