News / politics / Production

Borrowing for recurrent expenditure foolish — Obasanjo

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has opposed the continuous borrowing of the Federal Government under President Muhammadu Buhari for recurrent expenditure.

Obasanjo made his position known when he spoke with Channels Television on the sideline of an event in South Africa.

He told Channels TV: “If you want to build a commercial house and you go and borrow money, and you have 50 per cent of your own money and you borrow 50 per cent and in five years, you pay the 50 per cent that you borrowed, that is a wise thing to do.

“But if you have to go and borrow money for you to be able to feed yourself and your family, that is a stupid thing to do. “So, if we are borrowing for recurrent expenditure, it is the height of foolery.

“If we are borrowing for development that can pay itself, that is understandable.

“Then how long will it pay itself?

“But we are borrowing and accumulating debt for the next generation and the next generation after them.

“It is criminal, to put it mildly.

“What are we borrowing for?

“When I came into government and was elected President, we were spending $3.5 billion to service debt.

“And even with that, our quantum of debt was not going down.”…

Crime / Foreign / Law / News

South Africa’s ex-president Zuma hands himself to prison

South Africa’s ex-president Jacob Zuma turned himself in to prison late Wednesday to begin serving a 15-month sentence for contempt of court, his foundation said.

In a historic ruling, the Constitutional Court last week handed Zuma a 15-month term for snubbing anti-graft investigators.

Police had earlier on Wednesday warned they were prepared to arrest the former president by a midnight deadline to enforce the ruling, unless the top court instructed otherwise.

But Zuma decided to make his way to an unnamed prison in his home province of Kwa-Zulu Natal (KZN).

“Please be advised that (ex) President Zuma has decided to comply with the incarceration order,” the foundation tweeted.

“He is on his way to hand himself into a Correctional Services Facility in KZN,” it said, just minutes before the deadline expired.

A convoy of cars believed to be carrying Zuma drove out of his homestead at high speed about 40 minutes before the cut-off time for him to give himself up.

Zuma had mounted a last-ditch legal defense and refused to turn himself in by Sunday night as the court ordered. Under the ruling, police were given three days to arrest him if he failed to surrender.

He had pleaded with the court for an 11th-hour reprieve.

In an urgent request to the Constitutional Court late Wednesday, Zuma’s lawyers asked it to “direct the suspension of its orders… to prevent our client from being arrested prior to all legal processes being finalised”.

Zuma’s first application to halt his arrest was heard on Tuesday but the judgement was reserved until Friday.

Separately, he has pleaded with the Constitutional Court to reconsider and rescind its jail order. That challenge will be heard next Monday.

Zuma, 79, was forced out of office in 2018 and replaced by Cyril Ramaphosa after a nine-year tenure stained by corruption scandals and the taint of cronyism.

Critics nicknamed him the “Teflon president” for his perceived ability to sidestep justice.

But his fortunes changed on June 29 when the court issued its damning judgement against him for contempt.…