Oil Above $64.85 Budget Benchmark But FG Borrowed N24.7trn In 8 Months — Atiku Accuses Tinubu Govt Of “Borrowing Like Drunken Sailors In Revenue Windfall”
Oil Above $64.85 Budget Benchmark But FG Borrowed N24.7trn In 8 Months — Atiku Accuses Tinubu Govt Of “Borrowing Like Drunken Sailors In Revenue Windfall”
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has described the Federal Government’s 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 Tinubu administration continues to borrow at such a frightening pace at a time when crude oil prices have risen substantially above 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,” he said.
“This is not fiscal management. This is a government borrowing like drunken sailors in the middle of a revenue windfall.”
Atiku said: “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. So the question Nigerians must ask again is very simple: where is the money going?”
He said government is now competing directly with businesses for money, noting credit to government grew by 43 per cent, while credit to private sector grew by only 9.6 per cent — about 4.5 times faster.
“When banks can lend to 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 cost of producing everything from food to household goods rises.”
He alleged government is “not merely borrowing money but borrowing away the future of Nigerian businesses.”
Atiku promised that if elected, his administration would impose fiscal discipline, cut waste, prioritise productive expenditure and reduce government’s “dependence on the domestic credit market”.
“Nigeria cannot achieve prosperity by allowing government to swallow the credit that should finance production… Government must make room for the private sector to breathe, invest, produce and employ. After three years of sacrifice, Nigerians deserve to see what happened to the subsidy savings, the additional revenues and the crude-oil windfall.
“You cannot collect more, earn more and still borrow more — while asking hungry Nigerians to sacrifice more. Something is fundamentally wrong with that equation.”
