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Atiku Faults Tinubu’s Aggressive Domestic Borrowing Amid N7.98tr Oil Windfall
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Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has faulted President Bola Tinubu’s aggressive domestic borrowing, questioning why the administration continued to pile up debts despite an estimated $7.98 trillion windfall from high international crude oil prices.
He also alleged that the President’s administration had finally arrived at a policy direction he first advocated more than two decades ago, after spending nearly three years worsening Nigeria’s electricity crisis through poor planning and misplaced priorities.
In a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku, who is the presidential candidate of African Democratic Congress, ADC, described the administration’s economic management as contradictory, opaque and bereft of fiscal discipline.
He noted that the federal government had already raised about ¦ 5 trillion from the domestic bond market in the first half of 2026, almost 80 per cent of the total amount borrowed during the corresponding period in 2025.
According to him, such borrowing will only make sense if government revenues have collapsed. “The exact opposite is the case,” he said.
The former vice president pointed out that while the 2026 Appropriation Act benchmarked crude oil at $64.84 per barrel, the average price of Brent crude, the benchmark for Nigerian oil, had remained around $92 per barrel between March 1 and July 14, with Nigerian crude typically trading at a premium above Brent.
“This naturally raises two unavoidable questions. First, why is a government enjoying such an extraordinary oil windfall borrowing at almost twice last year’s pace as though the nation were in financial distress? Second, where is the money?” He queried.
Atiku explained that the gap between the budget benchmark and prevailing oil prices amounted to an additional $27.15 on every barrel of crude sold, translating to an estimated $42.7 million in additional daily revenue at an average production of 1.5 million barrels per day.
Over the 135-day period under review, he put this at approximately $5.76 billion, or about $7.98 trillion.
He recalled that previous administrations maintained clear mechanisms for warehousing and reporting excess crude earnings through the Sovereign Wealth Fund and other established fiscal buffers.
Atiku further lamented that despite the oil windfall and the removal of fuel subsidy, millions of Nigerians continued to face worsening hardship, citing recent United Nations findings that about 80 per cent of Nigerians could not afford a decent meal each day, while infrastructure continued to deteriorate, despite promises that subsidy savings would be invested in roads, healthcare, education and other critical sectors.
He said an ADC administration under his leadership, would pursue a different approach, with every kobo earned above the budget oil benchmark transparently accounted for and managed under a rules-based fiscal framework, and excess revenues deployed to reduce the nation’s debt burden, strengthen fiscal buffers, and invest in infrastructure, education, healthcare, and agriculture.
“Nigerians deserve answers. They deserve accountability. Above all, they deserve a government that manages national wealth in the public interest, not one that presides over unprecedented opacity while asking future generations to repay debts incurred in the midst of plenty,” Atiku said.
In another breath, Atiku said the Tinubu administration has adopted the policy he advocated 21 years ago to address the country’s worsening power crisis.
He said the recent admission by the minister of power that Nigeria could no longer depend solely on large, centralised power plants amounted to a belated endorsement of the decentralised electricity generation model he championed over 20 years ago.
“It should not take a government three years in office to discover what was obvious more than two decades ago,” Atiku said, lamenting that instead of pursuing bold structural reforms from the outset, the Tinubu administration chose to increase electricity tariffs, while leaving Nigerians in deeper darkness.
“A government that thinks before it acts would have fixed the system before asking citizens to pay more. Unfortunately, this administration has done the exact opposite, raising tariffs first and only now beginning to think about the reforms required to justify those increases,” he said.
Atiku recalled that during his tenure as vice president, he consistently urged former President Olusegun Obasanjo to decentralise electricity generation by harnessing Nigeria’s diverse energy resources, including hydroelectric dams, solar, gas and other viable sources.
He said; “This has been my position for over two decades. When President Obasanjo established the Power Sector Reform Committee based primarily on gas-fired generation, I was appointed chairman.
“However, because I fundamentally disagreed with the policy direction, I declined to preside over the committee. I believed then, as I do now, that Nigeria’s electricity future lay in a diversified and decentralised energy mix, not an overdependence on a single source.”
He added that billions of dollars contributed by the federal, state and local governments were committed to that approach, yet the expected results never materialised, noting that contracts were awarded and huge sums paid upfront, while much of the promised work was never done.
