Foremost lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Afe Babalola, has advised the incoming government of Bola Tinubu to prioritise debt forgiveness from Nigeria’s creditors and multilateral financial institutions. Babalola made this call during a lecture delivered at Afe Babalola University in Ado-Ekiti, where he also urged the incoming administration to cut expenditures and undertake reforms to reduce governance costs and alleviate the country’s fiscal burden. He argued that debt forgiveness would help to relieve Nigeria of its foreign debt overhang, which currently requires a significant percentage of the country’s revenue for debt servicing. Meanwhile, Professor Bamidele Adebisi, who delivered a lecture on “Smart Infrastructure: Catalyst for Sustainable Development,” emphasised the role of technology as a game-changer across all sectors of society. The incumbent administration’s management of the country’s debt profile, which has risen astronomically in recent years, has heightened concerns for incoming President Bola Tinubu to take action to reduce the burden.
