Nigeria’s main opposition Peoples Democratic Party  has queried the All Progressives Congress-led Federal Government and the presidency over the escalation of the nation’s debt profile from ₦12.12 trillion in 2015 to an overwhelming ₦24.38 trillion in 2018.

In a statement issued on Monday by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, the PDP called on the National Assembly to commence a system-wide investigation into the borrowings by the incumbent  administration, particularly the terms of the borrowings and the handling of the funds.

Describing the development as saddening and devastating, he said the party has manifested incompetence and lack of initiative to stimulate and run a productive economy. The party’s spokesman said President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration relied on heavy borrowings and unbearable tax regimes, which have crippled productivity, caused untold hardship and mortgaged the economic future of the nation.

The PDP contended that the Buhari administration has to explain to Nigerians the reasons for its borrowing spree, especially as it cannot point to any meaningful development project into which the borrowed funds were invested.

“Since President Buhari assumed office in 2015, there has been a culture of unexplained borrowings leading to a steep rise in the debt stock from ₦17.5 trillion in 2016 to ₦21.72 trillion in 2017 and a huge ₦24.387 trillion in 2018.

“It is shocking and completely insupportable that our nation’s debt has risen from ₦21.72 trillion in December 2017 to ₦24.387 trillion in December 2018, showing an accumulation of a whopping ₦2.66 trillion in a space of one year.

“This is in addition to direct frittering of public funds through the alleged ₦1.4 trillion sleazy oil subsidy regime, the looted ₦9 trillion detailed in the leaked NNPC memo, the alleged ₦33 billion fraud in the handling of funds meant for the welfare of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the North East, among other sleazes.

“The National Assembly should also save the future of our nation by restricting the Buhari administration from taking further loans on behalf of our country until explanations are provided on the terms and handling of the borrowed funds,” the statement read.

The party added that Nigerians could no longer afford to continue to bear the burden of an incompetent and insensitive administration as they ‘eagerly await the retrieval of the stolen mandate at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal’.