The first thing that some pointed out to us in the immediate reaction to the matter is that AIT was ‘barred’ and not ‘banned’. A simple check on any grammar website shows that both words (bar and ban) are synonymous. While ban is used more in relation to inanimate objects, bar is used of humans and persons. Hence, one can say that ‘chocolates are banned in my school’ or ‘students are barred from bringing chocolates into my school’.
My reaction to the entire saga was to watch as twitter handles one had hitherto ascribed with a modicum of sense lost it totally and jumped up to defend the indefensible. They should learn from some of us who have mastered that act of condemning our own side in just one tweet embedded in several unrelated issues. Once that condemning tweet is out, one then unlooks or refers attackers to the earlier tweet and lets the matter rest. I for one never justified anything that was clearly against common-sense or traditional principles. Our APC friends have shown that they would carry on as though Pa Buhari is a messiah and everything he does cannot be wrong.
But thank God for some sense within the APC rank – Lai Mohammed quickly stepped in to overrule Pa’s spokesman Garba Shehu. The ban on AIT was foolish ab initio – let’s not mince words. What was he to gain? For me, it was a move that was going to set him on collision course with the media and I was all too happy to just watch it happen. The ethical bounds that AIT crossed during campaign season are best decided by a law court since those were adverts and not AIT original documentaries. Knowing full well that a law case would expose the truth of those documentaries, some hawks around Pa Buhari simply asked him to play judge, jury, accuser and executor in two words: ban AIT.
READ: “You Don’t Have The Power”: Dokpesi Dares Buhari On AIT Ban
READ: Buhari Says He Was Unaware Of The AIT Ban; Issues Warning To His Team
And there was the argument that ‘he is still a private citizen’ which personally I think is a gross misnomer. There are no public citizens. What Goodluck Jonathan does in the bedroom with his wife is private, even though he is a public citizen. Much as some perverts may want to know what goes on in the presidential bedroom I doubt any journalist would actually venture that far. Same applies to Pa Buhari who incidentally now lives in a state owned building, is surrounded by state security officers and is as much a public citizen as any government official is. But then again, it only shows the length to which voltrons will go to justify anything their messiah does.
Two things disturb me, three actually and I will highlight them briefly:
Firstly, that despite his usual ‘my party will make that decision’. Pa Buhari seems to have a cabal whom he consults and some say this cabal is similar in composition to the Turai Yar’Adua cabal. This also connects with the second point that the APC usually seems to be out of sync with whatever Buhari (and his cabal) are saying and I will give three instances:
When Garba Shehu announced that Buhari was going to London for a short rest, Lai Mohammed quickly stepped in and said it was a working visit to the UK. When Garba Shehu said Buhari would have nothing to do with the National Confab Report, Lai Mohammed again said it would be evaluated and any positives salvaged from it. Then this.
What we have may perhaps be the incipient signs of a weakening ACN caucus and an ascending CPC caucus within the APC ranks. I’d said at some point before the elections that Nasir el-Rufai, Bukola Saraki and Tanimu Yakubu are more adept players of Abuja politics than Tinubu is and he may yet be outsmarted. With Raji Fashola and Kayode Fayemi leaning more to the person of Pa Buhari than Tinubu these days, you will understand why I say the ACN caucus is weakening.
My third disturbance on this matter is that Buhari seems eager to continue waging a war against the media. His Decree 4 of 1984 was brought up consistently by his opponents before the last elections and this unnecessary controversy over AIT seems to play into that narrative all too conveniently…so conveniently in fact that I am reminded of the ‘I don’t give a damn’ attitude of past military rulers (not the unwise words of Goodluck Jonathan). Obasanjo it was who had a sign at his Otta Farm linking journalists and dogs together and claiming both were prohibited. Yet, when he came into power, he demonstrated an ability to work with the media to sell his own side of the story – he did this so well in fact that despite the hardship he inflicted on the nation at some point, the overriding theory was that ‘Baba means well’.
Buhari’s ban on AIT and the way Garba Shehu reiterated it twice seems a bit like these guys won’t care. I’m not afraid that they will have their way but I suspect they will burn their goodwill all too soon.
Professor of Paediatric Surgery, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye, Ogun State, Olusola Shonubi, has said that paediatric surgery is generally excluded from most child health programmes in developing countries, including Nigeria.
