$500m loan: Don’t saddle your successor with debt, Atiku tells Tinubu

By Luminous Jannamike Former Vice-President and African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has warned President Bola Tinubu against committing Nigeria to a proposed $500 million World Bank loan shortly before the end of his current four-year tenure, arguing that no administration should saddle the country with fresh debt without adequate justification and public scrutiny.

Atiku said the proposed borrowing, scheduled for consideration a few days before the May 29, 2027 presidential inauguration, could constrain the next administration and impose repayment obligations on Nigerians without giving them an opportunity to scrutinise the decision. In a statement by Phrank Shaibu, Director of Strategic Communication, ADC Presidential Campaign Council, Atiku described the proposed loan as an attempt to mortgage Nigeria’s future and urged the World Bank not to approve the facility on the contemplated timetable.

“Taking loans as if you were a drunken sailor is a road to economic bondage, a second slavery. If this government is determined to mortgage Nigeria’s future and place our country at the mercy of creditors, we will not accept it,” he said. Atiku expressed concern over the timing of the proposed facility, which, according to the report he cited, is scheduled for consideration on May 25, 2027, barely four days before the next presidential inauguration.

He accused the Tinubu administration of attempting to commit the country to fresh financial obligations in the closing days of its current tenure, warning that such a decision could complicate governance for the incoming administration. “The Tinubu administration’s latest move is a preemptive attempt to lock Nigeria into a path of economic instability, even after Nigerians have roundly rejected its poverty-inflicting reforms.

A government cannot use its final days in office to bind the country and make governance more difficult for its successor,” he said. Invoking a Swahili proverb, the former Vice-President warned that borrowing shortly before the end of a presidential tenure could leave a successor constrained by obligations imposed by creditors. “As the Swahili proverb warns, ‘If you borrow a man’s legs, you will go where he directs.’ A leader who borrows on his way out leaves his successor walking on the lender’s legs, constrained by obligations and choices the people did not make,” Atiku said.

He called on the World Bank to defer consideration of the proposed facility, insisting that Nigerians must first be allowed to scrutinise its terms, risks and repayment obligations. “We call on the World Bank not to approve this proposed loan on the timetable now being contemplated. Nigerians deserve full disclosure of its terms, risks and repayment obligations, and the opportunity to scrutinise a commitment that will outlast the administration pursuing it,” he said.

Atiku, who said he could assume office on May 29, 2027, if elected, pledged that he would not begin his proposed administration with another loan, but with a commitment to responsible leadership and fiscal discipline.