Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has criticised the National Economic Council’s (NEC) approval of a $4.5 billion refinancing of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited’s oil-backed loan, describing President Bola Tinubu as “a weapon fashioned against Nigeria’s economy.”
In a statement issued on Wednesday in Abuja by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate said the fresh borrowing was further evidence that the administration had mortgaged the country’s future to sustain its fiscal policies.
According to the statement, Atiku argued that every new oil-backed loan pushes Nigeria deeper into a cycle in which future oil revenues are committed to addressing present-day fiscal challenges.
He recalled that the Presidency had recently responded to his claim of an unexplained ₦17 trillion crude oil windfall by stating that Nigeria could not fully benefit from rising global crude oil prices because future earnings had already been pledged under existing oil-backed foreign loans.
“That explanation should have embarrassed any responsible government. Instead, this administration has chosen to double down on the very scandal it sought to justify by approving yet another $4.5 billion refinancing. Rather than breaking free from the chains of oil-backed indebtedness, it is tightening them,” Atiku said.
The former Vice President questioned the rationale behind the latest borrowing despite what he described as the administration’s revenue-boosting measures.
He accused the government of placing Nigeria on a path of perpetual borrowing at the expense of future generations.
Atiku also argued that Nigerians had endured significant economic hardship without the promised benefits, saying the administration’s reforms had failed to produce visible gains.
“President Tinubu promised renewed hope. What Nigerians have received is renewed debt, renewed hardship and renewed uncertainty. Under his watch, debt has become policy, borrowing has become governance, and mortgaging the future has become the defining philosophy of his administration,” he said.
He called on the Federal Government to publish the full details of the refinancing arrangement, including its terms, repayment obligations and the volume of crude oil committed under the agreement.
According to Atiku, Nigerians deserve transparency and a government that safeguards, rather than mortgages, the nation’s future.
“Nigeria deserves leadership that preserves national assets, not one that continually pledges them to finance an endless cycle of waste, opacity and fiscal irresponsibility,” he added.