He said this during the 70th inaugural lecture of the institution on Tuesday at the Ago Iwoye campus, with the theme, Children: Redressing nature’s construction.
Shonubi noted that due to this neglect, many congenital anomalies go unreported and children die of easily correctable surgical conditions.
He said, “It is quite unfortunate that health care policy in developing countries does not recognise the surgical needs of children because paediatric surgery is still largely viewed as non-essential service.
“We need a national policy that defines access to health care by children so as to ensure quality, irrespective of socio-economic status or where the child is resident.”
Shonubi, who called on health professionals to help create workable community norms and public policies, advised that the Association of Paediatric Surgeons of Nigeria and Paediatric Association of Nigeria should cooperate to provide the needed advocacy in prioritising children’s health.
He said, “If we are able to generate sufficient data demonstrating that childhood surgical conditions are a significant public health care challenge, then we are likely to change health care policy and ensure adequate resources for paediatric surgical care.
“It is also my expectation that appropriate laws would be enacted and faithfully applied to protect the health and well-being of children.
“The ultimate goal of the national policy would be to address most, if not all, of the challenges being faced in the delivery of paediatric surgical services. These include bridging the funding gap, developing clinical practice, surgical training and increasing sub-specialisation.”
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Shonubi lamented that only a small fraction of children in developing countries had access to basic paediatric surgical care due to limited facilities, equipment and human resources.
Eight construction workers got trapped when an old structure inside the Emir of Kano palace collapsed on Monday.
The incident occurred around 11am as the workers carried out rehabilitation of the ancient structure. Since Emir Muhammad Sanusi II became emir of Kano, he has been rehabilitating old structures in the palace.
According to one of the survivors, Iliya Aminu, there were 10 people working on the structure when it collapsed but only two escaped.
“I was very lucky because I was by the door when the building caved in trapping my eight colleagues,” he said.
Five of the eight had been rescued by noon according to a report by Daily trust newspaper which said that two were carried to the Murtala Specialist Hospital with the Palace ambulance while the remaining three were ferried to the Hospital with the Kano state fire service van.
The Emir was receiving the minister of education, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau when the building collapsed.
The Managing Director, McNichols Consolidated Plc, Mr. Chimaneke Ekpe, has warned Nigerians against using imported sugar, saying it lacks vitamin A as recommended by National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control.
Ekpe, who stated this during the company’s 10th anniversary, noted that NAFDAC had ensured the fortification of locally made sugar with vitamin A.
According to him, the imported ones are mere carbohydrate, which make them not healthy for consumption.
Ekpe also lamented that despite the ban on the importation of sugar in retail packs by the National Sugar Development Council, the brand still flooded the Nigerian markets.
He stated,”Sugar is an essential source of carbohydrate but as a manufacturer, we do advise our customers to take as little as possible considering the health implications of excess sugar in the body.
“That is why we are calling for the full implementation of the Nigerian Sugar Master Plan, especially the ban on importation of sugar in retail packs that lacks vitamin A according to NAFDAC specification. They also pose health risk.
“Aside the health risk, it is discouraging local industries and contributing to youth unemployment in the country.”
Ekpe also advised consumers to take more brown sugar, saying it has more health benefits.
He added, “People prefer taking white sugar because it is tasty than the brown, even though the latter is more beneficial to the body.
“The white sugar is heavier because of bleaching and processing but the brown is just the crushed and dried sugar cane. The latter also has its natural values intact. However, moderate intake of sugar of any kind is the best advice.”
The Chairman, McNichols Consolidated Plc., Mr. Segun Layode, in his remarks, urged NAFDAC and other relevant agencies to intensify their efforts towards protecting local manufacturers.
Layode identified importation and unstable power supply as major challenges facing the company.
I read Senator-elect, Ben Murray-Bruce’s piece, “It Doesn’t Matter if the Cat is White or Black,” published in Thisday’s edition of April 29, 2015.
In the article, he criticised President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari’s composition of his Transition Committee. He feels it is an inappropriate assemblage and questioned the General’s ability to constitute a productive team to support him in running his government. He also advised General Buhari to cut the cost of governance, beginning from Aso Rock, by reducing the overhead cost of the executive and persuading the legislature to do same.
Recently, Senator Murray-Bruce has been using his Twitter handle to further promote his prescriptions for our ailing economy. He asked General Buhari to use made in Nigeria Peugeot as his official car and also reduce the number of cars in the presidential fleet.
