$4.5 Billion NNPC Loan: Tinubu Is The Weapon Fashioned Against Nigeria – Atiku

The presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar, has condemned the National Economic Council’s approval of a $4.5 billion refinancing of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited’s oil-backed loan, describing the move as evidence that the President Bola Tinubu administration is mortgaging Nigeria’s future.

Naija News reports that Atiku, in a statement issued on Wednesday by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, said the approval showed that the federal government was relying on future oil earnings to sustain what he described as reckless fiscal policies.

According to him, every new oil-backed obligation pushes Nigeria deeper into a cycle in which future wealth is sacrificed to finance present-day policy failures.

The former Vice President recalled that the Presidency had recently responded to his claim of an unexplained ₦17tn crude oil windfall by stating that Nigeria was unable to fully benefit from high international crude oil prices because future crude earnings had already been committed to 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.

Atiku questioned the rationale behind the refinancing, saying, “What kind of government inherits a nation blessed with abundant oil resources, removes fuel subsidy, imposes multiple taxes, records unprecedented crude oil windfalls, borrows aggressively at home, and still finds it necessary to refinance billions of dollars secured against the country’s future oil production?”

He accused the administration of relying excessively on borrowing despite increased revenue.

“This administration has turned Nigeria into a nation permanently living on credit. Instead of using increased revenues to reduce debt and build fiscal resilience, it continues to mortgage the future of generations yet unborn,” he said.

The ADC presidential candidate further argued that Nigerians had continued to endure hardship in the name of economic reforms without seeing the expected benefits.

“The tragedy is not merely the refinancing itself. The tragedy is that Nigerians have been subjected to untold hardship in the name of economic reforms, yet the borrowing never stops. The pain is permanent, but the promised gains remain invisible.

“When reforms look like eating away the future to finance today’s consumption, no one can be in doubt that what we have is profligacy without moral restraint,” he added.

Atiku also criticised President Tinubu’s economic policies, saying, “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.

“Tinubu has become the weapon fashioned against Nigeria’s economy. 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 called on the Tinubu administration to publish the full details of the refinancing arrangement, including its terms, repayment obligations and the volume of crude oil committed under the deal.

According to Atiku, Nigerians deserve transparency, accountability and a government that protects, rather than mortgages, the nation’s future.