Former Vice President and African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar has accused President Bola Tinubu of running a government that demands endless sacrifice from Nigerians while endlessly reaching for fresh loans.
With public debt at ₦166.79 trillion, Mr Tinubu is now seeking another $1.5 billion from the World Bank.
Mr Abubakar said the president must first account for the money already borrowed.
In a statement by the Director of Strategic Communications of the ADC Presidential Campaign Council, Phrank Shaibu, he said Mr Tinubu’s record is an indictment of his economic stewardship: families are struggling to afford food, fuel and electricity, yet the debt continues to climb.
Mr Abubakar said, “Nigerians were promised that painful policies would free resources for development. They have felt the pain. Where is the development?
“If Nigeria’s public debt were divided among everyone, each person’s share would be ₦716,822 today. Three years ago, it was ₦383,442. That is an 87 per cent increase.
“Tinubu has made today difficult and tomorrow more uncertain. He cannot keep loading debt onto the country and expect Nigerians to applaud programme titles. What has this government built? Who has benefited? Why should Nigerians trust him with another term in office?”
The proposed $500 million facilities for climate resilience, social protection and early childhood development address real needs, Mr Abubakar said, adding that worthy programme names cannot stand in for a public account of how previous loans were spent or a clear plan for delivering measurable results.
“Before these loans are concluded, the government must publish the projects to be funded, the communities and citizens expected to benefit, the targets for each programme, the terms of borrowing and disbursement, and a timetable Nigerians can use to track delivery.
“Climate resilience must mean identifiable land restored, irrigation delivered and communities protected from flooding. Social protection must identify who receives support and when. Early childhood development must produce measurable gains in nutrition, healthcare and learning,” he said.
Mr Abubakar also challenged the government to reconcile its appetite for borrowing with its repeated claims of higher revenue and savings from petrol subsidy removal.
“If more money is coming in, why does the debt keep climbing? If Nigerians have sacrificed so much, where are the results? A government cannot keep announcing savings, signing loans and asking the same struggling families to wait for relief,” he added.
He said the question before Mr Tinubu was no longer how many development programmes his government could name, but what Nigerians could see, use and independently verify.
“Show us the money already received. Show us what it built. Show us who benefited. Account for the debt already on Nigeria’s books before borrowing another dollar,” he said.