'Why We Resorted To Borrowing'- President Buhari Explains

President Muhammadu Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday September 15, explained why his administration resorted to borrowing money.

Speaking in a virtual meeting with members of the Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC), Buhari said the strategic reason for borrowing was to provide the infrastructure to make the country attractive to investors.

According to the President in a statement released by his spokesperson Malam Garba Shehu, the country must fix roads and save lives from perishing in road accidents,

Buhari noted that the country’s failure to provide infrastructure for effective transportation had robbed the country of its well-deserved status.

He said;

“We have so many challenges with infrastructure. We just have to take loans to do roads, rail and power, so that investors will find us attractive and come here to put their money."

On the economy, Buhari said;

“We have to accept that decision; otherwise they (Middle-East producers) can flood the market and make the product unviable. So we have cooperated with what we get. With oil, we are in a difficult situation. The politics of oil is that the less you produce, the less you earn.

“For us to bounce back to productivity, especially in agriculture, the unemployed with many of them uneducated had to be persuaded to go into agriculture.

‘‘If we hadn’t gone back to the lands we would have been in trouble by now. That is why we virtually stopped the importation of food thereby saving jobs and foreign exchange.”

The Nigerian leader also commented on the issue of COVID-19 pandemic and how it necessitated the government policies on energy (electricity) and petrol.

Buhari added;

“COVID has reduced us to the same level as developed countries.

‘‘We are lucky we went back to the land. We eat what we produce. We are doing our best to secure the country and provide infrastructure for investment to be viable in the country."