President Bola Tinubu on Sunday said his administration will not continue to set Nigeria on a path to destruction by servicing external debt with the country’s scarce revenue.

Mr Tinubu said this while declaring open the annual conference of the Nigerian Bar Association at MKO Abiola Stadium, Abuja, according to a statement by his spokesperson, Ajuri Ngelale.

Although Mr Tinubu did not specifically refer to former President Muhammadu Buhari, the previous administration had serviced external borrowings with the country’s revenue.

“Can we continue to service external debts with 90% of our revenue?” Mr Tinubu asked. “It is a path to destruction. It is not sustainable.”

“We must make the very difficult changes that are necessary for our country to get up from slumber and be respected among the great nations of the world,” Mr Tinubu stated.

The president said the reforms his government has embarked upon were necessary for the country’s growth.

“We cannot have the country we desire without the reforms we have initiated. It is painful at the beginning, in the short and medium term, but we must do what we have to do to take this nation to its great destiny. 

“It is not about you, and it is not about me. It is about our generations yet unborn, for whom we must bequeath a great and prosperous country,” he affirmed.

Mr Tinubu’s party man, Mr Buhari, ruled the country for eight years from 2015 to 2023, which critics described as some of the worst years under democratic rule. 

With massive borrowings by the Buhari regime in eight years, Nigeria’s debt profile hit N46 trillion, according to Debt Management Office. 

Throughout his eight years in office, Mr Buhari justified debt accumulation, claiming loans are obtained for infrastructural development. 

Speaking on Buhari regime’s borrowing spree, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, whose administration got Nigeria’s debt cleared, wondered what the funds were used for.

The former president condemned the continuous borrowing by the Mr Buhari regime, saying accumulating debt for future generations is “foolish” and “criminal.”