Atiku Blasts Tinubu Government for Celebrating Debt Statistics
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has denounced President Bola Tinubu’s administration for celebrating debt figures while the country grapples with severe economic and security challenges.
In a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku lamented that paying ransoms has become as routine for Nigerian households as paying school fees or rent.
He described the situation as both astonishing and insulting, noting that millions of Nigerians struggle to afford a single meal a day, parents withdraw children from school due to hardship, businesses collapse under soaring electricity tariffs and inflation, and communities are overrun by terrorists, bandits, and kidnappers.
“It is both astonishing and insulting that at a time when millions of Nigerians can barely afford one meal a day, when parents are withdrawing children from school because of crushing hardship, when businesses are collapsing under unbearable electricity tariffs and inflation, and when entire communities are being overrun by terrorists, bandits, and kidnappers, the Presidency is celebrating debt figures as though indebtedness itself were an economic achievement,” he said.
Atiku painted a harrowing picture of a nation where road travel is a gamble with death, families dread midnight calls about abducted loved ones, and villages are sacked regularly while those in power focus on image management rather than decisive action.
“In many parts of Nigeria today, travelling by road has become a gamble with death. Families go to bed praying not to receive midnight calls announcing the abduction of loved ones. Villages are sacked almost routinely, while those in power appear more concerned with image management than with decisive action. What exactly are Nigerians benefiting from all these loans if insecurity continues to spread and the economy continues to suffocate?” he queried.
He argued that the insecurity crisis has directly collapsed food production, as farmers are driven off their lands by armed gangs and terrorists across vast territories, triggering a spiral of food scarcity, hunger, and malnutrition.
“Across the country, farmers can no longer safely access their farmlands because vast territories have effectively fallen under the control of armed gangs and terrorists. Food production has declined sharply because rural communities now live under constant threat of attacks, abductions, and killings. The inevitable result is what Nigerians are currently witnessing: astronomical food prices, widespread hunger, malnutrition, and rising anger among citizens abandoned by their own government,” he stated.
The Waziri Adamawa acknowledged that borrowing is not inherently wrong when tied to productive investments that expand infrastructure, create jobs, and improve lives. However, he insisted that under the Tinubu administration, unprecedented borrowing has produced nothing but deeper poverty, deeper insecurity, and deeper despair.
“No nation becomes prosperous by borrowing to finance consumption, sustain wasteful government lifestyles, and paper over policy failures. Countries that borrow responsibly do so to expand productivity, create jobs, secure critical infrastructure, and improve their citizens’ welfare. In Nigeria today, however, citizens see no correlation between the mounting debt profile and improvement in their daily lives,” he said.
He accused the administration of weaponising propaganda to distract Nigerians from the catastrophic consequences of its economic mismanagement, and recalled that the administration in which he served alongside former President Olusegun Obasanjo pursued disciplined economic reforms that freed Nigeria from the burden of Paris Club debt and restored global confidence in the country.
“It is therefore tragic that a government that inherited a struggling but manageable economy has plunged the nation into deeper debt, deeper poverty, deeper insecurity, and deeper despair within such a short period, yet still expects applause from suffering citizens,” Atiku said.
He dismissed the presidency’s debt comparisons as statistical gymnastics that no ordinary Nigerian has any use for, insisting that what citizens want to know is whether food is affordable, whether their children are safe, whether businesses can survive, and whether the future holds any promise.
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