Atiku recalled that the National Assembly subsequently investigated the power sector reforms and held Obasanjo accountable for the outcome, but noted that he was never invited by the investigators because he had declined to chair the committee despite being formally appointed.
“Nigeria does not suffer from a shortage of ideas. It suffers from a shortage of leaders willing to act on the right ideas at the right time. It is never too late to embrace the right policy, but Nigerians should never have had to pay the price for a government that spent three years learning what should have guided its actions from day one,” he added.
One person has been killed and 11 injured in a second strike on the international airport in the Saudi capital Riyadh, officials have said.
A Saudi military spokesman said a projectile had hit King Khalid International Airport on Sunday, causing a fire in one of its passenger halls. Saudi Arabia’s civil aviation authority said in a statement on X that one person, a Pakistani resident, had been killed in the attack.
It comes a day after a strike on the same airport killed 13 people and injured 308 others, following similar strikes earlier this week.
The Houthis in Yemen said they were behind the attacks and warned airlines and passengers against using Saudi Arabian airports and airspace.
The group said they had targeted the airport with a mix of ballistic and cruise missiles, as well as drones in the past 24 hours.
They also attacked oil facilities and Dammam airport in eastern Saudi Arabia, their military spokesman Brig Gen Yahya Saree said.
He vowed to continue the “escalating operations deep inside Saudi Arabia”, warning that all Saudi airports were potential targets apart from those in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.
The Houthis have said they are targeting Saudi Arabia over its support for government forces in Yemen’s civil war, as well as an air strike on the airport in Sanaa.
On Sunday Maj Gen Turki al-Maliki, spokesman for the Saudi-led military coalition, said air defences had intercepted a missile near the airport in Riyadh, while authorities were dealing with the fire caused by an “unknown projectile” that hit Passenger Hall No 4.
US President Donald Trump has said the US would “make a decision” and “move very quickly” on whether to strike the Houthis, while UK Defence Secretary Wes Streeting suggested the UK could “potentially” provide more support for Saudi Arabia.
Saturday’s strike was the deadliest single attack on a Gulf Arab country since the war between Israel, the US and Iran began in February. The Saudi-led coalition vowed to respond, calling it a “war crime”.
Four Saudi nationals, two people from Bangladesh and one person each from the US, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Sudan and Egypt were among the dead, the Saudi civil aviation authority said.
The Indian embassy in Saudi Arabia said on Sunday that an Indian man had succumbed to the injuries he sustained in the attack.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned the attacks and confirmed that a US citizen was killed in the strikes. Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said he was “appalled”.
The UK Foreign Office is advising against all travel to parts of Saudi Arabia, including areas within 10km (6.2 miles) of the border with Yemen, while other western embassies have warned their nationals about travel in the region.
Over 1,000 Islamic clerics have urged President Bola Tinubu not to seek re-election in the 2027 presidential election, citing economic crisis, insecurity and other challenges facing the country.
The call was contained in a communique issued at the end of a national conference on “An Assessment of the State of the Nation under President Tinubu and the 2027 General Elections,” held in Kano State on Sunday.
This comes at a time when the Jama’atul Izalatul Bid’a Wa Iqamatussunnah (JIBWIS) and Qadiriyya Sufi sect, among other Islamic groups, endorsed President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima for the 2027 presidential election, urging its members nationwide to support their re-election.
JIBWIS and Qadiriyya allegedly endorsed Tinubu’s candidature during separate visits to their leadership by Senator Abdul’aziz Yari, the Director-General of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council.
However, the Islamic clerics under the umbrella of Ko Da Naka…For the Struggle to Promote Good Governance and Community Development, in collaboration with AFAQ Educational Foundation, expressed dissatisfaction with the manner in which the administration of President Tinubu is running the country.
The clerics unanimously agreed that Tinubu’s economic policies, including the removal of the fuel subsidy, changes to the naira exchange-rate system, increases in electricity tariffs, and tax reforms, have increased the burden of hardship on ordinary citizens.
The conference expressed its dissatisfaction with the manner in which the Tinubu administration is being run, particularly the continued implementation of economic policies which participants unanimously agreed have increased the burden of hardship on ordinary citizens.
