Nigeria’s debt profile is flashing red, and every citizen should be worried. We have walked this perilous road before. In the early 2000s, President Olusegun Obasanjo pulled the country back from the brink of Paris Club strangulation, securing debt forgiveness that slashed our external obligations from about $35.9 billion to roughly $3.5 billion. That reprieve was meant to be a new beginning, not a pause before another binge.
Yet here we are again. While addressing an international audience in Kenya recently, President Bola Tinubu admitted that Nigeria faces about $11.6 billion (about N159 trillion) in debt servicing obligations this year alone. That is money that will not build schools, equip hospitals, or fix roads. It will service past excesses.
Despite this burden, the Tinubu administration has returned to the National Assembly with loan requests at a frequency that critics describe as “reckless abandon.” Former President Obasanjo’s warning that government now spends “like a drunken sailor” is stinging, but not misplaced when matched against the numbers.
Consider the borrowing spree since May 2023: $21.5 billion, €2.265 billion, ¥15 billion, and N757.9 billion multi-currency external borrowing plan sent to the National Assembly in May 2025, described as one of the most ambitious financing proposals yet.
There were also $2.347 billion foreign loan approved by the National Assembly to part-finance the 2025 budget deficit and refinance $1.12bn in maturing Eurobonds; $500 million debut Sovereign Sukuk in the international market for infrastructure; $516 million syndicated loan from Deutsche Bank for the first sections of the Sokoto-Badagry highway; $347 million additional request to cover cost adjustments on the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, raising its funding need from $700m to $747m;
$2 billion capital raised in the domestic debt market via foreign currency-denominated bonds and N1.15 trillion domestic borrowing approved to bridge the 2025 budget deficit after the budget size was raised to N59.9tn.
Cumulatively, Nigeria’s public debt stock has now crossed N159.28 trillion with external obligation standing at $51.8 billion which is 47 percent of the total debt stock.
Government’s defence is familiar: the loans are tied to infrastructure. But Nigerians are unconvinced because the infrastructure on ground does not reflect the scale of borrowing. Power remains epileptic, federal roads are death traps, and public hospitals lack basic drugs. If these loans are truly project-tied, where is the competitive procurement, independent audits, and public milestone reporting that assures value for money?
The argument becomes harder to swallow when juxtaposed with revenue claims. Fuel subsidy was removed, with government announcing a surge in monthly FAAC inflows. Last year, President Tinubu declared that his administration had met its revenue target four months early. If revenues are up, why is borrowing accelerating instead of decelerating? Increased earnings should reduce, not fuel, the appetite for debt.
This is where the National Assembly’s role becomes indefensible. Parliament is constitutionally mandated to check executive excesses. Yet loan requests sail through with minimal scrutiny, often justified by “rigorous economic evaluations” that Nigerians never see. Oversight motions promising “intensified” monitoring have become routine cover for approvals that deepen the crisis. A legislature that merely rubber-stamps is complicit in the drift.
This newspaper admits that debt, by itself, is not evil. But debt without growth, debt without transparency, and debt without a repayment plan is national sabotage. At $11.6 billion in annual servicing, we are mortgaging the future to fund a present that shows little improvement in living standards.
The way out requires political courage. We, therefore, urge the Federal Government to place moratorium on new commercial loans until a comprehensive debt sustainability audit is published; as well as make full disclosure of terms, interest rates, and repayment schedules for every loan approved since 2023.
The National Assembly should have the legislative spine to reject any borrowing not tied to self-liquidating projects with clear revenue streams, and government should exhibit spending discipline that matches rhetoric. Convoys must shrink before citizens are asked to tighten belts.
Obasanjo negotiated us out of debt once. We cannot bank on another miracle. If we continue on this path, the next generation will inherit a country where every naira earned goes to creditors. Nigeria must stop borrowing to stay afloat and start producing to break free.
