ON THE RIGHT TRACK

The federal government and the states are gradually bringing down their debt burden, contends BAMIDELE ATOYEBI 

It is axiomatic that when the fountain is muddied, you can’t get clean water downstream just like the fish starts rotting from the head. However, what is happening in the political firmament of Nigeria is a reverse logic to those aphorisms.

Like it is argued that individual capacity determines the success and development of a nation in transition like Nigeria, it has held true economically and will soon go round to other sectors of the country.

When Nigerians heard the announcement on inauguration day of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, that subsidy is no more, it evoked mixed feelings from friends and foes. To some, it aligned with the unsteady movement of the announcer while armchair economists dusted up their brains and started tumbling straight from economic abstracts with convoluted propositions of what should or ought to have been done.

In his characteristic style, Tinubu asked for time and understanding, insisting that he knew what he was doing, and where he was leading the polity to. As with new policies, it brought with it the balancer of good which is hardship but Nigerians would have none of that and they started lamentations and hurling curses on the President for the hardship. They forgot that you can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs, and that pain and gain are two sides of one coin. You cannot take one and leave the other.

Fastrack to now where other Governors like line dancers are looking at the footsteps of the lead dancer and taking cues. How has that translated to reality? A look at documents from the Debt Management Office shows that Nigeria is paying off her debts accumulated by several administrations like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which has come out to acknowledge it as true, making people to wonder how come in this era of belt tightening and global tanking of economies.

Some are saying it is a product if the removal of subsidy which had attracted the highest outcry and negative analysis. Its early gains have manifested in debt freedom by Nigeria. Other debts are being serviced and repaid which signposts better days ahead.

Since President Tinubu has led the way to adroit utilisation of resources as well as responsible spending, there is no other way to go for subnationals than to follow suit. The first salvo was fired by Alex Otti of Abia State who said he had reduced the debts of the state without borrowing while also executing multi- billion Naira projects. Indeed, more statistics started dropping that it was the case of all the states in Nigeria in a collective march towards debt freedom.

With a bragging right, the government can boast all it wants because there are tangibles to point at as performance indices. As one Tinubu supporter boasted on the internet, “The removal of subsidy has helped us to achieved this; we were borrowing to pay subsidies, but now, we are paying back all the debts incurred under subsidy.

“No State borrows to finance projects anymore, so the financial liberation is what we have not seen in this country before. We are definitely moving on the right track and hopefully, we will gather enough speed to meet the advanced economies soon.”

A look at the statistics of domestic debt comparison released by relevant authorities show more than 98 per cent decrease in debts across states. Only three states have increased debts out of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory. They are Niger State with 15.40 per cent increase, Enugu with 27.99 percent increase, and Lagos with 61.59 percent. The rest of the states all have negative debt increases meaning they are paying back their debts without further borrowings, an unprecedented record in the annals of Nigerian history.

Jigawa State as at 2023 owed N43bn which it has reduced to N1.3bn which means it has paid 96.92% of its debt under Tinubu administration. It is closely followed by Ondo State which had N74bn but reduced to N13bn. Ebonyi State which has slashed N76bn to N18bn. By that figure, it has paid 76.21%of it’s debt.

Kaduna State has reduced N87bn indebtedness to N25bn while Borno has N93bn reduced to N28bn, and so on.

The simple explanation to the magic is that Tinubu is clear headed on the problems of the country and has been applying his economic surgical blade with delicate accuracy to removing the cancerous cells that have been stultifying Nigeria’s growth. Since we are still in the second year of the administration, and we are recording these results, there is no doubt that things will improve further in the years ahead.

 Comrade Bamidele is a social worker, criminologist, maritime administrator, and philanthropist. He serves as The National Coordinator of The Accountability and Policy Tracker, Abuja