“It is unfortunate that the government has continued to insist on pursuing these policies, which are increasing hardship among the people, rather than reviewing and correcting them. The government prioritised the growth of its revenue at a time when the rising cost of living and unemployment are threatening the lives and well-being of citizens.
“Consequently, participants at the conference unanimously agreed that it would be inappropriate to re-elect this government in the forthcoming 2027 general elections if it does not change its harmful economic policies,” the communique reads in part.
Also, the participants of the conference expressed concern over the continued killings and kidnappings by bandits, and other acts of terrorism across the country.
They, therefore, called on the government to take urgent action to address insecurity, particularly in the North-West and other parts of the country.
The communique added, “Alternatively, the President should refrain from contesting the 2027 election. If he refuses to do so, it is incumbent upon citizens to reject his candidacy and allow those whom they believe can provide better leadership.”
Some of the clerics who presented papers at the conference included Dr. Abdulmuɗɗalib Ahmad Giɗaɗo, Prof Muhd Muslim Ibrahim, Sheikh Kabir Bashir Abdulhamid, Dr Aminu Isma’il Sagagi, Dr Najibullah Abdallah Nuhu, Sheikh Abdurrazaq Uba Musa, Sheikh Musa Muhd Ɗan kwano, Brr El-Zubair, Dr Yahuza Getso, Prof Ibrahim Siraj Adhama, Dr. Umar Dokaji and Sheikh Muhd Sani Khamis (Abu Haisam).
Israelis gathered in silence on Wednesday to mark three years since the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attacks, while Palestinians in Gaza mourned the destruction and displacement caused by the war that followed.
In Kfar Aza, a kibbutz near the Gaza border that was overrun by Hamas militants three years ago, residents held a vigil for those killed in the attack.
A trumpet played a solemn bugle call as residents stood in silence and a roll call of those killed was read out.
Zion Regev, a community leader in Kfar Aza, said many residents remained displaced and had yet to return to the community.
“This is the first time we are doing all the things here in the kibbutz,” Regev said of the vigil. “It’s a very emotional day, it’s a very difficult day for our community, three years after October 7th.”
The October 7 attacks were the deadliest day in Israel’s history. Militants led by Hamas killed about 1,200 people and took 251 hostages, according to Israeli figures cited by Reuters.
The attacks triggered Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, where more than 74,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to figures cited by Reuters.
The anniversary comes as the conflict remains unresolved despite a ceasefire agreement reached in October 2025 that halted major fighting but has not ended violence or secured the disarmament of Hamas.
In Israel, protesters gathered outside parliament in Jerusalem to demand accountability for the security failures surrounding the October 7 attacks.
Some protesters blamed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for resisting calls for an independent investigation into how Hamas was able to carry out the assault.
“We need the change and we need hope and we need to know that we have a government that cares about the public and doesn’t work also only for themselves,” protester Shaked Arrad said.
Netanyahu has rejected blame for the security breach and resisted calls for an independent inquiry.
The anniversary is also taking place 20 days before Israel’s scheduled general election, with the war and the government’s handling of the October 7 attack expected to remain major political issues.
In Gaza, Palestinians displaced by the conflict recalled their lives before the war as they continued to live among destroyed buildings and makeshift shelters.
Israel currently controls about two-thirds of the Gaza Strip, while Hamas controls the remaining area, where most of Gaza’s roughly two million residents are living in tents or damaged buildings, according to Reuters.
Umm Mohammad, a mother of five displaced from Gaza City and now living in a tent encampment in Deir Al-Balah, said the conflict had separated her family.
“We were one happy family. The war displaced us. My son left Gaza, the other went to a separate tent, my daughters left with their husbands to other parts of the Strip and we rarely meet,” she said.
On the anniversary, she added: “We recall how happy, despite all problems, we were before the war broke out, destroying everything we loved.”
The latest violence also continued despite the ceasefire. Gaza medics said Israeli strikes on Beit Lahia and Khan Younis killed at least two Palestinians and wounded others on Wednesday.
The Israeli military said it had struck a militant target in Beit Lahia but did not immediately comment on the reported strike in Khan Younis.
Three years after the October 7 attacks, the anniversary has brought renewed mourning in Israel and Gaza, while questions over accountability, security and the future of the conflict remain unresolved.
Reuters
