Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has condemned 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 by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku said the fresh borrowing was further evidence that the Tinubu administration had mortgaged Nigeria’s future to sustain its fiscal policies.
According to the former Vice President, every new oil-backed obligation pushes the country deeper into a cycle where future national wealth is sacrificed to finance present-day policy failures.
Atiku recalled that only days earlier, the Presidency had responded to his allegation of an unexplained ₦17 trillion crude oil windfall by claiming Nigeria could not fully benefit from high global crude oil prices because future earnings had already been committed to servicing 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,” he said.
The former Vice President questioned the rationale behind the latest borrowing despite the administration’s various revenue-generating measures.
He accused the government of turning Nigeria into a nation that survives on perpetual borrowing at the expense of future generations.
According to Atiku, the greatest tragedy is that Nigerians have endured severe economic hardship without seeing the promised benefits.
“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 stated.
Atiku called on the Federal Government to immediately publish the full details of the refinancing agreement, including its terms, repayment obligations, and the volume of crude oil committed under the arrangement.
He maintained that Nigerians deserve transparency and a government that protects the country’s resources instead of mortgaging them.
“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 declared…..See more