Afe Babalola urges Tinubu to lobby for debt relief

Founder of Afe Babalola University Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD) has asked the incoming administration of the President-elect, Ahmed Bola Tinubu, to borrow a cue from former President Olusegun Obasanjo and prioritise Nigeria’s debt forgiveness from creditor-countries, as well as bilateral financial institutions.

Babalola said Nigeria is one of the worst debtor-nations, saying that only a foolish investor would come and put his money in such a country. He said that forgiveness or cancellation would help relieve Nigeria of humongous foreign debts.

The legal luminary spoke, at the weekend, in Ado-Ekiti during a lecture entitled, “Smart Infrastructure: Catalyst for Sustainable Development and delivered by Professor of Intelligent Infrastructure System, Bamidele Adebisi.

Babalola, who lamented the current state of the country’s debt profile, said that the debts incurred were not channelled appropriately but spent on questionable priorities.

He attributed the ballooning debt profile to lack of discipline and inefficiency of government spending.

In his lecture, Adebisi stressed the importance of technology across all sectors, noting that technology has moved up the rung of ladder to act as a catalyst for societal development.

He said that technology had become a game-changer to address challenges inherent in agriculture, transport, and food production. (Guardian)