How will you manage Nigeria's debt?
I am determined to manage public debt responsibly without burdening you. This means shifting from borrowing for consumption to borrowing strictly for productive investment that grows the economy and generates returns. I will prioritize borrowing for infrastructure, industry, and growth-enhancing projects rather than recurrent expenditure, improve revenue collection instead of raising your tax burden, and increase transparency so you can track how debt is used and its impact. When I was vice president, we set up the debt management office to first understand what we owed, whom we owed and so on. Between 1999 and 2007, Nigeria paid off her entire foreign debt. We also created the excess crude account, which we saved for Nigeria and Nigerians. I have no doubt I can do the same now.