Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has accused the Bola Tinubu administration of dangerous fiscal indiscipline, citing an “unprecedented” surge in domestic borrowing that he says is starving Nigerian businesses of credit, destroying jobs and deepening the cost-of-living crisis.
In a statement released Monday by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku described the government’s borrowing appetite as alarming, especially at a time when crude oil prices have risen substantially above the 2026 budget benchmark of $64.85 per barrel.
According to the statement, the federal government borrowed a staggering N24.7 trillion from the domestic market between January and August 2026 — 90.5 per cent higher than the N12.98 trillion recorded in the same period of 2025.
“This is a government borrowing like drunken sailors in the middle of a revenue windfall,” Atiku said. He noted that the removal of the fuel subsidy and the floating of the naira had delivered a massive boost to government revenues, while oil prices had also risen sharply. Yet borrowing had not declined — it had exploded.
Atiku argued that the scale of government borrowing is now crowding out the private sector. Credit to government grew by 43 per cent, while credit to the private sector expanded by only 9.6 per cent — meaning government credit is growing roughly 4.5 times faster than lending to businesses.
“This is yet another troubling signal that the Tinubu economic reforms have failed to produce any meaningful impact on the private sector,” he stated. “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.”
He warned that when banks can lend to the government at attractive, risk-free rates, they have little incentive to extend affordable credit to manufacturers, agro-processors, furniture makers or young entrepreneurs. The result, he said, is higher borrowing costs for businesses, postponed expansion, struggling factories, job losses and rising production costs across the economy.
“This government is not merely borrowing money; it is borrowing away the future of Nigerian businesses,” Atiku declared. He pledged that an administration under his leadership would impose fiscal discipline, cut waste, prioritise productive spending and progressively reduce the government’s heavy reliance on the domestic credit market.
Separately, the African Democratic Congress (ADC) on Monday described the Auditor-General’s finding that N33.75 billion in cash transfers to 3.29 million households could not be verified as evidence of an “organised racket” under the Tinubu government.
In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, the party said the unaccounted funds, part of a larger N78 billion intervention, showed that social investment programmes had been turned into a scheme that benefits officials rather than the poor.
The ADC criticised the recent announcement of a new $1 billion “Renewed Hope Social Protection Programme,” arguing that the government had failed to demonstrate improved transparency and accountability despite past controversies.
The party demanded the immediate publication of the full beneficiary register, the REMITA payment trail, and the names of officials who allegedly obstructed the Auditor-General. It linked the need for such interventions to the economic hardship caused by fuel subsidy removal and currency devaluation, which it said had swollen the ranks of Nigerians living in extreme poverty.
“This is a government that manufactured hardship with one hand and pocketed the relief with the other,” the ADC stated.