The President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration has provided the least economic outcomes for the country since 1999.
The situation is largely attributed to the president’s leadership style.
This was contained in a report by the Chief Executive Officer of the Financial Derivatives Company Limited, Lagos, Mr. Bismarck Rewane, presented at the August edition of the monthly Lagos Business School Breakfast Session.
Rewane, who is also a member of the president’s Economic Advisory Council (EAC), said the conclusion was arrived at by comparing the country’s average Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate, average inflation rate, percentage in exchange rate at the beginning and ending period of each presidential tenure, external reserves when an administration’s period ended, the external debt valued in billions of dollars and the external reserve minus external debt under the presidential tenures of former presidents: Olusegun Obasanjo, the late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, Goodluck Jonathan and that of the incumbent.
Data from the report showed that President Buhari’s administration had the least average GDP growth of 1.1 per cent; highest average inflation rate of 14.07 per cent; highest exchange rate depreciation of 150.5 per cent; highest external debt of $40 billion and negative external reserve of $-0.82 billion after subtracting external debt.
The Buhari administration also amassed higher external reserve of $39.18 billion than that of the late president Yar’Adua and Jonathan’s administrations of $32.34 billion and $28.57 billion respectively.
Rewane pointed out that under Buhari, Nigeria was approaching the fiscal cliff with a fiscal deficit of N3.09 trillion and actual debt service was more than revenue between January and April 2022, just as the excess crude oil account was depleted to $375,000 in July 2022 from $35.7 million in June 2022.
He, however, stated that the country’s debt level was still sustainable but added that it was still possible for the debt levels to become unsustainable as Nigeria has been moving, “towards high debt distress risk as debt service rises faster than fiscal revenue,” and “signaling a debt management problem.”