Makinde campaign kicks over FG’s new loan request
By Idun Maximus
The Allied Peoples Movement (APM) Presidential Campaign has kicked against President Bola Tinubu request to the National Assembly to approve $20.5bn, €1.04bn new loans.
The Makinde-Daura Presidential Campaign Organisation (MDPCO), in a statement by the Director of Strategic Communications, Richard Ihediwa, accused President Tinubu of deliberately mortgaging the sovereignty and future of Nigeria.
The Campaign Organization, which stated that it is unfortunate that the President is leaving a legacy of debt and enslavement rather than productive investments, charged Nigerians not to remain silent while the future is allegedly being shackled by endless loans.
“The MDPCO vehemently rejects the latest move by President Tinubu to take fresh $20.5bn (N27.52 trillion) and €1.04bn loan (N1.558 trillion) 80 days to a crucial election that will ultimately remove him from office in May, 2027, especially given his inability to present any concrete plan to repay the over N166.7 trillion debt already accumulated under his watch.
“We are deeply concerned that these loans are repeatedly justified under the omnibus of funding infrastructure, critical projects and budget deficits, yet Nigerians cannot point to commensurate projects or has this successive borrowing bee able to adequately fund Tinubu’s three overlapping budget cycles, raising the question as to where monies have gone.
“This malignant debt cancer and insatiable appetite for foreign loans have reached alarming proportions that every well-meaning Nigerian should fear for the nation’s future as Tinubu’s government relentlessly accumulates domestic and external debts with neither commensurate development, transparent utilization nor a credible repayment plan.
“Nigerians will recall our earlier warning that the nation’s public debt, which has soared to ₦166.7 trillion under President Tinubu, is mortgaging the future of over 240 million Nigerians, particularly the youth, who risk an unbearable debt burden they neither incurred nor deserve. His new request has reinforced our fear that President Tinubu is burying Nigeria by instalment,” the Campaign Organization stated.
Furthermore, it noted that “in June 2023, President Tinubu secured a $750 million World Bank loan under the Power Sector Recovery Performance programme to improve electricity supply nationwide. Ironically, Nigerians continue to endure crippling darkness, to the extent that the Aso Rock Villa is powered by a solar plant.
“That same month, another $500 million was borrowed for institutional strengthening and women’s empowerment. Where is the money, how many women have benefited, and where is the impact? In July 2023, the President secured another $800 million for Conditional Cash Transfers, followed by a further $700 million in September.
“In June 2024, President Tinubu borrowed $2.25 Billion for “Reforms for Economic Stabilization to Enable Transformation and Accelerating Stabilization and Resilient Growth”. Today, the economy is not only atrophied, it is also neither transformed nor stabilized.
“In 2025, President Tinubu borrowed another $1.57 billion for healthcare, education and human-capital development, alongside another $500 million from the African Development Bank later that year.
“In 2025, the Senate approved an extensive borrowing plan involving $21.19 billion, €4 billion and ¥15 billion. Included was $3 billion earmarked for the Eastern Railway Corridor linking Port Harcourt to Maiduguri. Yet the corridor remains a question mark for Nigerians awaiting tangible progress as it remains as moribund as ever.
“In April 2026, the Senate approved $6 billion for modernizing our ports alongside another $1.5 billion for early-childhood development and household prosperity. What bitter irony of a beautiful caption in Nigeria where millions of households struggle to afford food, while battling a devastating out-of-school-children crisis. And now comes another colossal borrowing request of $20.52 billion and €1.045 billion.”
MDPCO cautioned that President Tinubu is steering Nigeria “towards the fate of Egypt under Khedive Isma’il (1863-1880) whose dependence on foreign loans and extravagant spending drove Egypt into bankruptcy with devastating consequences on the sovereignty of that nation.”
It demanded that the Federal Government jettison the fresh move to secure more foreign loans, while urging the National Assembly to reject President Tinubu’s latest loan request.
“The MDPCO calls on Nigerians to remain resolute in their determination to save our nation by voting enmasse for the flagbearer of the Allied People’s Movement (APM), Engr Seyi Makinde whose Reset Nigeria Agenda offers credible blueprint for effective harnessing of Nigeria’s vast resources for economic viability, national self-sufficiency and sustainable development.
“MDPCO’s commitment is that under a Makinde administration, Nigerians will enjoy a restructured country with opportunities, prosperity and a stronger economy, rather than the Tinubu’s corrupt, insensitive, inept, unproductive and debt-dependent government.”
