Former Ogun State Governor, Chief Segun Osoba, believes former President Olusegun Obasanjo should not have committed $12bn of Nigeria’s scarce resources to write off $30bn Paris Club debt in 2005.
Osoba said his kinsman, Obasanjo, should have used the $12bn to fix Nigeria’s power sector challenges to guarantee stable electricity supply which remained the backbone of industrialisation.
The 84-year-old All Progressives Congress (APC) elder statesman spoke on Inside Sources with Laolu Akande, a socio-political programme aired on Channels Television on Friday.
Osoba said, “He (Obasanjo) did his best but I don’t agree with him on many things; I didn’t agree with him in his conduct of elections.
“I didn’t agree with him, for example, on the Paris Club Refund. There is no country that doesn’t owe.
“The billions of dollars that he used in paying the Paris Club, if he had used it on the power sector, we would have solved our power problems today. But while he was there, he did his best.”
Osoba also passed comments on other former Nigerian leaders. “President Muhammadu Buhari, an introvert of the first order,” he said.
“A gentleman and somebody who delegates which is the thing that cost him. I once served under him and he never for one day called me and that was his best-selling point but what nearly affected his government; he left things to too many people to do.”
About former President Goodluck Jonathan, Osoba said, “Jonathan is a man I respect; he’s a gentleman. He too delegated too much. For example, our oil sector was not well-handled.”
The octogenarian, however, praised former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar (retd) for restoring democracy in 1999.
“The one I praised most is General Abdulsalami Abubakar. The democracy that we are enjoying today is the creation of General Abdulsalami Abubakar, who in spite of whatever you say, refused to stay beyond the time that he normally should have stayed longer. But he was one man who decided to leave power voluntarily and created the current democratic system. I praise him,” he said.
Obasanjo’s Paris Club Debt Relief
Osoba, from the same state as Obasanjo, was Ogun State governor first from January 1992 to November 1993, and later between May 1999 and May 2003. Obasanjo was Nigeria’s democratically elected President from May 1999 to May 2007. Before then, he was Nigeria’s military Head of State between 1976 and 1979.
As of December 2004, Nigeria owed a total of $36bn (which amounted to N4.8trn at the exchange rate of N134/$1. 86%) $30.84bn of the country’s external debt at the time was borrowed from the Paris Club, alongside other bilateral and multilateral facilities.
The Paris Club is an official group of money lenders formed in 1956 with headquarters in Paris, France. Nigeria borrowed funds for developmental projects from members of the group such as the UK, US, France, Germany, Japan, Netherlands and eight other countries. Some of the funds borrowed were long before Obasanjo’s administration.
President Olusegun Obasanjo’s debt relief campaign in 2005 saw the Paris Club grant Nigeria a debt relief of $18bn out of the $30.8bn outstanding. As an exit strategy, Nigeria paid Paris Club creditors $12.4bn which represented $6.3bn regularisation of arrears and a balance of $6.1bn.
According to the Debt Management Office (DMO), Nigeria’s external debt stock as of March 2024 was N56trn ($42bn) while domestic debt stood at N65trn ($46.29).