Senator Murray-Bruce is a man I had a lot of respect for. I heard him speak several times when he was campaigning for the Governorship of Bayelsa state. No doubt he is a brilliant and eloquent man and I had wished Bayelsans would give him the opportunity to lead them as their Governor and when that did not happen, I was deeply disappointed. Now much of that respect has eroded because of the Senator’s recent statements. His statements have a lot of substance I must admit, but they raise a lot of questions over his motive and his reputation.
The Senator had these brilliant ideas on how to run Nigeria and structure our financial and public service system, yet he failed to bring them forward until now, because his own, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, has been the president. Now there’s an incoming president who is not from his region so he suddenly feels the need to come public and show he has a loud mouth. He criticised Gen Buhari’s constitution of his Transition Committee and it makes me wonder if he has ever felt it is helpful to our country that President Jonathan has had the likes of Doyin Okupe, Abba Moro, Diezani Alison-Madueke and Musiliu Obanikoro in his government. What did he say when Jonathan appointed Ahmadu Ali as his campaign DG and Fani Kayode as his campaign spokesperson? Talking about the cost of governance, why did he not ask President Jonathan to use made in Nigeria Peugeot car? Why did he not advise Jonathan to cut the overhead of the executive? Why did he not speak out when Stella Oduah bought two armoured cars with 225million Naira of unbudgeted public funds?
His ideas are brilliant and he has the right to state his own opinion on issues of governance. It is also well within his rights to criticise General Buhari and I do not intend to contest that. My concern is the attitude of seeing nothing wrong in a leader’s action if he is from your own part of the country and especially if you are benefiting from him. Clearly the Senator enjoyed Jonathan’s patronage and that can account for his emergence as a Senator. President Jonathan has run the most incompetent, corrupt and despicable government any society can be cursed with. All through his five years of destroying this nation, one bit after the next, there was a man named Ben Murray-Bruce, a close confidant of the President who saw nothing wrong in all the president did or perhaps was too cowardly to say a word of caution to him. Now the same man wants us to see him as a brilliant saint who has the wisdom to advise a president on good leadership.
It is shameless hypocrisy for Senator Murray-Bruce to suddenly have the zest to criticise and condemn General Buhari for actions that he condoned when Dr Jonathan was the president. If he felt silence is golden for five years, he should accord it the same attribute now.
We must develop the value of standing for the truth regardless of who is on the side opposite of it. It is inevitable that if we must advance as a people, we must also grow beyond sentiments and selfish considerations and stand for the collective good of our society, no matter who it will pitch us against. The attitude of keeping quiet when someone from your region, religion or ethnicity is doing wrong and only speaking against the person from the other side is most unhelpful and unacceptable. It makes me question the integrity of Senator Murray-Bruce and the motive of his present sermonisations.
He owes it to Nigerians to first of all explain why he kept quiet for five years while President Jonathan was strangling this nation to its death and also give us sufficient reasons to trust his character. The change we have instituted in our national culture is deeper than mere political change. It includes a new resolve to hold every public figure accountable for their actions and inactions and Senator Murray-Bruce can’t be an exception.
Until he gives me reason not to, I believe he has been a beneficiary of the corruption in the present government that is why he never came out to criticise all the misdeeds of the government. On account of that belief, he lacks the moral authority to make the statements he is making now and he is a perfect example of the kind of character that we cannot condone in anyone who aspires to be called a public figure in the emerging Nigeria. God bless Nigeria.
I overheard a conversation between two men on a street that captures the magnitude of the burden inherited by President-elect Muhammadu Buhari. It went something like this:
Mr. A: “Why e come be say now wey your man (Buhari) don win naim we dey suffer dis kain thing? No light, no petrol, no money… Na so una dey shout change, change … him don win now see wahala!”
Mr. B: Haba! But Jonathan is still in charge, Buhari never take over now!”
Mr. A: “Look … we no go gree o!” And their voices tapered off in the distance.
In stunned silence I digested what I had just heard. The size of the challenge confronting the next administration is gargantuan, but it is compounded by so much ignorance on the part of a longsuffering population who now expect their newly-minted leader to brandish a wand and sweep their troubles away. If only this was wonderland!
Buhari’s assignment is complicated by the bitterness factor. The Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) was unprepared for the loss of the presidency. Party spokesman aptly described his organization as ‘traumatized’.
