BUHARI: Jonathan Left Huge Debt, Empty Treasury for Me

Nigeria is broke. The treasury is virtually empty, President Muhammadu Buhari said on his first at the Aso Villa since his assumption of power on May 29. Besides huge foreign debts, there are unpaid workers’ salaries. This, to Buhari, is a “disgrace”.

Speaking with State House correspondents at the Villa, Buhari said:

“I hope we are starting and this culture developed, of 100 days, is bringing so much pressure, with treasury virtually empty, with debts in millions of dollars, with state workers and even federal workers not paid their salaries. It is such a disgrace for Nigeria. 

"I think Nigeria should be in a position to pay its workers. This bad management that we find ourselves in, we really need your help to protect us from people before they match on us.”

Buhari’s Transition Committee chairman, Ahmed Joda, had revealed that Goodluck Jonathan’s government left a debt of N7trillion.

“We were told at the beginning of the exercise that the government was in deficit of at least N1.3 trillion and by the end people were talking of about N7trillion; everything is in a mess and these things have to be fixed,” Joda was quoted as saying.

It would be recalled that Vice President Yemi Osinbanjo said before the inauguration of the government that it would inherit a debt of $63 billion.

But ex-Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala claimed Jonathan administration had a debt of $21.8b.

Now we all know the truth. Nigeria's economy was left in a sorry state.