…Says foreign investors are voting with their feet as capital flight exposes confidence crisis

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has described the massive outflow of foreign portfolio investment from Nigeria as a vote of no confidence in President Bola Tinubu’s economic management.

Atiku, in a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, said the latest data from the Nigerian Exchange should concern Nigerians, arguing that investors were responding to economic fundamentals rather than government rhetoric.

Between January and July 2026, foreign investors brought ₦513.36 billion into the Nigerian equities market but withdrew ₦779.43 billion, resulting in a net outflow of ₦266.07 billion.

According to Atiku, foreign outflows exceeded inflows in every month during the period, with the seven-month net outflow about 11.7 times the ₦22.68 billion recorded during the corresponding period in 2023.

“This is not merely an investment statistic. It is a confidence verdict on the Tinubu economy,” he said.

Atiku likened the situation to a struggling landlord whose tenants and customers were unable to pay their bills while outside investors were taking their money away.

“Imagine a market where the shop owners are broke, customers have no money, the landlord keeps borrowing from everybody, and the few outsiders who brought capital are quietly carrying their money away. Only a foolish landlord would stand at the gate and call that prosperity. That is Tinubu’s economy,” he said.

The former vice president also cited the Federal Government’s reported increase in domestic borrowing to ₦24.7 trillion within eight months, alongside stronger growth in government credit than lending to the private sector.

He argued that the combination of rising government borrowing and foreign capital outflows was squeezing Nigerian businesses and weakening the private sector.

“So the picture is now painfully clear: Tinubu’s government is crowding Nigerian businesses out of the domestic credit market while foreign investors are taking their money and heading for the exit,” Atiku said.

He listed rising food and transport costs, high operating expenses and weak purchasing power among the challenges facing households and businesses.

Atiku questioned the administration’s claims of economic progress, arguing that an economy could not be considered to be recovering when businesses struggled to access affordable credit, manufacturers faced high operating costs and investors were reluctant to retain capital in the country.

He said investors were instead focusing on fundamentals such as policy consistency, inflation, purchasing power, regulatory predictability and the prospect of sustainable real returns.

“And their verdict is increasingly unmistakable: take the money and run,” he said.

Atiku called for economic policies that would restore investor confidence, reduce the cost of doing business, make energy and transportation more affordable and strengthen domestic production.

He said the private sector, rather than government borrowing, should be the main driver of economic growth.

“You cannot borrow the private sector dry, impoverish consumers and then advertise yourself to the world as an investment destination,” Atiku said.

He added: “The investors are already answering the propaganda. They are leaving.”