Peter Obi accuses Tinubu of excessive borrowing without accountability, says debt near N200tn

Abdullateef Fowewe

Presidential candidate of the NDC and former Anambra governor, Peter Obi has accused President Bola Tinubu’s administration of remarkably imprudent borrowing.

Obi in a statement on Tuesday stated that Nigeria’s total public debt has swelled to around N200 trillion, with more than N100 trillion added in three years.

Obi contrasted the current rise with the roughly N49 trillion accumulated during Muhammadu Buhari’s eight-year tenure, claiming that figure would have projected to about N80 trillion under a different borrowing pace.

“Excessive Borrowing Without Accountability: Further Affirmation of Imprudent Governance,” he wrote in a statement on Tuesday.

Citing figures from the Federation’s Budget Office, Obi said the Tinubu government borrowed N11.89 trillion in the first three quarters of 2025 (January to September), exceeding the planned N10.34 trillion by approximately N1.54 trillion.

He also noted that only N3.10 trillion of those borrowings or about 17.66% went to capital expenditure against N17.58 trillion originally earmarked.

“That constitutes a mere 17.66% of the N17.58 trillion earmarked for capital projects, leaving a deficit of roughly N14.48 trillion, or 82.34% of planned capital expenditure unfunded,” Obi wrote, calling the shortfall “a financial management fiasco.”

Obi pressed the administration for transparency on how the balance of borrowed funds was used.

“The most disturbing aspect of the financial management fiasco under Bola Tinubu is that there is no explanation or information regarding how the balance was utilised or deployed,” he said, posing a string of rhetorical questions: “What happened to the balance? Was it deployed for recurrent expenditure/consumption, for the entertainment of guests to Aso Rock or transferred to the Renewed Hope Agenda 2027 Election Campaign Fund?”