A founding member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Osita Okechukwu, has stated that the African Democratic Congress (ADC) leadership mortgaged Nigeria’s future.
Naija News reports that Okechukwu made the statement after the ADC accused President Bola Tinubu’s administration of fiscal vandalism, following the National Assembly’s approval of £21 billion in foreign loans.
The party said that the new wave of borrowing would drive Nigeria’s public debt beyond ₦200 trillion before the end of the year, with no corresponding development or economic revival to justify it.
In response, Okechukwu, speaking with journalists in Enugu on Monday, insisted that the ADC had mortgaged Nigeria through its less transparent privatisation programme.
The APC chieftain challenged the ADC to release the House of Representatives report on the $16 billion fiscal vandalism of the electricity value chain under their watch, dubbed the Ndudi Elumelu 2009 Report.
He said, “My candid position is that the leadership of the ADC are the true vandals who really mortgaged Nigeria today and tomorrow via their less than transparent privatisation programme.
“Because electricity is the bedrock of economic development, Nigerians have not slept since the day they auctioned NEPA/PHCN/Mambilla under all manner of conspiracy theories.
“One challenge ADC, if they are truly transparent, to release the House of Representatives report on the $16 billion fiscal vandalism on the electricity value chain under their watch, dubbed the Ndudi Elumelu 2009 Report.
“Just as ADC vandalised NEPA/PHCN/Mambilla, our economic substructure, they also vandalised the superstructure of our sister political party, the PDP’s unity rotation convention in 2023 and now took refuge in the ADC”.
Speaking about the rising debt burden the ADC is protesting, Okechukwu said the President should resist borrowing for recurrent expenditures but should borrow for critical infrastructure to enhance manufacturers’ productivity.
Okechukwu further advised the President that, instead of borrowing $3 billion to rehabilitate the narrow gauge of the Eastern Corridor Railways at the moment, he should borrow a commensurate higher amount for standard gauge railways and one deep sea port in the Niger Delta to stimulate economic growth.
He added, “For me, we should resist borrowing for recurrent expenditure, rather than the implementation of the Oronsaye Report and urgent cutting down of unnecessary expenditures. Albeit one will support President Tinubu to borrow about $50 billion to overhaul the entire electricity value chain, a bedrock of economic resorgimento.”
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