Yoruba Elders Say No ‘Evidence’ Of Nigeria’s Increasing Debts In South West

The Yoruba Council of Elders has criticised the Federal Government for accumulating debts for the country with no evidence of judicious use of the loans.

The YCE said this on Thursday at the end of their meeting held in Ibadan.

The Secretary-General of YCE, Dr Kunle Olajide, who briefed journalists together with the National President of the group, Justice Ademola Bakare, said the group was not against borrowing but stressed that borrowed fund must be spent on what would make the loan repayment easy for the country.

He said the people of the South-West did not see any evidence of judicious use of the loans taken by the Federal Governnent.

He said, “The YCE is alarmed by the increasing rate of loans taken by Federal Government. We are not worried that loans are taken provided they are judiciously expended on factors that can boost our economy and make repayment easy.

“But these debts are accumulating and we are not seeing evidence of wise disbursement at least in the South-West. Our Infrastructure is horrible, power situation is so bad, there is high level of unemployment and we begin to ask what are these loans being used for. We cannot be accumulating debts for our grand children.”

Olajidea also said the group was interested in who would succeed President Muhammadu Buhari after the expiration of his tenure in 2023 but he said such person must be competent for the job, and have capacity and character as well as track records of performance.

He said the next president could come from anywhere but competence must not be sacrificed on the altar of ethnicity.

“At our level here we have gone beyond tribalism or parochial interest. We are much more interested in the good of this country. The situation in the country has detoriorated even when you are talking in terms of federal appointments , but the infrastructure in the South- West is most deplorable .

“So we want a true and true Nigerian wherever he comes from but he must have competenece, character , capacity and track records of perfornance wherever he must have served . That is what we want to emphasise,” he added.

Justice Bakare said the Federal Government was marginalising the South-West in appointment into key positions.

He said Buhari government was appointing Fulani only into office and this must be stopped in order not to break the country.