Atiku Slams Tinubu’s Borrowing Despite N7.98tn Oil Windfall

The Former Vice President and Presidential Candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar, has criticised President Bola Tinubu’s aggressive domestic borrowing, questioning why the administration continued to pile up debts despite an estimated N7.98tn windfall from high international crude oil prices.

He also alleged that the President’s administration had finally arrived at a policy direction he first advocated more than two decades ago, after spending nearly three years worsening Nigeria’s electricity crisis through poor planning and misplaced priorities.

In a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku, who is the presidential candidate of African Democratic Congress (ADC) described the administration’s economic management as contradictory, opaque and bereft of fiscal discipline.

He noted that the federal government had already raised about N5tn from the domestic bond market in the first half of 2026, almost 80 per cent of the total amount borrowed during the corresponding period in 2025.

According to him, such borrowing will only make sense if government revenues have collapsed. “The exact opposite is the case,” he said.

The former vice president pointed out that while the 2026 Appropriation Act benchmarked crude oil at $64.84 per barrel, the average price of Brent crude, the benchmark for Nigerian oil, had remained around $92 per barrel between March 1 and July 14, with Nigerian crude typically trading at a premium above Brent.

“This naturally raises two unavoidable questions. First, why is a government enjoying such an extraordinary oil windfall borrowing at almost twice last year’s pace as though the nation were in financial distress? Second, where is the money?” he queried.

Atiku explained that the gap between the budget benchmark and prevailing oil prices amounted to an additional $27.15 on every barrel of crude sold, translating to an estimated $42.7m in additional daily revenue at an average production of 1.5 million barrels per day.

Over the 135 days under review, he put this at approximately $5.76 billion, or about N7.98tn.

He recalled that previous administrations maintained clear mechanisms for warehousing and reporting excess crude earnings through the Sovereign Wealth Fund and other established fiscal buffers.

Atiku further lamented that despite the oil windfall and the removal of fuel subsidy, millions of Nigerians continued to face worsening hardship, citing recent United Nations findings that about 80 per cent of Nigerians could not afford a decent meal each day. In contrast, infrastructure continued to deteriorate, despite promises that subsidy savings would be invested in roads, healthcare, education and other critical sectors.

He said an ADC administration under his leadership, would pursue a different approach, with every kobo earned above the budget oil benchmark transparently accounted for and managed under a rules-based fiscal framework, and excess revenues deployed to reduce the nation’s debt burden, strengthen fiscal buffers, and invest in infrastructure, education, healthcare, and agriculture.

“Nigerians deserve answers. They deserve accountability. Above all, they deserve a government that manages national wealth in the public interest, not one that presides over unprecedented opacity while asking future generations to repay debts incurred in the midst of plenty,” Atiku said.

Tinubu’s power reform idea’s my 21-year-old blueprint – Atiku

In another breath, Atiku said the Tinubu administration has adopted the policy he advocated 21 years ago to address the country’s worsening power crisis.

He said the recent admission by the minister of power that Nigeria could no longer depend solely on large, centralised power plants amounted to a belated endorsement of the decentralised electricity generation model he championed over 20 years ago.

“It should not take a government three years in office to discover what was obvious more than two decades ago,” Atiku said, lamenting that instead of pursuing bold structural reforms from the outset, the Tinubu administration chose to increase electricity tariffs, while leaving Nigerians in deeper darkness.

“A government that thinks before it acts would have fixed the system before asking citizens to pay more. Unfortunately, this administration has done the exact opposite, raising tariffs first and only now beginning to think about the reforms required to justify those increases,” he said.

Atiku recalled that during his tenure as vice president, he consistently urged former President Olusegun Obasanjo to decentralise electricity generation by harnessing Nigeria’s diverse energy resources, including hydroelectric dams, solar, gas and other viable sources.

He said, “This has been my position for over two decades. When President Obasanjo established the Power Sector Reform Committee based primarily on gas-fired generation, I was appointed chairman.

‘’However, because I fundamentally disagreed with the policy direction, I declined to preside over the committee. I believed then, as I do now, that Nigeria’s electricity future lay in a diversified and decentralised energy mix, not an overdependence on a single source.”

He added that billions of dollars contributed by the federal, state and local governments were committed to that approach, yet the expected results never materialised, noting that contracts were awarded and huge sums paid upfront, while much of the promised work was never done.

Atiku recalled that the National Assembly subsequently investigated the power sector reforms and held Obasanjo accountable for the outcome, but noted that he was never invited by the investigators because he had declined to chair the committee despite being formally appointed.

“Nigeria does not suffer from a shortage of ideas. It suffers from a shortage of leaders willing to act on the right ideas at the right time. It is never too late to embrace the right policy, but Nigerians should never have had to pay the price for a government that spent three years learning what should have guided its actions from day one,” he added.