Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has condemned the National Economic Council’s (NEC) approval of the refinancing of a $4.5 billion Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) oil-backed loan.

Atiku, who is also the African Democratic Congress (ADC) 2027 presidential candidate, said the refinancing approval by NEC is further proof that President Bola Tinubu’s administration has allegedly mortgaged Nigeria’s future to sustain “its reckless fiscal habits.”

The former Vice President, in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, said every new oil-backed obligation pushes Nigeria deeper into a vicious cycle “where tomorrow’s wealth is sacrificed to finance today’s policy failures.”

Atiku recalled that a few days ago, the Presidency, in response to his revelation of an unexplained ₦17 trillion crude oil windfall, claimed that Nigeria was unable to fully benefit from soaring international crude oil prices because future crude earnings had already been committed to oil-backed foreign loans.

According to him, “That explanation should have embarrassed any responsible government. Instead, this administration has chosen to double down on the very scandal it sought to justify by approving yet another $4.5 billion refinancing. Rather than breaking free from the chains of oil-backed indebtedness, it is tightening them.”

“What kind of government inherits a nation blessed with abundant oil resources, removes fuel subsidy, imposes multiple taxes, records unprecedented crude oil windfalls, borrows aggressively at home, and still finds it necessary to refinance billions of dollars secured against the country’s future oil production?

“This administration has turned Nigeria into a nation permanently living on credit. Instead of using increased revenues to reduce debt and build fiscal resilience, it continues to mortgage the future of generations yet unborn.”

The ADC candidate charged the Tinubu administration to immediately publish the full details of the refinancing arrangement, including its terms, repayment obligations and the volume of crude oil committed under the deal.

He noted that Nigerians deserve transparency, accountability and a government that protects the nation’s future, adding that “the tragedy is not merely the refinancing itself.”

Atiku explained that “the tragedy is that Nigerians have been subjected to untold hardship in the name of economic reforms, yet the borrowing never stops. The pain is permanent, but the promised gains remain invisible.

“When reforms look like eating away the future to finance today’s consumption, no one can be in doubt that what we have is profligacy without moral restraint.”

“President Tinubu promised renewed hope. What Nigerians have received is renewed debt, renewed hardship and renewed uncertainty. Under his watch, debt has become policy, borrowing has become governance, and mortgaging the future has become the defining philosophy of his administration.” (The Sun)