They just informed us, without consultations, that they are borrowing another $ 800 million as a palliative to cushion the effects of fuel subsidy removal. Because they have little value for citizen engagement in a democracy, especially on fiscal matters that border around national debt, they are just informing us on the pages of newspapers or after those preposterous contract-awarding sessions called FEC meetings.
Neo-liberal economists will haste to argue that there is nothing wrong with debt and use illogical arguments of debt to GDP ratio as if GDP can pay debts. What use is the GDP size if your revenues are inefficient in servicing the economy through robust economic output – and service the debt? Debt-to-GDP is an excuse by some officials who support the borrowing jamboree, and we have now reached the level where by December 2022, our debt service-to-revenue ratio was at 80.
Discussing their inability to solve the criminal activities around the oil industry is pointless. But it’s necessary for context because most of the splurge for borrowing is hinged on low revenue generation. This is the same NNPC that is supposed to be a player in the industry but still operates with regulatory and supervisory functions. To ease the pain of the removal, they will distribute $ 800 million to 50 million Nigerians. What criteria were used to select 50 million out of the 133 million that are multidimensionally poor?