Labour Party hails Speaker Abbas over position on government borrowings

*Charges Akpabio to follow example

By Jude Opara, Abuja

The Labour Party (LP) on Tuesday lauded the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas for his statesmanship in condemning the continuous borrowings by the administration of President Bola Tinubu.

Prince Tony Akeni, the Interim Labour Party National Publicity Secretary of the party in a statement condemned the borrowings which he said has not reflected on the nation’s economy.

“Nigeria’s astronomical debts without the benefit of visible economic and infrastructure development for the citizens on behalf of whom they are borrowed, the dangers the debts hold for the country’s future are so grave and frightening that Speaker Abbas could not hide it from the world.

“Speaker Tajudeen Abbas is also not hiding the fact that his own party’s administration led by President Tinubu is responsible for the country’s public debts peril to Nigerians born and unborn”.

According to the statement, the facts of the matter must be put in proper perspective for Nigerians to appreciate Speaker Abbas’ sense of alarm.

“Both the Debt management Office and CBN’s published data available to the public reveal that in the first 90 days of this year 2025 alone, Nigeria’s public debts soared from #121.7billion in December 2024 to #149.39trillion.

“What is more frightening is that in the same three-month period, the debt-to-GDP ratio resulting from these debts rose to 52%, which is far above the highest safe limit of 40% set by Nigeria’s own fiscal laws.

“What further worsens the alarming nature of the country’s debts is the revelation that in the last nine months, Nigeria used N8.93trillion or $6.2billion to service her debts. This means that 61% of the country’s revenues of #14.55trillion earned during the same period went into debt servicing”!

The opposition party further regretted that despite the statistical realities on ground, the administration is continuing in its quest to borrow more funds from the World Bank.

“Yet, not done, President Tinubu, even as he jetted out to France last week on a 10-day vacation, is seeking a new World Bank loan, a proposal of which Labour Party has learned is currently being prepared for Senate President Godswill Akpabio’s “ayes have it” National Assembly choir.

“Labour Party believes that Speaker Abbas’ admission of President Tinubu as the architect-in-chief of Nigeria’s skyscraping debts, although coming somewhat late, calls for commendation more than condemnation at this point. This is especially so if his alarm will help put some breaks on the APC administration’s recklessness in loan procurements. It is better late than never”.

Akeni called on all Nigerians including the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio to join Speaker Abbas’ call advocating for “stronger oversight, transparent borrowing practices, and a collective resolve to ensure that tangible and social returns match every naira borrowed.”

“Finally, the Labour Party wishes to recommend to Senate President Godswill Akpabio to emulate Speaker Abbas who has taking the initiative and leading from the front ahead of Akpabio. Mr. Speaker has shown the Senate President a resounding example of objective patriotism by the call to put Nigeria first hence forward in all public loans procurement through responsible oversight.

“In particular, before Senate President Akpabio accepts another loan request from President Tinubu and railroads his assembly to chorus “the ayes have it,” he should remember history. Any people pushed to the wall by grinding poverty with nowhere to turn would defy all one day and turn on their oppressors”.

Going forward, the LP advised the National Assembly to be more more nationalistic by carefully scrutinizing further loan requests from the Tinubu administration.