“LEPROSY DESTROYS ONE PERSON. DEBT DESTROYS GENERATIONS” — OBASANJO REPLIES TINUBU

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has faulted President Bola Tinubu’s position that borrowing is not leprosy, declaring that the country’s mounting debt is worse than the disease because its consequences extend to generations yet unborn.

The rebuttal was delivered on Friday at the 3rd Ajibosin Annual Symposium held at the amphitheatre of the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library in Abeokuta, ValidViewNetwork reports.

THE REBUTTAL

Obasanjo, who secured the landmark $30bn Paris Club debt relief for Nigeria during his administration between 1999 and 2007, was unequivocal.

“And for anybody to say debt is no leprosy, is absolute nonsense. Debt is worse than leprosy. Because leprosy destroys only one person. Debt destroys generations,” he said.

Tinubu had recently said that borrowing is not leprosy, arguing that his administration only needed to work hard to repay whatever it borrowed.

THE CRITIQUE OF WESTERN INSTITUTIONS

Obasanjo also criticised the policies of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, arguing that they were not designed to promote Nigeria’s national development.

“World Bank and IMF were not designed for us. They were built before we became independent, and that’s the people who will determine what we do,” he said.

“How can Iyabo be the one who will tell me how I will run my home? These brilliant boys will package everything very well academically. They tell us, and we take it, lock, stock, and barrel, and we use it. For a country of 250 million people, it is boys and girls who are not even married, let alone manage a home, who will tell us what we will do to manage our people, our country, and we swallow it, and we destroy ourselves.”

THE NAIRA’S COLLAPSE

The former president also decried the loss of value of the naira.

“When I started my farm 47 years ago, one naira to the dollar was one naira to one dollar 85 cents. What has Nigeria done in 47 years that we now have N1,500 naira to the dollar? What have we done?” he asked.

WHY IT MATTERS

Obasanjo’s intervention is a direct challenge to the Tinubu administration’s economic philosophy.

The President has argued that borrowing is a necessary tool for development, and that his government will repay what it owes.

Obasanjo, who negotiated one of the most significant debt relief deals in Nigeria’s history, is arguing that debt is a trap that ensnares future generations.

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The exchange between the two leaders is not just a policy disagreement. It is a clash of experience. Obasanjo has seen what debt can do to a nation.

Tinubu is betting that borrowing now will yield prosperity later. For Nigerians, the question is simple: who is right? And what will the answer mean for their children? ValidViewNetwork reports.