Former Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has raised alarm over Nigeria’s worsening unemployment crisis, high drug prevalence, and unsustainable borrowing practices, warning that the country is “sinking” while leaders and citizens continue to celebrate failure.
Speaking in a public address aired by SYMFONI TV on Sunday from 6:39, August 24, 2025, Obi lamented the plight of Nigerian youths, stressing that joblessness has left many dependent on their parents long after the age when they should be independent.
He said: “They’re not doing anything at that particular age. Parents now pay for their children to go to school, only to come home and live with them and they’re feeding them and everything. At age, people are supposed to leave their house now. They are living in their house with their parents because they have nowhere to go to. They have no job.”
Obi also highlighted the devastating effects of drug abuse among young people. “Our drug prevalence today is 14.9% when the global average is 5.8. So double the global average and most of them are young people. Everything that is wrong, stress level is worse. Everything is going wrong and nobody is seeing it. We are celebrating it. We’re not doing anything. Rather, we’re dancing. We’re still enjoying when the country is sinking,” he said.
On the issue of Nigeria’s mounting debt, Obi argued that borrowing in itself is not the problem but the purpose for which loans are taken: “Somebody mentioned about borrowing. Let me tell you, there’s nothing wrong in borrowing. Absolutely nothing wrong. Every country of the world borrows money. Every country of the world borrows money. Every country. America is the biggest economy in the world. America owes almost 100% of her GDP as debt.
”China is the second biggest economy. It owes over 50% of her GDP as debt. Number three is Japan. Japan owes 230% of her GDP as debt. 230%. So as so many other countries, even Singapore that we celebrate owes 120% of her GDP. Norway that has the biggest sovereign wealth fund of 1.4 trillion, still owes 50% of her GDP. What is wrong in borrowing is when you borrow for consumption. If you borrow for production, it helps your economy. And because we talked about borrowing, I will show you where borrowing has worked. Several countries of the world where borrowing has worked. It hasn’t worked here because you borrowed for consumption,” Obi added.
He concluded: “So Nigeria borrowed for picnic is for consumption.And that is why we’re having problems. Serious problems, to the extent that we will not survive it.”
