By Chris Onuoha
Civil society organisations in Nigeria in collaboration with youths, students and market women, has protested over what they call rising public debt by the President Tinubu administration.
The CSOs took their protest to the Federal Ministry of Finance, Abuja Thursday, September 17 to register their displeasure with the incessant borrowing by the Federal Government, demanding that FG reduce borrowing and channel more resources into critical sectors of the economy.
The protesters, under the aegis of Climate Action, said the country’s rising debt-servicing burden was crowding out funding for essential public services and undermining efforts to tackle climate change, poverty and unemployment.
The demonstrators demand that government should stop accumulating more loans from the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, IMF, and other development finance institutions, while tasking government for transparency and to prioritise spending to improve welfare and livelihoods of Nigerians.
Social Mobilisation Specialist from ActionAid Nigeria, Mr Newton Otsemaye while speaking at the rally, said the groups were at the Finance Ministry to draw attention to the implications of rising debt for the future of Nigerians, particularly young people.
He stressed that Nigeria has the largest young population in Africa that needs to be protected from reckless use of its resources for the future.
“We are using this year’s Climate Week of Action to rally around these issues at the Federal Ministry of Finance,” he stated.
Otsemaye further expressed concern over the country’s debt-to-revenue ratio, warning that a continued rise could worsen poverty, unemployment and loss of livelihoods.
