One week, new loan’: NDC tackles Tinubu over fresh N10.79trn borrowing

By Henry Umoru, Abuja

The National Leadership of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) has strongly criticised President Bola Tinubu over his request to the National Assembly for approval of a fresh $7.7bn (approximately ₦10.79tn) external borrowing plan to partly finance the 2026 budget deficit.

According to the NDC, the latest request has made it a case of a one-week new loan.

In a statement on Thursday by the spokesperson of the National Presidential Campaign Council of the NDC, Dr Chiogo Constance Ikokwu, she called on Nigerians to turn out in massive numbers in the 2027 elections and use their votes to demand accountability, fiscal responsibility and a government that puts the people’s interests first.

According to her, the country’s growing debt burden, in light of new loan requests by President Bola Tinubu, and the obligations being passed on to future generations make this election too important for citizens to sit out, just as the party appealed to Nigerians to turn out massively and vote for Mr Peter Obi and Eng. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso on January 16, 2027.

According to her, Nigerians should emulate Americans, whom she described as champions of democratic participation, by coming out in their millions to vote for Obi and Kwankwaso, saying, “Americans demonstrated the power of the ballot in their November 4, 2026 elections.”

She further said, “President Bola Tinubu has again asked the National Assembly to approve a new external borrowing plan of $7.7 billion (approximately ₦10.79 trillion) to help finance the 2026 budget deficit, making this a case of a one-week, new loan.”

She observed that Americans, like Nigerians, are grappling with the high cost of living and economic hardship. Rather than merely grumbling or resigning themselves to their circumstances, she said, Americans turned out to exercise their democratic rights, demonstrating that the power to change government ultimately rests with the electorate.

Dr Ikokwu said, “Truly, it seems that right now, we cannot stop President Tinubu from his One Week! New Loan! One Week! New loan! Borrowing spree, which is already hitting the roof, because, regrettably, he has pocketed the National Assembly. We seem to have a rubber-stamp legislature that before a loan request formally gets to its desk, it has already been endorsed.

“But Nigerians should not despair. The ballot remains our most powerful instrument of change. We appeal to citizens to use their votes to rescue the country from this debt trap and entrust its future to a government committed to transparency, accountability and prudent management of public resources.”

The NDC reiterated that the country’s economic future must not be mortgaged by unsustainable borrowing and the mismanagement of public resources.

ENDS