President Bola Tinubu has again approached the Senate, seeking approval for a staggering $20.5 billion and €1.04 billion in fresh foreign loans under the 2026–2027 Supplementary External Borrowing Plan, supposedly for power, transportation, healthcare, education, agriculture, water, security and job creation.
Reacting to the development, Hon. Toyin Anibire Adams, popularly known as Obailukan, has queried the incessant borrowing culture of the Tinubu administration, describing it as an insult to suffering Nigerians.
According to Obailukan, this pattern has become familiar. It will be recalled that he had similarly condemned previous loan requests by the administration, warning that the endless borrowing was piling up a debt mountain without any tangible impact on the lives of ordinary Nigerians. Once again, he insists, the government is borrowing without accountability.
“Walk through any market in Lagos, Kano, Port Harcourt or Aba. Listen to mothers who can no longer afford to feed their children three times a day. Speak to graduates who have spent years applying for jobs that never come. Visit hospitals where patients are asked to buy their own gloves, syringes and fuel for generators. See the darkness that still swallows entire communities every night. Then ask yourself: if previous loans were truly for the betterment of Nigerians, why is suffering only deepening?” he queried.
Obailukan noted that the government has made borrowing a pattern — borrow, announce grandiose projects, then move to the next loan request, while the naira continues its free fall and food inflation remains brutal.
“The Tinubu administration speaks of ‘infrastructure deficit’ and ‘financing gaps.’ But infrastructure is not built by the mere announcement of borrowed dollars. It is built by discipline, transparency, prioritisation and accountability — qualities that have been in short supply. Nigerians have heard these justifications for years, as Obailukan consistently pointed out in his reactions to earlier loans. What they have not seen is improvement that matches the scale of borrowing,” the statement read.
He also questioned the timing of the fresh request, coming less than four months to the 2027 elections.
“Is this money truly for Nigeria’s long-term development, or is it meant to oil political machinery, fund last-minute projects for optics, and keep the elite comfortable while the masses pay the price?” he asked.
Obailukan stressed that Nigerians are not against development, but against development that exists only in official letters and press releases, and a leadership comfortable borrowing the future of unborn children while the present generation can barely survive.
“What exactly have previous loans delivered to the average Nigerian to justify this new mountain of debt? Where are the completed projects whose impact can be measured in reduced poverty, reliable electricity, functional hospitals and affordable food? Until those answers are clear, transparent and verifiable, every new request for billions in foreign loans looks less like nation-building and more like a continuation of the same old cycle — elite borrowing, popular suffering.”
“Nigerians are suffering. The cost of living is crushing. Hope is thinning. And still, the government reaches for more debt. That is not leadership. That is abandonment dressed as development.”
Signed:
Comrade James Onifade
Media Executive to Hon. Toyin Anibire Adams (a.k.a Obailukan)
Founder and Convener, Obailukan Strategic Support Group for Atiku (OSSAT)
