Former Vice President and African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, 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 it as further evidence that the Tinubu administration is mortgaging Nigeria’s future.

 

In a statement issued on Wednesday by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku said the approval deepens Nigeria’s dependence on oil-backed borrowing and commits future crude oil earnings to servicing debt.

 

He recalled that the Presidency recently responded to his allegation of an unexplained ₦17 trillion crude oil windfall by stating that Nigeria could not fully benefit from high international crude oil prices because future crude earnings had already been committed to oil-backed foreign loans.

 

Reacting to the latest refinancing approval, Atiku said:

“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.”

 

Questioning the government’s fiscal policy, he added:

“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?”

 

“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.”

 

Atiku also criticised the impact of the administration’s economic reforms on Nigerians, saying:

“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 further accused the administration of relying excessively on borrowing.

 

“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.”

 

The former vice president called on the Federal Government to publish the full details of the refinancing arrangement, including its terms, repayment obligations and the volume of crude oil committed under the deal, insisting that Nigerians deserve transparency and accountability in the management of the country’s resources.