Former Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo has decried the size of debt being owned by the country, years after he left office in 2007.
Obasanjo recalled he left the nation with about $70 billion, including a $45 billion reserve and $25 billion in a designated “excess crude” account.
The former President spoke on Thursday in an exclusive interview with Kayode Akintemi of News Central Television.
Obasanjo, who lamented the poor quality of leadership in the country, said his government met a debt overhang of close to $36 billion but reduced it to about $3.5 to $3.6 billion before leaving office in 2007.
His words: “I came in 1999 and met $3.7 billion in the reserve. And I have told you, we were spending $3.5 billion to service the debts. That’s what we had.
“By the time we left eight years later, with debt relief, when I came in, we had a debt overhang of close to $36 billion. By the time I left, with the debt relief and clearing what we had to clear, the quantum of debt that I left was about $3.5 to $3.6 billion from over or around $36 billion.
