Atiku Queries N24.7tn Borrowing Despite Rising Oil Prices, Says Tinubu Is Starving Businesses Of Credit

Atiku says government borrowing surged to N24.7tn despite higher oil prices, squeezing private-sector credit and worsening economic hardship.

Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, on Monday described the federal government’s ‘unprecedented’ appetite for domestic borrowing as evidence of dangerous fiscal indiscipline that is starving Nigerian businesses of credit, killing jobs and worsening the cost-of-living crisis.

In a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku said it was particularly alarming that the Bola Tinubu administration continues to borrow at such a frightening pace at a time when crude oil prices have risen substantially above the assumptions upon which the 2026 budget was built.

“At the beginning of this fiscal year, the federal government budgeted on an oil benchmark of $64.85 per barrel. Today, crude oil prices have risen substantially above that benchmark.

“Yet, instead of this windfall translating into lower borrowing, stronger businesses and relief for Nigerians, the federal government went into the domestic market and borrowed a staggering N24.7 trillion between January and August 2026 — 90.5 per cent more than the N12.98 trillion borrowed in the corresponding period of 2025.

‘’This is a government borrowing like drunken sailors in the middle of a revenue windfall. Tinubu removed fuel subsidy and told Nigerians the sacrifice would free up money. He floated the naira and government revenues consequently received a massive nominal boost. Oil prices have risen sharply. Revenues have improved. Yet the borrowing has not gone down — it has exploded,” the former vice president stressed.

According to him, Nigerians must begin to ask what the money saved fromfuel subsidy has been spent on.

“What makes this recklessness even more damaging is that the government is now competing directly with Nigerian businesses for money. Credit to the government grew by 43 per cent, while credit to the private sector grew by only 9.6 per cent. Government credit is expanding about 4.5 times faster than credit to businesses.

“This is yet another troubling signal that the Tinubu economic reforms have failed to produce any meaningful impact on the private sector,’’ Atiku added.

Atiku said that ordinarily, the outlook and performance of the private sector should serve as one of the clearest yardsticks for measuring the effectiveness of government economic policy.

He said: ‘’If businesses are expanding, investing, hiring and gaining easier access to capital, then reform can claim some measure of success.

“But under Tinubu’s economic policy, the exact opposite is happening. The public sector is exerting an increasingly parasitic effect on the private sector — consuming the credit, capital and financial oxygen that productive businesses desperately need. That, at a glance, is one of the clearest indictments of the failure of these so-called reforms.

“When banks can lend to the government at attractive, risk-free rates, why would they lend cheaply to the manufacturer in Aba, the furniture maker in Kaduna, the agro-processor in Kano or the young entrepreneur in Lagos?

“The result is obvious: businesses pay more for credit, expansion is postponed, factories struggle, jobs disappear and the cost of producing everything from food to household goods rises. This government is not merely borrowing money; it is borrowing away the future of Nigerian businesses.”