Former Vice President and African Democratic Congress presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has called on the Federal Government to account for existing borrowings before taking a proposed fresh $1.5 billion World Bank loan.
Atiku, in a statement issued on Monday by the Director of Strategic Communications of the ADC Presidential Campaign Council, Phrank Shaibu, said Nigerians deserved transparency on how previous loans had been spent and the results achieved.
The statement cited Nigeria’s public debt at N166.79tn and said another round of borrowing would add to the financial burden on Nigerians already facing rising costs of food, fuel and electricity.
“Nigerians were promised that painful policies would free resources for development. They have felt the pain. Where is the development?” Atiku asked.
He said dividing the country’s public debt among the population would amount to N716,822 per person, compared with N383,442 three years ago, representing an 87 per cent increase.
“Tinubu has made today difficult and tomorrow more uncertain. He cannot keep loading debt onto the country and expect Nigerians to applaud programme titles,” he said.
Atiku acknowledged that the proposed $500m facilities for climate resilience, social protection and early childhood development addressed genuine needs.
However, he said the government should first provide details of how previous borrowings were spent and the impact of the projects funded with them.
He urged the government to publish the projects to be financed with the new loans, the communities and citizens expected to benefit, programme targets, borrowing and disbursement terms, as well as a timetable for monitoring implementation.
“Climate resilience must mean identifiable land restored, irrigation delivered and communities protected from flooding. Social protection must identify who receives support and when. Early childhood development must produce measurable gains in nutrition, healthcare and learning,” he said.
Atiku also questioned the need for further borrowing despite government claims of increased revenue and savings from the removal of the petrol subsidy.
“If more money is coming in, why does the debt keep climbing? If Nigerians have sacrificed so much, where are the results?” he asked.
He said the government should demonstrate what previous borrowings had achieved before taking on additional debt.
“Show us the money already received. Show us what it built. Show us who benefited. Account for the debt already on Nigeria’s books before borrowing another dollar,” Atiku said.
