The federal government has been called upon to stop further borrowing from both national and international financial organisations in order not to mortgage the future of the country’s children.
Giving this advice recently, President of Vision Africa International and co-chair of the Interfaith Dialogue Forum for Peace (IDFP), Bishop Sunday Ndukwo Onuoha, called on the federal government to desist from further borrowing.
Bishop Onuoha, who was the Global Peace Award winner in 2013, said one of the old habits that the government should shun this year is continuous borrowings from foreign countries, adding that borrowing appears sweet but always hard to pay back.
“One thing about borrowing, is that while doing it, it appears enjoyable, but where the problem sets in is when you don’t have any hope of paying back or when you haven’t invested wisely with the borrowed money, hence problem may ensue at this point,” he said.
Continuing, he said, “Borrowing may not be a bad idea if you invest and deploy such loans judiciously but in the Nigerian context where there is recession, a lot may not be achieved in terms of pay back because those monies go into servicing of old debts without plans to invest.”
The Methodist Bishop urged the federal government not to mortgage the future of the younger generation who may be left to service these debts due to its gravity, stressing that it will be unfair to punish them by constantly borrowing without investing wisely to their advantage.
He enjoined the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to invest in the youth, who have the potential to unlock grey areas to the benefit of the entire country, noting that investing in them would take care of restiveness and all manners of agitations being witnessed in the country in recent times.
Bishop Onuoha also called for massive investment in agriculture, arguing that before the advent of the oil boom, agriculture was the mainstay, sustaining the country and providing jobs for millions of Nigerians. He urged the federal government to invest more in agriculture now that the price of oil is down globally.