The former Anambra State governor, Peter Obi, on Friday blamed the country’s sluggish growth on humongous debt burden.
Obi, who is one of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential aspirants, stated this at a meeting with the party’s leaders and delegates in Calabar, Cross River.
He stressed that Nigeria remains trapped as a result of its inability to increase its production capacity.
Obi said: “Nigeria is a nation of over 200 million people with about 100 million living in poverty, over 18 million out of school children out of which about 10 million are girls.
“We have a 35 percent unemployment rate and if we add underemployment it will rise to over 50 percent, many of which are youths in their productive age, so we cannot celebrate.
“The consequences of borrowing for consumption today are that Nigeria is spending over 90 percent of its revenue to service debt without much production to show.
“Export of crude oil has not saved any country. We really need to invest in our massive landmass and grow our economy as other nations such as Singapore, Vietnam, and even Morocco have done with tourism.”
