Buhari Left Heavy Debt, Census, Other Liabilities For Tinubu
Less than 30 days into the job, President Bola Tinubu is dealing with managing the assets and liabilities inherited from his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari.
However, unlike in 2015, the new president is unable to criticise his predecessor on his liabilities considering that they belong to the same political platform, the All Progressives Congress, APC.
During the inauguration of the National Economic Council, President Tinubu admitted that “The situation that we have seen is one- I inherited, and it is fundamental, I inherited assets and liabilities of my predecessor.”
Pro-market people and forces have hailed his reforms particularly, fuel subsidy removal and deliberate attempts to end the multiple exchange rates.
Here are the liabilities President Tinubu inherited from his predecessor, Buhari
N77 trillion debt
The current administration has been left with a debt burden of N77 trillion by the former President.
The figure was given by the Debt Management Office (DMO). This is perhaps the biggest liability the former administration left for the current government.
“The danger with the debt burden is that even with the removal of subsidy, a large chunk of the federal government revenue is going to be used for debt servicing, Lekan Olaleye, an Economist.
He added that “The ongoing reforms mean the government cannot afford to introduce any form of new taxation. The government must increase the minimum wage and still deal with the loans.”
Fuel Subsidy
The outgoing administration made provision in the budget for petroleum subsidy till June 30, but Mr Tinubu did not wait for the due date, as he announced that “fuel subsidy is gone” in his speech on Inauguration Day.
While the administration has been able to remove fuel subsidy, however, the question of palliative and other interventions remains to be addressed.
The former government only planned to borrow $800 million as palliatives.
Emefiele/Naira redesign
Nigerians still face uncertainty over the old Naira notes in the pocket as the Supreme Court order still stands till December 31, 2023.
It would be recalled that Nigerians went through biting Naira notes scarcity in the first quarter of the year due to the Naira redesign policy of the now-suspended CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele.
Mr Tinubu had in his inaugural speech promised to do cleaning in the monetary space, and Mr Emefiele appears to have been the first casualty of the cleaning as he is facing prosecution by the state secret police, the DSS.
But Nigerians still don’t know if the Naira notes in their hands will be of value after December or not.
Census
One other thing the new administration inherited is the 2023 national census. The past administration already expended N200 billion on preparations for the population census, however, it has been suspended.
Population census in Nigeria has always been controversial because of the political implications of census figures.
It remains unclear if the current administration will be willing to continue on this path.
Closed borders
The Tinubu administration also has to decide on the closure of land borders.
Only Atiku Abubakar made his position on the border closure very clear during the campaign.
Ibom Focus had reported that the former Vice President had vowed to open the border, a declaration that was criticised by Lai Mohammed, the immediate past former Minister of Information and Culture.
A memo for the re-opening of the Seme land border for the importation of vehicles is said to be awaiting a final approval.
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