October 28, 2926
Press Statement
$20.5bn, €1.04bn Loan: Nigeria Going the Way of Khedive Isma’il's Egypt -MDPCO
The Makinde-Daura Presidential Campaign Organisation (MDPCO) condemns the continued resort to foreign borrowing by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu cautioning that President Tinubu is deliberately mortgaging the sovereignty and future of our nation.
The MDPCO vehemently rejects the latest move by President Tinubu to take fresh $20.5bn (N27.52 trillion) and €1.04bn loan (N1.558 trillion) 80 days to a crucial election that will ultimately remove him from office in May, 2027, especially given his inability to present any concrete plan to repay the over N166.7 trillion debt already accumulated under his watch.
We are deeply concerned that these loans are repeatedly justified under the omnibus of funding infrastructure, critical projects and budget deficits, yet Nigerians cannot point to commensurate projects or has this successive borrowing been able to adequately fund Tinubu’s three overlapping budget cycles, raising the question as to where monies have gone.
This malignant debt cancer and insatiable appetite for foreign loans have reached alarming proportions that every well-meaning Nigerian should fear for the nation’s future as Tinubu’s government relentlessly accumulates domestic and external debts with neither commensurate development, transparent utilization nor a credible repayment plan.
Nigerians will recall our earlier warning that the nation’s public debt, which has soared to ₦166.7 trillion under President Tinubu, is mortgaging the future of over 240 million Nigerians, particularly the youth, who risk an unbearable debt burden they neither incurred nor deserve. His new request has reinforced our fear that President Tinubu is burying Nigeria by instalment.
In June 2023, President Tinubu secured a $750 million World Bank loan under the Power Sector Recovery Performance programme to improve electricity supply nationwide. Ironically, Nigerians continue to endure crippling darkness, to the extent that the Aso Rock Villa is powered by a solar plant.
That same month, another $500 million was borrowed for institutional strengthening and women’s empowerment. Where is the money, how many women have benefited, and where is the impact?
In July 2023, the President secured another $800 million for Conditional Cash Transfers, followed by a further $700 million in September.
In June 2024 President Tinubu borrowed $2.25 Billion for “Reforms for Economic Stabilization to Enable Transformation and Accelerating Stabilization and Resilient Growth”. Today, the economy is not only atrophied, it is also neither transformed nor stabilized.
In 2025, President Tinubu borrowed another $1.57 billion for healthcare, education and human-capital development, alongside another $500 million from the African Development Bank later that year.
In 2025, the Senate approved an extensive borrowing plan involving $21.19 billion, €4 billion and ¥15 billion. Included was $3 billion earmarked for the Eastern Railway Corridor linking Port Harcourt to Maiduguri. Yet the corridor remains a question mark for Nigerians awaiting tangible progress as it remains as moribund as ever.
In April 2026, the Senate approved $6 billion for modernizing our ports alongside another $1.5 billion for early-childhood development and household prosperity. What bitter irony of a beautiful caption in Nigeria where millions of households struggle to afford food, while battling a devastating out-of-school-children crisis. And now comes another colossal borrowing request of $20.52 billion and €1.045 billion.
The MDPCO cautions that President Tinubu is steering Nigeria towards the fate of Egypt under Khedive Isma’il (1863-1880) whose dependence on foreign loans and extravagant spending drove Egypt into bankruptcy with devastating consequences on the sovereignty of that nation.
It is unfortunate that at his age, President Tinubu is leaving a legacy of debt and enslavement rather than productive investments, prosperity, and economic stability.
The Tinubu administration is recklessly imposing an unbearable debt burden on future generations. Nigerians must therefore not to remain silent while their future is shackled by endless borrowing and reckless economic policies that threaten their very existence.
The MDPCO therefore demands that President Tinubu should immediately rescind this move to secure another foreign loan or be ready to contend with Nigerians. The National Assembly should save the situation and reassure Nigerians by rejecting President Tinubu’s fresh loan request. Nigeria is nobody’s personal fiefdom!
The MDPCO calls on Nigerians to remain resolute in their determination to save our nation by voting enmasse for the flagbearer of the Allied People's Movement (APM), Engr Seyi Makinde whose RESET NIGERIA Agenda offers credible blueprint for effective harnessing of Nigeria’s vast resources for economic viability, national self-sufficiency and sustainable development.
MDPCO's commitment is that under a Makinde administration Nigerians will enjoy a restructured country with opportunities, prosperity and a stronger economy, rather than the Tinubu’s corrupt, insensitive, inept, unproductive and debt-dependent government.
Signed:
Richard Nnanna Ihediwa Director of Strategic Communications MDPCO