Obaseki added that the Federal Government was “stuck in the past” and needed to restructure the country for progress.

The governor made this statement during a one-on-one interview on the Channels Television programme Politics Today on Thursday evening.

Obaseki explained that the country neither had enough nor earned enough to cover its expenditure, adding that government spending was also not decreasing.

He stated that the government must ensure that individual states took advantage of economic opportunities, noting that the Federal Government could not continue to centrally manage resources.

“Nigeria is technically bankrupt. And I mean it. When you are bankrupt anywhere in the world, like in the United States, you file for what they call Chapter Eleven. You restructure your affairs so that you can reorganise and meet your obligations. Nigeria is not restructuring in that sense; it still behaves as if it had money like it used to.

“It (Nigeria) has been in trouble for a while. I won’t say insolvent, but technically so, in the sense that we don’t have enough to cover our expenditure, we are not reducing our expenditure, and we are not earning more.”