COMBO: President Bola Tinubu and former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar (file image)
Atiku: Nigeria is sinking further into debt, and the National Assembly has become an accomplice once more
By Valentine Amanze
Nigeria’s former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, has described President Bola Tinubu’s fresh N1.77 trillion ($2.2 billion) request for loan before the National Assembly as “bone-crushing”.
Already, the Senate has approved the request after a voice vote in favour of the appeal.
Atiku, while criticizing the bid, said the loans do not favour Nigerians.
“These @officialABAT’s loans are bone-crushing to Nigerians and bringing insufferable pressure on the economy, especially when they are not properly negotiated and utilized,” Atiku wrote on his X handle on Thursday.
“It is concerning that the voracious appetite for these humongous loans is powered by corruption and not for infrastructure and development needs. A report by Budgit, a budget watchdog, has disclosed that the 2024 Budget is a mess because of the level of pork associated with it.”
He accused the National Assembly of being “an accomplice once more”.
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“Nigeria is sinking further into debt, and the National Assembly has become an accomplice once more. In July this year, Tinubu boasted that the @FIRSNigeria and @CustomsNG under his watch had collected all-time high revenues to finance the Budget,” the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate in the 2023 election said.
“Why are they still borrowing? There is something that they are not telling Nigerians, even as they are being crushed by a combination of their failed trial-and-error policies and loan rackets.
“I feel a sense of personal agony seeing that just a few years after the administration of President Obasanjo took our country out of foreign indebtedness, we are today back at the top spot in the same conundrum,” the former vice president added.
“It is time to apply more caution and arithmetic to the loan frenzy.”
Atiku said that the recent World Bank report pegging Nigeria as the third-most indebted country to the International Development Association (IDA) is worrying.
“The recent report released by the World Bank, showing Nigeria as the third most indebted country to the International Development Association (IDA), is very concerning,” he said.
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