Former Governor of Anambra State and Labour Party 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has responded to the recent claims by the present All Progressive Congress (APC)-led Federal Government that they inherited a bankrupt nation.

Obi’s statement comes in response to recent remarks by President Bola Tinubu, who claimed that his administration had inherited serious liabilities but also assets from his predecessors.

The presidential candiadte, in a statement on Thursday in responsed to Tinubu claims, criticised the government for failing to disclose the true extent of the country’s financial woes and instead blaming the previous administration for its current predicament.

“One major characteristic of responsible governance is transparency and strict accountability. This demands that the government disclose exactly the degree of deficit they inherited. What is inherited should be disclosed to enable the public to know where we are and where we are headed,” Obi stated.

He also noted that the previous APC administration made a similar claim in 2015 against the People Democratic Party (PDP) administration, which handed it over to them without informing the nation of what it had inherited.

According to Obi, during the APC’s tenure, the nation’s debt profile surged from N12.6 trillion in 2015 to N87 trillion in 2023, without improvements in key development indices such as education, health, poverty eradication, and security.

Obi added that the nation’s condition worsened across all development indices, leading to the current state of the country, noting that “Nigerians know things are bad, and they experience it daily. What they now want to hear regularly are measurable and verifiable steps to improve the situation.”

The former governor also raised questions about the recent supplementary budget signed into law, questioning the rationale behind certain expenditure items and called for a reevaluation of the cost of governance.

“The present revelation also goes to buttress the argument that I have made since electioneering season that the cost of governance is too high and must be drastically reduced.

“A bankrupt country should channel every available resource into funding critical development sectors like security, healthcare, education, and eradication of poverty by addressing youth unemployment, not spending in non-essential areas. So, what we expect are measurable and verifiable steps to improve the situation.” he added