Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has described the Federal Government’s domestic borrowing as “evidence of dangerous fiscal indiscipline that is starving Nigerian businesses of credit, killing jobs and worsening the cost-of-living crisis”
In a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku said it was particularly alarming that the Tinubu administration continues to borrow at such a frightening pace at a time when crude oil prices have risen substantially above the assumptions upon which the 2026 budget was built
“At the beginning of this fiscal year, the Federal Government budgeted on an oil benchmark of $6485 per barrel. Today, crude oil prices have risen substantially above that benchmark.
“Yet, instead of this windfall translating into lower borrowing, stronger businesses and relief for Nigerians, the Federal Government went into the domestic market and borrowed a staggering ₦247 trillion between January and August 2026 — 90.5 per cent more than the ₦12.98 trillion borrowed in the corresponding period of 2025.
“This is not fiscal management This is a government borrowing like drunken sailors in the middle of a revenue windfall.
“Tinubu removed fuel subsidy and told Nigerians the sacrifice would free up money He floated the naira and government revenues consequently received a massive nominal boost. Oil prices have risen sharply. Revenues have improved. Yet the borrowing has not gone down — it has exploded.
“So the question Nigerians must ask again is very simple: where is the money going?
“What makes this recklessness even more damaging is that government is now competing directly with Nigerian businesses for money Credit to government grew by 43 per cent, while credit to the private sector grew by only 9.6 per cent. Government credit is expanding about 4.5 times faster than credit to businesses.
“This is yet another troubling signal that the Tinubu economic reforms have failed to produce any meaningful impact on the private sector
“Ordinarily, the outlook and performance of the private sector should serve as one of the clearest yardsticks for measuring the effectiveness of government economic policy If businesses are expanding, investing, hiring and gaining easier access to capital, then reform can claim some measure of success.
“But under Tinubu’s economic policy, the exact opposite is happening The public sector is exerting an increasingly parasitic effect on the private sector — consuming the credit, capital and financial oxygen that productive businesses desperately need.
“That, at a glance, is one of the clearest indictments of the failure of these so-called reforms
“When banks can lend to government at attractive, risk-free rates, why would they lend cheaply to the manufacturer in Aba, the furniture maker in Kaduna, the agro-processor in Kano or the young entrepreneur in Lagos?
“The result is obvious: businesses pay more for credit, expansion is postponed, factories struggle, jobs disappear and the cost of producing everything from food to household goods rises”
Atiku alleged that the government is not merely borrowing money but borrowing away the future of Nigerian businesses
He promised that if elected, his administration would impose fiscal discipline, cut waste, prioritise productive expenditure and reduce government’s “dependence on the domestic credit market”
“Nigeria cannot achieve prosperity by allowing government to swallow the credit that should finance production An economy grows when businesses borrow to build factories, farmers borrow to expand production and entrepreneurs access affordable capital to create jobs — not when government becomes the biggest and most voracious customer in the banking hall.”
“Government must make room for the private sector to breathe, invest, produce and employ After three years of sacrifice, Nigerians deserve to see what happened to the subsidy savings, the additional revenues and the crude-oil windfall.
“You cannot collect more, earn more and still borrow more — while asking hungry Nigerians to sacrifice more Something is fundamentally wrong with that equation.”