Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has criticised the Federal Government’s borrowing, saying it has pushed Nigeria to the brink of economic collapse.

Atiku said this in his New Year’s message to Nigerians, while also lamenting that 2025 was one of the most punishing years in the country’s recent history.

“Dear Fellow Nigerians, I extend my compliments of the season as we welcome the New Year, 2026. For millions of long-suffering Nigerians, the only consolation is that 2025, one of the most punishing years in our recent history, has come to an end,” he said in a post on his official X account.

“It was a year defined by economic suffocation, political recklessness, and governance without empathy under the All Progressives Congress (APC) administration.

“The past year exposed, in stark terms, the incompetence and policy bankruptcy of President Bola Tinubu. Governing for months without a functional budget, the administration relied on propaganda while borrowing recklessly, pushing the nation to the brink of economic collapse.”

Speaking further, Atiku said: “Nothing better captures the decay of this government than the scandal of a forged tax law, shamelessly branded a “reform.”

“Even more disturbing was the President’s refusal to allow due legislative and legal processes to address what is clearly a criminal act.”

The former vice president stated that any government that begins reform with forgery cannot end with prosperity.

He lamented that in the same year, Nigeria’s democratic foundations were deliberately weakened, as the APC worked systematically to deform the nation’s multiparty democracy into a de facto one-party state through coercion, intimidation, and state capture.

Atiku further fumed that while drowning the nation in debt, the Federal Government falsely claimed to have met revenue targets.

He also spoke on the increase in the rate of killings, terrorism, banditry and kidnappings across the country in recent months.

“Meanwhile, insecurity worsened dramatically. Kidnappings, abductions, and violent crimes surged, affecting citizens young and old alike,” Atiku said.

“Lives were lost, livelihoods destroyed, and communities terrorized, while government assurances rang hollow.”

Atiku said President Tinubu’s administration spoke endlessly of economic recovery, yet unemployment, underemployment, labour unrest, and collapsing small businesses defined the year.

According to him, industries have been shut down, workers were sent home, hunger has spread among the citizens while suffering became normalized.

Atiku said despite these failures, compounded by the appointment of undistinguished and unfit individuals to represent Nigeria abroad, the country survived, not because of government competence, but because of the resilience of its people.

Speaking further, the former VP urged Nigerians to remain steadfast in the face of these hardships, lamenting that this is one of the most painful New Year messages he has ever written, fully aware of the despair confronting millions due to the “callous and soulless policies of the Tinubu-led APC government”.

He also lamented that citizens are repeatedly told to “make sacrifices”, adding that “Sacrifice is patriotic—but it becomes cruel when demanded by leaders who live extravagantly, insulated from the suffering of the people.

According to Atiku, leadership without shared pain is not leadership; it is exploitation, especially, as small businesses, which happen to be the backbone of job creation, collapsing.

“Workers are losing jobs. Yet those in power prioritize comfort over conscience. This contradicts every principle of democratic governance,” Atiku said.

“The arrogance of this administration is unprecedented. Its contempt for public opinion, its hostility to criticism, and its willingness to punish Nigerians through bad policies reveal a government fundamentally hostile to the people.

“Never in our recent history have we seen an administration so openly dismissive of public sentiment, so casual in breaking laws, and so reckless with democratic norms.”