Many in the ruling party still cannot reconcile themselves with what has just happened: they are handing over the reins to the man they disdained and they just can’t stop the habit of sniping at him. This is the campaign that never ended, and the attacks would continue whether or not they are reasonable or morally justified.
That the PDP is in disarray after its calamitous electoral performance is to be expected. The scope of the debacle is such that the party which has been in power for an unbroken 16-year stretch would be would be psychologically damaged for a long time.
Up North it has been virtually wiped out by Hurricane Buhari. In the South West it is standing on two shaky legs in Ondo and Ekiti. These outposts are bound to come under sustained pressure from the new governing party after May 29.
In the South South and South East zones it faces an uncertain future. Electoral litigation and potential defections are bound to erode its holdings in these areas.
In Abuja, national chairman Ahmadu Muazu and members of his National Working Committee (NWC) are exchanging brickbats with aides and associates of President Goodluck Jonathan over the defeat while crossing swords with governors who want them sacked.
But no matter how bad things look for PDP at the moment, the worst is yet to come. In the next few months as the new government begins a forensic examination of the Jonathan years we should expect more embarrassing scandals to be unveiled as whistleblowers – long restrained by the fear of the outgoing government – begin to sing.
The savage in-fighting that has already kicked off is not going to disappear just because a committee has been appointed to examine why the party did poorly at the polls. Peace will only come when one of the factions contending for the soul of the party prevails.
Although there’s no unanimity as to the best way forward most members agree that PDP has to reinvent itself. But that isn’t going to happen until the party understands where it went wrong. The reactions of some of its leaders – from President Jonathan who’s already dreaming of PDP’s speedy return to power in 2019 to Muazu who’s been bragging about transforming into a vicious attack dog who will give the All Progressives Congress (APC) government nightmares – shows they still don’t get it.
Their comments and those of their camp followers on the internet show that their understanding of their new opposition role ends with lobbing criticism and invective at every move of the incoming lot and their leader, Buhari. It was that sort of wooly-headed thinking that inspired the hate campaign strategy that backfired spectacularly of March 28 and April 11.
The tactic or strategy a party in opposition adopts is usually shaped by the circumstance. There is the ‘reaction model’ involving relentless sniping and nitpicking. This means harassing your quarry over every little failing. It could be quite effective where the government in power is already unpopular, but it is very risky where certain lines are crossed.
The other option is the ‘proactive model’ in which the opposition tries to take the initiative by proffering new and more attractive policies than those set forth by the government of the day for dealing with challenges. This is mostly adopted where the incumbent regime retains a measure of popularity and credibility. In this case frontal attack doesn’t work because there’s not much to attack.
APC adopted the relentless attack model, now the PDP lazily wants to follow that same tack without understanding why it worked. You don’t attack for attack sake. The power of a critic’s utterances comes from his credibility. When Buhari talks about fighting corruption there’s a ring of believability to his words because of his history. The same comments coming from some of our former heads of state immediately conjures images of very black pots calling the kettle names.
Jonathan was roundly criticized because there was so much to criticize in his government. The flak hit home because it was supported by concrete evidence. If the opposition were hitting him over the head for corruption, they could point at several running scandals at every point in time. It was so bad that by the final year of his tenure the president had lost so much credibility locally and internationally.
In trying to savage Buhari even before he’s sworn into office, the PDP is making a big mistake. The man still enjoys tremendous goodwill and this will not dissipate overnight; it will take him stumbling from disaster to disaster for that to happen.
If anything PDP and its leaders should stay out of the way. As the magnitude of the mess it created becomes evident they should be hiding their heads in shame and allow the new team clean up their mess. And truly Nigeria in 2015 is one massive mess.
Every day the sheer scale of Boko Haram atrocities becomes evident. On the positive side the military has recorded successes in recent times. But it has struck me that all the efforts of the armies of Nigeria and three neighbouring countries have not been able to wipe out the sect.
After each day’s fighting the military reports new heavy death tolls of the part of the militants. How did they manage to get this big? How did they manage to build such a mighty force of men under arms? What were the administrations in charge in the last decade doing while this monster grew? All of this occurred under PDP’s watch.
Under the same party the nation has become bitterly polarized along ethnic and religious lines like never before in her history. The hatred between groups is frighteningly approaching the intensity of the pre-civil war period.
