President Muhammadu Buhari said on Monday that he inherited an economy riddled with debts and the treasury “virtually empty”.
Some Nigerians are already expressing disappointment with the fac that he is yet to name his cabinet despite his pre-inauguration promise to hit the ground running.
Buhari, 72, was elected on a promise of cleaning up Nigeria’s dirty politics and ending Boko Haram’s Islamist insurgency.
Nigeria, which is Africa’s leading oil producer and dependent on crude for a massive 90 percent of foreign earnings, was already feeling the effect of the halving of global oil prices from mid-2014 even before Buhari took over.
Squeezed government revenues forced this year’s budget to be revised and federal projects scrapped or halted while state employees have gone months without being paid.
In the week he took office on May 29, the country virtually ground to a halt because of fuel shortages linked to alleged government defaults on subsidy payments to fuel importers.
At the same time, electricity production plunged to a record low of just over 1,000 megawatts — woefully short of the amount of power required for Nigeria’s 173 million people.
Buhari described the economic situation he inherited as rank “bad management”, without giving specific figures.
Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo had estimated the country’s debts stood at some $60 billion on the handover of power three weeks ago.
Former finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has rejected the claim — and indications since the figure could be even higher — saying the debt was much lower and most of it was incurred by states, rather than the federal government.
– with additional AFP report
