Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has said that external loans being taken by President Bola Tinubu are bone-crushing to Nigerians and bringing insufferable pressure on the economy.
Atiku, in a statement he personally signed on Thursday, cited a recent World Bank report showing Nigeria as the third most indebted country to the International Development Association (IDA).
The former vice president was reacting to Tinubu’s fresh loan request of $2.2bn (N1.7trillion) approved by the Senate on Thursday.
Atiku said what made the latest loan more concerning was the fact that
it is benchmarked at the exchange rate of 1 USD to N800, whereas the current exchange rate from the Central Bank of Nigeria stands at over N1,600 to 1 USD.
“Nigeria is sinking further in debt, and the National Assembly has become an accomplice once more. Tinubu had, in July this year, boasted that the FIRS and Customs under his watch have collected all-time high revenues to finance the Budget. Why then are they still borrowing? There is something that they are not telling Nigerians, even as they are being crushed by a combination of their failed trial-and-error policies and loan rackets.
“These Tinubu’s loans are bone-crushing to Nigerians and bringing insufferable pressure on the economy, especially when they are not properly negotiated and utilised.
“It is concerning that the voracious appetite for these humongous loans is powered by corruption and not for infrastructure and development needs. A report by Budgit, a budget watchdog, has disclosed that the 2024 Budget is a mess because of the level of pork associated with it.
“I feel a sense of personal agony seeing that just a few years after the administration of President Obasanjo took our country out of foreign indebtedness, we are today back at the top spot in the same conundrum,” Atiku said.
The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 election said it’s time the administration applied more caution and arithmetic to the loan frenzy.