Obasanjo: too much debt can ruin generations, not just one person

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has warned that heavy borrowing can do lasting harm to whole generations, in a direct response to President Bola Tinubu's defence of new government loans.

The former president made the remarks in Abeokuta, Ogun State, on Friday. He was addressing the Ajibosin Platform, a gathering that looked at how artificial intelligence could tackle local problems and drive development.

He noted that when he started his farm 47 years ago, the naira traded at around 1.85 to the dollar, compared with about 1,500 today, and asked what the country had to show for the decades in between.

He criticised Nigeria's dependence on the World Bank and the IMF, saying their advice was not built around Nigeria's realities and should be measured against the national interest.

Obasanjo also warned that Africa risks a new form of digital colonialism if it does not take charge of AI, and said the technology could help reach some of the roughly 24 million Nigerian children who are out of school.