$500m loan: Don’t saddle your successor with debt, Atiku tells Tinubu.
The post $500m loan: Don’t saddle your successor with debt, Atiku tells Tinubu appeared first on Vanguard News .
By Luminous Jannamike Former Vice-President and African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has warned President Bola Tinubu against committing Nigeria to a proposed $500 million World Bank loan shortly before the end of his current four-year tenure, arguing that no administration should saddle the country with fresh debt without adequate justification and public scrutiny.
Atiku said the proposed borrowing, scheduled for consideration a few days before the May 29, 2027 presidential inauguration, could constrain the next administration and impose repayment obligations on Nigerians without giving them an opportunity to scrutinise the decision.
In a statement by Phrank Shaibu, Director of Strategic Communication, ADC Presidential Campaign Council, Atiku described the proposed loan as an attempt to mortgage Nigeria’s future and urged the World Bank not to approve the facility on the contemplated timetable. “Taking loans as if you were a drunken sailor is a road to economic bondage, a second slavery. If this government is determined to mortgage Nigeria’s future and place our country at the mercy of creditors, we will not accept it,” he said. Atiku raised concern over the timing of the proposed facility, which, according to the report he cited, is scheduled for consideration on May 25, 2027, barely four days before the next presidential inauguration.
MSEApp News is publishing an original rewrite of this tip for readers, based on reporting associated with Vanguard.