A Chieftain of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Nelson Ahamefula Akuma has condemned the excessive borrowing of the Bola Ahmed Tinubu led federal government.
Recall that on July 22, 2025, the Nigerian Senate approved an additional $21 billion, €2.2 billion, ¥15 billion of external borrowing for the 2025–2026 fiscal cycle.
The upper legislative chamber also approved a whopping N750.98 billion domestic bond issuance and a €65 65million grant.
Reacting to the development, Akuma said that the borrowing is mortagaging the future of our children and even those still in the womb.
According to him, with an already existing public debt of about N149.39 trillion as at the first quarter of 2025, and the approved loans of about N37.2 trillion) bringing our current total debt to about N187 trillion, there is every likelihood that our national debt would be over N200 trillion by the end of 2025.
He said that what is happening in the other climes is small government ideology and wondered why the Tinubu administration cannot cut down on his high cost of governance and flamboyant lifestyle.
Speaking further, he said that the biggest problem that we have with Tinubu’s borrowing is that he is sharing and consuming the money rather than investing in capital projects.
According to him, the more reason why nothing has been achieved from the loans that he has been borrowing now and then.
He said that Nigeria is a country blessed with enormous resources and as such nobody should go to bed hungry if things are being done right.
According to him bad, leadership has thrown the majority of our citizens into increasing multi-dimensional poverty.
Akuma said that Tinubu told Nigeria that the removal of fuel subsidy would save trillions of naira for Nigerians and therefore, wondered what has happened to the savings from subsidy.
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“The information at our disposal show that President Bola Tinubu has in two years borrowed more than what former President Muhammadu Buhari borrowed in eight years and yet we don’t have anything to show for it. Our national debt is now N187 trillion and before the end of the year it will probably hit N200 trillion.There is no way a country can survive by borrowing and consuming. Even World bank has projected that poverty would worsen by 2027 in Nigeria. Nigeria is one of the most blessed counties in the world but today as a result of bad leadership most Nigerians don’t know where or when their next meal would come. The other countries of the world are cutting down on their cost of governance so that they would be embarking on capital and other developmental projects but here in Nigeria we are running bogus and over bloated system and most of our revenues are being used for debt servicing and recurrent expenditures, the more reason why Nigeria is not developing.”
According to him, borrowing is not inherently bad but what you do with the money that you borrowed is extremely important.
He said that if borrowing is sustainable and tied to productive investments with measurable outcomes, then it is okay.
However, he said unfortunately, what the Tinubu government is doing is borrowing and consuming instead of tieing it to production.
He said because of the manner of borrowing, we still rank low in all major human development indicators in the world.
“These are some of the anomalies that the ADC government would correct when it comes to power in 2027 because we have in our midst thoroughbred business men and women who understand frugality, financial intelligence and what the country should prioritize, instead of embarking on white elephant projects like Lagos-Calabar coastal road. There is a saying that people with growth mindset grow wealth, while people with poverty mindset consume wealth. Naom Chomsky said that there are no poor countries, only failed system of resource management and that is the main problem of the Tinubu administration. It is not that Nigeria is a poor country. We have all it takes to be an economic super power but there is failed system of resource management as well as misplacement of priorities.” Akuma said.
