The African Democratic Congress presidential campaign council has accused President Bola Tinubu of unnecessary borrowing amid the country’s hardship.
The council, in a statement by its spokesperson, Kola Ologbondiyan, on Friday, challenged Mr Tinubu to identify his administration’s achievements with its borrowing since he assumed office in 2023.
“For three and a half wasted years, the TInubu government has borrowed without restraint and built nothing. No value, no legacy, no impact,” the statement said.
Mr Tinubu earlier defended his administration’s borrowing, insisting his government had ensured development across the country through various landmark infrastructural projects.
“The objective is to increasingly direct new borrowing towards productive capital investment while maintaining fiscal discipline, reducing refinancing pressures and ensuring that public debt translates into measurable economic value. Nigeria borrows to invest in roads, ports, rail and power that will generate growth, revenue and jobs for decades,” the president said.
However, the ADC alleged that Mr Tinubu’s administration had failed to demonstrate commensurate achievements, despite unprecedented borrowing.
“Except for projects inherited from the late President Muhammadu Buhari, many of the projects being advertised by the Tinubu administration are nothing but audio projects. They exist only on paper, as conceptual designs or as announcements on newspaper pages and television screens.
“Under Tinubu, virtually every project exists in a press statement. Where is the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway? Audio. Where is the Sokoto-Badagry Superhighway? Audio. Where is the Trans-Sahara Superhighway? Audio. Where are the promised electricity grid upgrades? All propaganda, no commensurate progress, just media hype from Bayo Onanuga and his team.
“Even the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano Highway, awarded more than eight years ago, remains a source of concern to motorists. Its prolonged construction and delays tell the story of APC governance,” it added.
Citing hunger and poverty hardship in the country, the council challenged Mr Tinubu to wake up and confront the reality facing Nigerians.
It added, “The Tinubu Presidency came into power without a convincing blueprint or workable ideas and, after almost four years, has offered Nigerians little beyond failure, hardship, poverty and insecurity.
“If borrowing is truly for development, let President Tinubu show Nigerians one tangible project his administration has delivered with its trillions of naira in loans, beyond the solar farm in the Presidential Villa. The only thing this administration has successfully built is hardship.”
The ADC urged international donors, development partners and financial institutions to exercise greater scrutiny and insist on accountability, transparency and prudence before extending further loans to Nigeria.
It also warned the National Assembly against mortgaging Nigerians’ future by approving Mr Tinubu’s indiscriminate loans.
“The National Assembly must rise to its constitutional responsibility and save the country from being mortgaged through indiscriminate borrowings.
“It must stop acting as a rubber stamp for every loan request and defend the economic future of Nigeria. History will not forgive the 10th National Assembly if it stands by while the country is plunged deeper into a cycle of unsustainable indebtedness,” the ADC added.