The Senator representing Ogun East, Senator Buruji Kashamu, has urged the citizenry to support the President Muhammadu Buhari administration to tackle economic challenges facing the country.

He identified bad leadership, corruption and lack of political will to save for a rainy day as some of the factors responsible for the economic woes.

Kashamu, who spoke at an interactive session with journalists in Lagos, said: “President Muhammadu Buhari became the president of this country at the time the global economy was not only in the doldrums; the global economy was also battling recession. Oil prices were flunking lower and restiveness in the Niger Delta made matters worse.

“In some ways, you may want to say that he was not as lucky as his predecessor. I must say that Dr. Goodluck Jonathan was the luckiest person to have been president of this country. Oil prices were phenomenally high and the amnesty programme that was still at the early stages of implementation maintained some kind of truce in the region.

“External debt was actually very low and our excess crude account was heavily funded. But he mismanaged the resources at his disposal and left the country broke and vulnerable.”

The senator added: “There is enough information and analysis that give an honest perspective to our current predicament. It is now common knowledge that the administration of our father and mentor, ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, left behind $45billion external reserves and the late President Umaru Yar’Adua administration grew the reserves to $64billion within just one year.

“That was why it was able to finance 15 months of imports despite the 2008/2009 world economic meltdown. Hence, Nigeria survived the meltdown because those administrations had the political will to save. Even more commendable is the fact that in spite of the tough economic reality at that time, the administration left $47.7 billion in reserves and an external debt of $3.94 billion even though the administration earned only N9 trillion from crude oil sales within that short period.

“But after the demise of President Yar’Adua, his successor’s lack of political will to save in the midst of an oil boom brought economic destitution.

“It would be recalled that Brent crude sold at over $100 /barrel and raked in N51trillion within a period of five years. But because of corruption, governors demanding it was their constitutional right to take all the savings and other irresponsible acts of government, the administration did not only squander the oil revenue, it depleted the reserves left by President Yar’Adua, leaving $32billion and a huge external debt of $63billion.”

Kashamu berated those who said things were better off in the past when corruption was rife, stressing that, “It was their seemingly little acts of corruption here and there that coalesced to get us to where we are today.”

He urged the citizens to give Buhari the required support to move the country out of recession.