A former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, has asked President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) to apologise to Nigerians for collecting ‘humongous’ loans.
Atiku said the government should make an admittance of guilt for taking the country through the “throes of subjugation to another country.”
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But the APC said Atiku failed Nigerians as vice president, adding that he had no moral right to make such demand.
Atiku has for long advocated for a more robust engagement of the private sector and promotion of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) as sustainable alternatives through which government can fund infrastructure development.
Atiku said, “Nigeria had a total foreign debt stock of $7.02bn on May 29, 2015. Today, our foreign debt is $23bn and rapidly rising.
“Debt, by itself, is not a bad thing. But debt budgeted for such unproductive ventures like the proposed $500m upgrade of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) and other sundry bogus contracts is debt that leads to death. To trade Nigeria’s sovereignty for this type of profligacy is the height of irresponsibility.”
But the APC Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Yekini Nabena, said, “Atiku should be the one to apologise to Nigerians. All that he has borrowed from the banks, he has not been able to pay back his own. So he failed Nigerians as vice president of this country.”
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