Watch How a CNN Correspondent Disgraced Minister of Budget Over a Question on Nigeria’s Debt Profile (Video)
During the opening session of the 22nd Nigerian Economic Summit (NEC) which was held in Abuja, the federal capital territory on Monday, Nigeria’s Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma, was embarrassed live on stage and all national televisions.
The minister was reportedly left red-faced and totally embarrassed when he failed to answer a simple question to divulge the specific figure of Nigeria’s debt profile when he was asked about the nation’s total debt profile by a CNN anchor identified as Zain Asher.
“How much is Nigeria’s total debt?,” Zain Asher, a CNN Anchor, asked the minister. In response, a befuddled Udoma said: “I can’t tell you the exact figure.
I will have to get back to you on that.” Asher, however, responded with a challenge, saying: “But you are the minister of budget”.
The clearly-rattled budget minister neither gave a ballpark figure nor stated that the Debt Management Office (DMO) was in charge of keeping records of the nation’s debt profile.
Instead, he informed Asher that several committees were saddled with the responsibility of compiling Nigeria’s debt and as such, he could not give a precise
figure.
