ADC slams Speaker, Abbas for withdrawing remarks on Nigeria’s debt profile

The African Democratic Congress, ADC, has lambasted the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, for withdrawing his earlier remarks on the country’s rising debt profile.

This was contained in a statement by the party’s spokesman, Bolaji Abdullahi, on Tuesday.

Abdullahi had accused the National Assembly of complicity in Nigeria’s growing debt crisis under President Bola Tinubu.

The Speaker raised the alarm that Nigeria’s rising debt profile has exceeded the country’s legal threshold and now posed a major threat to fiscal sustainability.

The Speaker thereafter withdrew the remarks.

Reacting, the ADC said Abbas’s initial admission that the country’s debt-to-gross domestic product, GDP, ratio had crossed statutory limits and now stands at 52 percent was a rare moment of honesty.

However, it lamented that the withdrawal of his remarks showed political cowardice and legislative complicity.

“Like a flame in the wind, the Speaker’s statement offered a momentary flicker of the truth, only to be quickly doused by political expediency.

“Rather than standing by his remarks and on the side of the people, he chose to play safe and be politically correct,” the statement read.