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| SHARE THIS President Muhammadu Buhari has, again, pleaded for outright forgiveness of the country’s debt presently standing at N42trn, saying Nigeria stands among the country facing the most severe challenges. But before coming to office in 2015, the country’s debt was N17trn. Making the appeal on Wednesday during the General Debate of the 77th session of United Nations General Assembly in New York, United States where Heads of States and governments gather to discuss world issues, Buhari said Nigeria’s challenges are enormous against the backdrop of the country’s varying degrees of socio-economic and political problems, which led to the external debt being around N42trn, according to the Debt Management Office (DMO). This is not the first time he would be making such an appeal, having made it in 2021during similar UN meeting. When he became president in 2015, Nigeria’s external debt was around N17trn, according to the Debt Management Office, DMO, but it rose to N42.84trn under his watch. According to Buhari, the external debts facing a number of countries are unsustainable, saying: “Indeed, the multifaceted challenges facing most developing countries have placed a debilitating chokehold on their fiscal space,” adding that “this equally calls for the need to address the burden of unsustainable external debt by a global commitment to the expansion and extension of the Debt Service Suspension Initiative to countries facing fiscal and liquidity challenges as well as outright cancellation for countries facing the most severe challenges.” Buhari who assured the UN of his commitment to democratic values, added, “we believe in the sanctity of constitutional term limits and we have steadfastly adhered to it in Nigeria.”/SHARE THIS |
