ABUJA, Nigeria — A political pressure group has strongly defended President Bola Tinubu’s borrowing strategy, dismissing recent critical comments by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as mischievous and short-sighted.
The Democratic Front (TDF) issued a statement on Thursday, co-signed by its Chairman, Danjuma Muhammad, and Secretary, Wale Adedayo. The group argued that the prominent opposition leader is using narrow metrics to attack federal loans that are strictly tied to vital national infrastructure projects.
The group maintained that borrowing remains an absolute necessity to rescue the country from a long-running productivity crisis, which they blame for Nigeria’s high unemployment and poverty rates.
The Scale of the Deficit
The TDF backed its defence by citing an empirical debt profile review by the Independent Media and Policy Initiative (IMPI). The analysis indicates that Nigeria must spend a minimum of $14.2bn (£11.1bn) annually for a decade to bridge its massive infrastructure gap.
The group questioned the realism of the opposition’s stance, asking where critics expected the government to raise such significant funds without imposing aggressive tax increases on everyday citizens.
Unlike previous administrations, the TDF noted that the current external loans are explicitly ring-fenced for high-impact capital projects, including:
- The Super Highways: The Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway and the Sokoto-Badagry Super Highway.
- Urban Rail Networks: Phase 1A of the Lagos Green Line, the Kano State Metro City Rail, and the Kaduna State Light Rail System.
The group asserted that these mega-projects will provide massive relief to internal revenues because they are structurally designed to pay back the loans through direct returns on investment.
A Clash of Fiscal Records
Turning its attention to Atiku’s own executive record, the TDF described the former Vice President’s criticisms as intellectually inconsistent given the performance of the administration he served from 1999 to 2007.
The group alleged that during Atiku’s tenure, the federal government spent a meagre average of $3.5bn annually on capital expenditure. The TDF pointed out that despite rising crude oil revenues during that era, the country suffered from a worsening infrastructure deficit, widespread power outages, and decaying road networks.
“We wonder how the former Vice President found the spine to condemn President Tinubu for embarking on the courageous and commendable route to reducing Nigeria’s infrastructural deficit with foreign loans,” the statement read.
A Record Spender on Infrastructure
The pro-government group also highlighted findings from IMPI’s latest policy document, which claims that the Tinubu administration is the biggest investor in public infrastructure in the past 25 years.
According to the cited data, no federal government since the return to democracy in 1999 has allocated up to $8bn annually for infrastructure development until the current administration’s recent fiscal expansions. The TDF reinforced the argument that savings derived from the fuel subsidy removal are simply mathematically insufficient to fund the country’s vast developmental needs simultaneously.
Dismissing the former Vice President’s criticisms as political frustration driven by the current administration’s economic reforms, the TDF urged the electorate to ignore the rhetoric, reminding voters of past controversial fiscal decisions, including the multi-billion dollar Paris Club debt relief payouts.
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