Renowned lawyer and founder of Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD), Aare Afe Babalola (SAN), has raised serious concerns over Nigeria’s increasing debt burden, warning that it is damaging the nation’s reputation and discouraging foreign investors.
Babalola made the remarks during the 2025 International Leadership Conference on Leadership, Governance, Sustainable Change, and Wealth Creation (2.0), jointly organized by ABUAD, Trinity Western University (TWU) in Vancouver, Canada, and the African Centre for Leadership, Strategy, and Development (CentreLSD).
The conference, themed “Shaping Transformational Leaders for a Changing World: Tackling Insecurity, Governance and Development,” focused on addressing Nigeria’s growing challenges in leadership and governance.
Babalola described the theme as “timely and relevant,” noting that Nigeria’s financial situation has reached a critical point.
He lamented that the country’s rising debt profile is driving away investors and putting pressure on local banks.
“Our records show that Nigeria is now a big debtor nation, with total public debt of ₦152.4 trillion, or about $99.7 billion,” he said. “As a result, many foreign companies are unwilling to invest here.
Even banks are complaining that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) cannot honour government promissory notes because the Federal Government is struggling to pay its debts.”
The elder statesman urged the government to adopt urgent fiscal reforms and responsible economic management to restore investor confidence and ensure sustainable growth.
Babalola also reminded leaders of their constitutional duty, quoting Section 14 of the Nigerian Constitution:
“The security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government. Sovereignty belongs to the people of Nigeria, from whom government derives its powers and authority.”
Delivering a lecture titled
“Transformational Leadership in an Insecure and Disruptive Era: Building Ethical, Resilient and Impactful Leaders for Africa,” Dr. Otive Igbuzor, founding Executive Director of CentreLSD, said Nigeria and Africa need a new generation of leaders who can challenge old systems and drive innovation.
According to Igbuzor, transformational leadership is key to fighting corruption, unemployment, poor governance, gender inequality, and environmental decline.
He called on the government to make leadership training a compulsory part of education in schools and universities.
In her remarks, ABUAD Vice-Chancellor, Professor Smaranda Olarinde, described the conference as timely, stressing the importance of collaboration between local and international institutions to tackle insecurity, hunger, poverty, infrastructure decay, and economic instability.
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