How in the world do we as a nation known as Nigeria ever allowed a mediocre and a nonentity like Dr. Yerima Ngama to be our finance minister in Nigeria and to be speaking to the nation on why we need to borrow more money from those westerner financial agencies? In his words, Dr. Yerima Ngama said “Nigeria’s debt is about 18 per cent of the nation’s GDP. The nation is under-borrowing. The standard is 40 per cent of GDP; it is when it is over that that there is a problem. We should borrow more, considering our economic activities. There is no problem with the level of our debt. The problem is the domestic debt. Interest rates are too high. Yes, we must continue to borrow. It is only poor people that do not borrow. Dangote and others borrow; you can borrow once you are credit worthy. America is the most indebted country in the world. Borrowing is good. The more money you have, the more money you need. There is nothing like satisfaction. If we are not oil rich, nobody will lend to us. We are borrowing because we have many projects.”.
(i). Is Ngama truly a good or a poor student of history to have easily forgotten how Olusegun Obasanjo, the former Nigerian President went all over the western world and begging for the forgiveness and for the cancellation of our huge crushing foreign debts? (ii). Has Ngama forgotten that the debtor is always the servant and at the mercy of the borrower (the master(? (iii). Can Ngama show to every Nigerian publicly those proposed national projects that will benefit this nation and make this nation better that he plans to use the proposed borrowed money for? (iv). Has Ngama forgotten that America may be the most indebted nation in the world today, but it is an advanced nation and a manufacturing economy unlike Nigeria that is 100% a consuming nation that depends 100% on her oil for her state revenue? (v). Is Ngama planning to take us back as a nation into those huge foreign debts again that we will never be able to pay in this generation and in the future generations of Nigerians?
(vi). I challenge Ngama to show to Nigerians how we have managed our present huge oil revenue that is based on 2.5 million of barrels of oil a day at about $100 a barrel and why we need to borrow more today for national development. (vii). Has Ngama forgotten that the problem with Nigeria is not the insufficient revenue, but massive official corruption, mammoth mismanagement of state resources and the using of over 30% of the present annual federal budget to pay the salaries and allowances of those 17,500 public elected and appointed officials in the name of democracy, party politics and public service? (viii). Has Ngama forgotten that more borrowing by Nigerian government translates into more money to be stolen and to be mismanaged by our public officials and without anything on the ground in Nigeria to show for it?
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