Former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, has blamed the current economic hardship on the refusal of State Governors during his administration to save for rainy days.
In an interview with Channels Television, the former President who turned 80 over the weekend said he foresaw the current situation and demanded that funds be saved for rainy days but governors refused.
According to Obasanjo, “When I came in as President, the price of fuel hovered between eight and nine dollars and this made us unable to balance our budget.
“The economy then was going up and down and were we behaved stupidly was that he did not bear in mind that there will be a rainy day. In trying to save for rainy days I said let me get debt relive because we were spending almost $3bn to service debt and it was not going down.
“Then I demanded we save the money we realised about what we budget that we will sell oil, but the then governors said no, I however insisted, that’s not the way to go, keep it for a rainy day and we created the “Excess Crude” account.”
“State governors will come asking we share the money after all it belongs to all of us and I refused saying we must save for rainy days but they insist.
“The said the rains have come and when the rains came they have squandered all the money and that is why we are where we are now.”
Comments