That’s not all. The economy has been run aground. There is no electricity. Fuel queues have become a permanent feature of our landscape. We squander billions of naira on dubious subsidy payments every year. The tragedy is compounded by the fact that neither the Ministry of Finance nor the oil marketers can agree on what the numbers are.
Unemployment has assumed the status of a plague. Under pressure from falling oil prices the naira now exchanges at an all-time low of well over N200 to the US dollar. The foreign reserves and Excess Crude Account are depleted. With one or two exceptions most states cannot pay monthly salaries and even the federal government had to borrow to meet its own wage obligations. This is the country that PDP would be handing to the next administration.
The clean-up exercise that Buhari has been saddled is going to take a while to get to done. We’re not going to wake up on May 30 to discover that Nigeria has become Paradise.
I believe that the president-elect has started going about his business in a very sound way. Some have tried to make his attempts at lowering expectations out to be an attempt to renege on campaign promises. But nothing could be farther from the truth.
Anybody who has bothered to read between the lines of his words in the past few weeks would notice he’s been clearly setting the style and tone of his government. In his comments on the first anniversary of the abduction of the Chibok girls he said the approach of his administration to resolving the issue would be founded on honesty. That required him to declare bluntly that there were no guarantees the girls would ever be found.
One of Jonathan’s greatest undoing is that for much of his tenure he lived in denial and never leveled with the public about how bad things were. He preferred to tell the each audience what he felt they wanted to hear instead of the bitter truth.
He glossed over the insurgency even when bombs were going off in Abuja – preferring the narrative that it was the work of APC and sundry enemies who were bent on unseating him. He and his wife didn’t initially accept that the Chibok abductions happened. Indeed some of his aides up till today insist that the incident was a politically-motivated stunt to embarrass the government.
After he accepted that the incident did happen, he kept reassuring the country of their imminent return. At a point one of his defence chiefs even boasted of knowing where they were being held. More than a year after they are still not home. By promising what he could not deliver Jonathan did incalculable harm to his credibility. The result is he led his party to the electoral carnage we’ve just witnessed.
Seamlessly the party responsible for our sorry state becomes the new opposition. It expects to get going in that role by deploying criticism. But the erstwhile ruling party lost the moral right to criticise by its criminal mismanagement of Nigeria. Indeed, it would be amusing watching PDP leaders moan about the state of the nation in the next one or two years.
PDP must now earn the right to criticize those who govern the country. Introspection and planning were never its strong suit. But that more than anything is what is required in opposition. In 1999, the party’s first Minister for Power, Bola Ige, excitedly promised to deliver 24-hour electricity within six months. He didn’t wait to understand what the problem was. Sixteen years after his successors haven’t done better.
The party needs to prove through concrete actions that it has repented of its old, discredited ways and can now be entrusted with power.
It will not have the federal platform to showcase anything in the coming years. It would have to prove its competence using its few remaining outposts in the South-South, South-East and Gombe. APC did this successfully – that was why during the campaigns it could point to the achievements of its governors in Lagos, Kano, Rivers, Ogun, Oyo and elsewhere as examples of good governance it intended to replicate at federal level.
Until it has something positive to show PDP and its discredited leaders must really stay out of the way of the cleaners.
– this Best Outside Opinion was written by Festus Eriye/the Nation
President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has congratulated British Prime Minister David Cameron and the Conservative Party of Great Britain on their victory in the country’s general elections.
In a statement signed by presidential spokesman, Reuben Abati, the president said:
“As Prime Minister Cameron and the Conservative Party prepare to form a new British Government backed by the clear majority in Parliament which they won in yesterday’s elections, President Jonathan assures them of the best wishes of the Government and people of Nigeria.
“The President expects that the historic relationship between Nigeria and Britain which received a significant boost during the past five years of his Presidency in Nigeria and Mr. Cameron’s first term in office, will continue to blossom in coming years for the benefit of both countries and their citizens.
“President Jonathan particularly hopes that both countries will continue to strengthen current bilateral cooperation between them in critical areas such as the fight against insurgency and terrorism, education, trade, infrastructure and the achievement of Nigeria’s development targets.
“The President wishes Prime Minister Cameron a very successful new term in office and trusts that he will continue to serve the people of Britain and the global community to the best of his immense God-given abilities.”
Some gunmen on Friday abducted a lecturer at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Dr. Femi Omisore, who was on his way to attend a funeral at Oye Ekiti in Ekiti State.
