Former President Olusegun Obasanjo says the incompetence and mismanagement of the country’s resources have crippled Nigeria’s economy with the nation now ensnared in a destructive debt trap.
In a statement on Wednesday by his Media Aide, Kehinde Akinyemi, Obasanjo said the brunt of the debt burden would be bore by the coming generations who would have no option but to pay.
According to the statement, the elder statesman spoke during an engagement with 2023 awardees of the Future Africa Leaders Foundation, an initiative of Pastor Chris Oyakhilome.
Obasanjo during his administration as the President in 2003 secured a debt relief for Nigeria likewise his counterpart from Algeria at the same period.
He, however, asserted that with the recklessness and mismanagement of the previous debts written off for the country, it would be almost impossible for any administration to get similar gesture in the continent.
Obasanjo declared that the debts were a trap that no individual or nation should fall into as it constitutes an albatross on any economy.
The former President disclosed that leadership was the number one problem facing the continent.
He said “the coming generations will have no choice but pay the current debt being incurred by different countries in the continent.”
He hailed Pastor Oyakhilome for the efforts being put into building leaders, adding that the nation needed more people like him to address the leadership deficit facing the continent.
Highlighting the qualities a leader during the questions and anwers session, Obasanjo said, “a leader should be able to set good examples, being bold and courageous when making decisions, accepting mistakes and learning from them as well as having a realistic dream.
