N187 trillion debt: Obi decries continuous borrowing, demands prudent management of resources

Obi

By TANKO ALI.

The Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 general election, Peter Obi, has, again, cried out at the reckless borrowing by the current Bola Tinubu administration without accountability.

Obi said that by the latest loan approval by the Nigerian Senate for another external borrowing of $21 billion, €2.2 billion, ¥15 billion for the 2025–2026 fiscal cycle, Nigeria’s debt now stands at N187 trillion with palpable fear that it might climb to N200 trillion before the end of the year.

Writing on his X handle, Obi said, “On July 22, 2025, the Nigerian Senate approved an additional $21 billion, €2.2 billion, ¥15 billion of external borrowing for the 2025–2026 fiscal cycle. It also approved a N750.98 billion domestic bond issuance and a €65 65million grant. With an already existing public debt of about N149.39 trillion as at the first quarter of 2025, adding the approved loans of about N37.2 trillion) brings our current total debt to about N187 trillion with concerns that our debt might likely be over N200 trillion by the end of 2025.

“As our GDP before rebasing was about N269.2 trillion (about $180 billion), the government has borrowed the equivalent of nearly 70% of our previous GDP. Even after the rebasing, which pushed our GDP to about N372.8 trillion (about $243. 7billion), the government would have borrowed about 50.16 % of the new GDP (with the approved loans), the highest debt-to-GDP ratio in our history as a nation.

“While the year-on-year increase is about N27.72 trillion and the quarter-on-quarter increase is about N4.72 trillion, we are accumulating very exponential levels of unsustainable debt with little or nothing to show for it in critical areas such as education, healthcare, electricity generation, security of lives and property, and pulling people out of poverty.