Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, has described Nigeria as being technically bankrupt.
He further criticized the Federal Government for being “stuck in the past” and emphasized the need for restructuring to drive progress in the country.
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Speaking during an interview on Channels Television’s *Politics Today* on Thursday evening, Obaseki explained that Nigeria neither generates nor earns enough to cover its expenses, while government spending continues to rise.
He urged the government to empower individual states to maximize their economic potential, arguing that the central management of resources by the Federal Government is no longer sustainable.
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“Nigeria is technically bankrupt. And I mean it. When you are bankrupt anywhere in the world, like in the United States, you file for what they call Chapter Eleven. You restructure your affairs so that you can reorganise and meet your obligations. Nigeria is not restructuring in that sense; it still behaves as if it had money like it used to.
“It (Nigeria) has been in trouble for a while. I won’t say insolvent, but technically so, in the sense that we don’t have enough to cover our expenditure, we are not reducing our expenditure, and we are not earning more.”
“First, the Federal Government does not have the capacity to manage the economy at the scale and in the way it is currently doing. You’re producing 1.3 million barrels of oil, right? Because you are trying to do it centrally. We have 147 oil wells in Edo, and only 53 or fewer are producing.”
“Unless you create a new design that allows the individual states to take advantage of the economic opportunities they have, stressing the assets of this country and paying what they need to pay to the central government, the federal government cannot sit and try to micromanage the country and its assets. It has shown that it cannot. It doesn’t have the capacity to do so,” he said.
He also stated that the Federal Government is stuck in the past, arguing that the country’s current structure is outdated and a new framework is needed to manage the economy more effectively.
“I think for me, it’s like this federal government is stuck, and stuck in the past. Because you cannot resolve a malignant problem using the same tools you have used over the years.
“It’s not that the people there are not smart; it’s not that they’re stupid. It’s more that they just don’t have the courage to make the decisions they need to make.
“The problem with Nigeria today is structural. The structure we have is expired; it’s outdated. We need a new structure to run the economy of the state. If it doesn’t happen, we are not going anywhere,” Obaseki stated.
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