Former Vice President and African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has said President Bola Tinubu’s request to borrow $20.52 billion and €1.045 billion confirms the warning he issued on October 12 about a planned loan of up to $20 billion.
He accused the President of seeking money that could end up funding his campaign.
In a statement issued on Tuesday by the Director of Strategic Communication, ADC Presidential Campaign Council, Atiku said Tinubu’s failure to name the specific projects the loans would finance raises serious concerns.
He suggested the borrowed funds could be channelled to political campaigners and favoured contractors through the Lagos to Calabar Coastal Highway, which has now been rerouted inland.
Atiku recalled that on October 12 he asked Tinubu to confirm or deny the reported plan and to publish the accounts, but the President did neither.
“Today, he has asked the Senate to approve $20.52 billion and €1.045 billion in external loans. My warning has been vindicated,” he said.
He noted that the President listed broad sectors but gave no project-by-project account of what the borrowing would fund.
According to him, Nigerians have not been shown clear details of costs, locations or contractors to scrutinise.
Atiku said the silence is troubling given the highway’s inland rerouting and asked whether the project is becoming a pipeline for borrowed money to reach Tinubu’s campaigners.
He questioned how the President could ask lawmakers to approve more than $20 billion and €1 billion in debt barely 12 weeks before an election without identifying the projects and their costs.
“Is this a development plan for Nigerians or a campaign financing scheme dressed up as infrastructure?” he asked.
He warned Tinubu against taking what he called frivolous loans on the eve of his departure from office.
Atiku said one of his first responsibilities as President would be to scrutinise and investigate every kobo borrowed, especially loans taken in the final year of the current tenure.
He also put local and international lenders on notice that any loan granted to the outgoing administration must meet all constitutional, statutory and due process requirements.
Any borrowing found to have been obtained without proper authorisation, he said, would be challenged and would not be allowed to stand.
Atiku urged the National Assembly not to approve a single dollar until the President publishes every project, contract, cost, contractor, loan term and repayment obligation.
“No public money should be borrowed in the dark, and no lawmaker should sign a blank cheque against Nigeria’s future,” he said.
He said the burden was on Tinubu to prove the borrowing would serve the country and not his political interests and urged lawmakers to publish the proposal and supporting documents and subject them to rigorous scrutiny.
Atiku added that families already struggling with the cost-of-living crisis should not be made to carry debts they did not approve of.
He said the woman fighting to keep her business alive and the worker spending his income just to feed deserve to know where the money is going, who will benefit and who will pay.
At the ballot box, he said, Nigerians will have the chance to reject a government that borrows against their future while taking their sacrifices for granted.
Tinubu wrote to the Senate seeking approval to borrow fresh loans of $20.5 billion and €1.05 billion, amounting to about N29.12 trillion.
In the letter, read at plenary by Senate President Godswill Akpabio, the President said the money would be used to execute projects under the 2026 to 2027 supplementary external borrowing plan and asked for early approval to ensure prompt implementation.
Akpabio said the President wants the funds to bridge the infrastructure gap in power, transportation, healthcare, education, agriculture and water supply, among other sectors.
He added that the proposed projects had undergone technical and economic assessments to ensure they contribute to poverty reduction, skills development, entrepreneurship and national food security.
The Senate President referred the letter to the Committee on Local and Foreign Debts, headed by Haruna Manu, for detailed review, with support from the Committees on Appropriations and Finance.
He noted that aspects of the borrowing framework featured in earlier plans approved for 2025 to 2027 but stressed that the committee would examine the scope of the latest request before any further legislative action.