Our correspondent gathered on Sunday that Omisore, a lecturer at the Department of Environmental Design Management of the OAU was abducted in Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State.
His captors, who were said to be armed with guns, were said to have trailed him for a while.
The driver was said to have noticed them and tried to evade the gang, but the abductors managed to waylay Omisore’s vehicle.
On catching up with him, the hoodlums were said to have killed the driver out of anger and took Omisore to an unknown place.
The gunmen, it was further gathered, fired several shots at the petrol tank of the lecturer’s car and ensured that the car caught fire before they left the scene.
The Chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, OAU chapter, Dr. Caleb Aborisade, confirmed the incident.
Aborisade said, “According to the information I gathered from his family, Dr. Femi Omisore was kidnapped on Friday evening. He was going for a funeral ceremony in Oye Ekiti.
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“I learnt that a member of his department was burying his father in Oye Ekiti and he was travelling there when he was kidnapped.
“The kidnappers used his telephone to call his wife this morning (Sunday) and they demanded N70m ransom.
“We are not politicians; where do they expect us to get such amount?”
He appealed to Omsiore’s abductor to release the lecturer.
He said the family was not rich and could not afford to pay such a huge amount of money.
The abduction was also confirmed to our correspondent on the telephone by the Chairman of Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, Osun State Polytechnic, Iree chapter, Mr. Dotun Omisore.
The union leader is a nephew of the abducted lecturer.
The ASUP chairman expressed concern at the way lecturers and members of their families were becoming targets of abduction.
He called on the government and security agencies in the country to do more to ensure security of lives and property of every Nigerian, saying kidnapping was becoming too rampant.
It will be recalled that gunmen had in December 2014 kidnapped the wife of ASUU Chairman, Osun State University chapter, Mrs. Funmilayo Abiona.
The outgoing administration encouraged fuel subsidy and it has grown into a monstrous corrupt problem that it cannot manage! In the last three weeks, we have bought a litre of petrol between N130 and N160 which is what it may be without subsidy.
Nigerians should be ready to sacrifice in the short run before the mess is cleared. President-elect Muhammadu Buhari should just leave it as it is, that is, no more subsidy, and clear the subsidy mess left behind.
The importers can be allowed to continue to import petrol and sell at a cost. Arrangements can then be made to get refined petrol in exchange for crude oil while efforts are made to build more refineries in the the next two to three years.
There are enough things to do for the new administration that removing subsidy problem will help.
The debt owed by both the Federal Government and the 36 states of the federation as well as the Federal Capital Territory has now hit N12.06tn, investigation has shown.
Statistics obtained from the Debt Management Office showed that the country’s public debt rose from N10.16tn as of March 31, 2014 to N12.06tn as of March 31, 2015.
This shows that the country’s indebtedness rose by N1.9tn within a 12-month period, with the public debt rising by 18.7 per cent.
Much of the growth, however, was as a result of the fall in the exchange value of naira against international currencies, especially the United States dollar, in the past eight months.
In dollar terms, the country’s public debt actually reduced by $65.25bn to $63.51bn in the one year period. The exchange rate of the naira to the dollar was N155.74 on March 31, 2014, while by March 31, 2015, it had fallen to N197.
In real terms, however, the public debt rose by 18.7 per cent because the local currency had taken a nosedive as a result of the reduced inflow of foreign exchange earnings following the crash of oil prices.
A dissection of the total public debt showed that much of it (N8.51tn as of March 31, 2015) was owed domestic creditors by the Federal Government.
Within the 12-month period, the domestic debt of the Federal Government rose by N1.33tn from the total N7.18tn recorded on March 31, 2014. This reflects an increase of 18.52 per cent.
The domestic debt of the state rose from N1.55tn to N1.69tn within the same period.
Similarly, the external debts of both the federal and state governments rose marginally from $9.17bn on March 31, 2014 to $9.46bn as of March 31, 2015.
A breakdown of the domestic debt profile of the Federal Government by instrument showed that FGN Bonds accounted for N5.37tn or 63.13 per cent of the total.
The Nigerian Treasury Bills, on the other hand, accounted for N2.87tn or 33.68 per cent of the Federal Government’s total domestic debt profile.
Similarly, Nigerian Treasury Bonds accounted for N271.22m or 3.19 per cent of the Federal Government’s total domestic debt profile.
Dwindling revenue as a result of declining oil prices had propelled the Federal Government to resort to domestic borrowing to finance its budgets.
