Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has accused President Bola Tinubu’s administration of reckless domestic borrowing that is starving Nigerian businesses of affordable credit, despite higher government revenues.
In a statement released on Monday, September 7, 2026, Atiku said the federal government borrowed N24.7 trillion from the domestic market between January and August 2026. That figure represents a 90.5% increase compared to the N12.98 trillion borrowed within the same period in 2025.
Atiku, who is the African Democratic Congress presidential candidate for the 2027 elections, said the borrowing trend was happening even as oil prices rose above the $64.85 per barrel benchmark used for the 2026 budget. He argued that the windfall from subsidy removal, naira reforms, and higher crude prices should have reduced borrowing, not increased it.
He said the administration told Nigerians that subsidy removal would free up money and that floating the naira would boost revenues. With oil prices now up and government income improved, he questioned why borrowing had exploded instead of dropping. He asked Nigerians to demand answers on where the money was going.
The former vice president said the bigger problem was how government borrowing was crowding out the private sector. According to him, credit to government grew by 43% between January and August, while credit to the private sector grew by only 9.6%. That means government borrowing expanded about 4.5 times faster than lending to businesses.
He said banks would prefer to lend to government at risk-free rates instead of giving cheaper loans to manufacturers in Aba, furniture makers in Kaduna, agro-processors in Kano, or young entrepreneurs in Lagos. He warned that higher borrowing costs would slow business expansion, reduce hiring, and push up prices of goods and services for ordinary Nigerians. He added that the government was not just borrowing money, it was borrowing away the future of Nigerian businesses.
Atiku said if elected in 2027, he would enforce fiscal discipline, cut waste, and reduce reliance on the domestic credit market to create room for private sector growth. He said after three years of sacrifice, Nigerians deserve to know what happened to subsidy savings, additional revenues, and the crude oil windfall. He stated that government cannot collect more, earn more, and still borrow more while asking citizens to keep sacrificing.
Earlier, Atiku’s spokesperson Paul Ibe also dismissed a Political Intelligence Group projection that put President Tinubu ahead in the 2027 presidential race, questioning the credibility of the forecast.