EDITORIAL
The growing reliance of the Nigerian government on external borrowing has triggered intense national concern, and rightly so. Since President Bola Ahmed Tinubu assumed office in May 2023, his administration has secured over $7.4 billion in loans, primarily from the World Bank with another $21.5 billion request currently pending legislative approval. What is particularly unsettling is not just the sheer volume of these loans, but the unsettling reality that ordinary Nigerians have yet to feel any meaningful impact of these borrowings on their quality of life. Instead, poverty deepens.
This troubling pattern is not entirely new. The immediate past administration, also under the All Progressives Congress (APC), left behind a similar trail of expansive debts without corresponding improvements in infrastructure, employment, or public welfare. Former President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure witnessed soaring debt figures, fueled largely by foreign loans that were supposedly tied to infrastructure and social development. Yet the roads remain broken, hospitals underfunded, and power supply erratic.
President Tinubu campaigned on promises of economic reforms, with the removal of the fuel subsidy being perhaps the most radical and controversial policy move so far. The subsidy removal, implemented early in his term, was justified as a means to save the government over N4 trillion annually, funds that could be redirected to public infrastructure and social investments. But nearly a year on, Nigerians are yet to witness the dividends of this austerity. Transport costs have quadrupled, food inflation is above 33%, and millions more have been pushed below the poverty line.
It is against this economic backdrop that the incessant borrowing becomes even more alarming. It is one thing to borrow; it is another to show measurable progress. The loans acquired, ranging from funding adolescent girls’ education and women’s empowerment to economic stabilization and nutrition, are commendable in title, yet virtually invisible in impact. Where are the empowered women? Where is the improved education infrastructure for girls? Where is the stable economy?
No responsible government can run on external credit alone, especially one that lacks a coherent domestic productivity agenda. Borrowing to fund recurrent expenditures or social welfare, without a clear framework for fiscal sustainability, is the equivalent of a household taking payday loans to stock its kitchen while the breadwinner remains jobless. It’s a temporary relief with long-term peril. In the Nigerian case, unborn generations may shoulder the debt burden for policies they had no hand in crafting.
Moreover, the overdependence on the World Bank, to the exclusion of diversified funding mechanisms including private investment and diaspora bonds, exposes the country to geopolitical vulnerabilities. Nigeria’s sovereignty, its ability to make independent economic decisions, could be compromised if loan conditions begin to dictate domestic policy. Already, policy shifts like the subsidy removal bear the hallmarks of multilateral financial advice, not homegrown strategies.
The time has come for a complete re-evaluation of our national economic ethos. Nigeria must redirect its focus from aid-dependency and external loans to indigenous wealth creation. Structural reforms in agriculture, solid minerals, technology, and small-scale manufacturing are not optional, they are imperative. The government must aggressively incentivize local production and value addition, reduce import dependence, and plug fiscal leakages through rigorous anti-corruption measures.
Furthermore, transparency and public accountability must become cornerstones of our loan utilization strategy. If indeed these billions are spent on social safety nets and empowerment, then measurable outcomes must be published quarterly. Citizens have the right to know where every borrowed dollar goes, and to what end.
We at Eye Reporters Media Ltd urge the National Assembly to halt the approval of the $21.5 billion loan request until a full audit of past loans is published. Nigerians deserve a public register of all borrowed funds, disbursed projects, and beneficiary demographics. Anything short of this is administrative recklessness.
Finally, the future of any nation lies not in the kindness of creditors, but in the ingenuity of its people and the accountability of its leaders. Nigeria must wake up to the sobering truth that a nation cannot borrow its way to prosperity. If urgent corrective steps are not taken, we may wake up one day to find that we’ve mortgaged not just our future, but that of generations unborn.
