₦airaland Forum

Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has described President Bola Tinubu’s administration as one of the most ruinous governments Nigeria has endured.

In a statement issued on his behalf by Phrank Shaibu, Director of Strategic Communications of the ADC Presidential Campaign Council, Atiku accused Tinubu of making everyday life “punishingly expensive” and still borrows with “an extraordinary appetite”.

“A government that says more money is coming in must explain why it keeps borrowing and why the people paying for its policies cannot see the promised gains.”

“After more than three years of demanded sacrifice, Nigerians are left with higher food, transport and energy bills, strained public services and a recorded public debt of ₦166.79 trillion as at 30 June 2026, according to the Debt Management Office.

“Nigeria’s recorded public debt stood at ₦49.85 trillion in March 2023 and ₦166.79 trillion by June 2026.

“I expect President Tinubu to put the full account before Nigerians. He should identify the old debt newly recorded, the foreign debt whose naira value rose with the exchange rate, and every new loan contracted since he assumed office. He should show what has been repaid and what remains outstanding. Accounting explanations must not become a hiding place for fresh borrowing,” he said.

Atiku said the debt question could not be separated from what he described as the widening gulf between official claims of economic recovery and the lived reality of ordinary Nigerians.

“The Tinubu economy is producing two Nigerias: one in which ordinary citizens are suffocating under rising food, fuel, transport, electricity, education and housing costs, and another in which those with wealth, access and privilege are far better positioned to protect and multiply their fortunes.”

“That is the fundamental contradiction at the heart of these reforms. Government celebrates macroeconomic indicators while millions of citizens struggle to translate those statistics into food on the table.

“An economy cannot be declared successful simply because government revenue is rising, reserves are improving or official statistics look better while the purchasing power of ordinary citizens is being destroyed. The true test of economic policy is whether Nigerians can afford food, transportation, housing, education, healthcare and electricity,” he said.

Atiku said the contradiction is reflected even in assessments by international institutions.

He added that recent fuel-price pressures have further intensified the squeeze on household budgets, with petrol selling at around ₦1,400 per litre in Lagos and Abuja and as high as ₦1,500 in parts of northern Nigeria in September, while diesel exceeded ₦2,000 per litre.

“The philosophy of an economic reform cannot be that the poor surrender more and more while those already insulated from hardship become increasingly comfortable. Nigerians were promised that today’s pain would produce tomorrow’s gain. After more than three years, they are entitled to ask: gain for whom?

“A mother cannot feed her children with a government revenue announcement. A worker cannot pay transport fare with a speech about reform. Nigerians do not eat GDP figures, FAAC allocations or PowerPoint presentations. The numbers must eventually arrive at the dinner table,” he said.

Atiku said the cost of carrying Nigeria’s debt had become an emergency of its own.

“BudgIT reported that by the third quarter of 2025, debt service had reached ₦12.52 trillion against ₦18.63 trillion in revenue — 67.2 per cent. In practical terms, roughly ₦67 out of every ₦100 of the revenue reflected in those figures went to debt service.”

“Money committed to debt service is money unavailable for competing public needs. Nigerians were told to endure the pain because there would be gains. Where are those gains?”

At the Africa Forward Summit in Nairobi in May, President Tinubu himself said Nigeria expected to spend about $11.6 billion on debt service in 2026, describing the amount as nearly half of projected revenue and acknowledging that debt costs divert resources from productive sectors.

“If President Tinubu understands abroad what debt payments are taking away from Nigeria, then he must explain at home why the borrowing bill continues to grow.

“History warns us where this road can lead. Fiscal distress does not begin on the day a bailout is announced. It develops when borrowing becomes routine, debt service consumes an ever-larger share of available revenue and governments repeatedly borrow to finance gaps that previous borrowing failed to close.

“Nigerians should not have to wait for creditors to tell them what their household budgets already reveal.”

Atiku also demanded greater disclosure concerning the DMO’s external debt-service schedule for the second quarter of 2026.

Atiku said President Tinubu and the APC also owed Nigerians an apology for what he described as the hardship imposed by the administration’s economic policies since 2023.

“President Tinubu should apologise to the families who can no longer afford decent meals; to workers whose wages disappear on transportation before the month has properly begun; to parents struggling to pay school fees; to pensioners whose incomes have been destroyed by inflation; and to businesses fighting daily to keep their doors open.

“Nigerians were asked to sacrifice. Fuel subsidy was removed. The naira was allowed to depreciate sharply. Electricity and transportation costs rose. Government revenues increased, yet borrowing continued. After all of this, the Nigerian people are entitled to ask one simple question: what exactly did our sacrifice buy?

“An apology is not too much to ask from a government under whose watch millions of Nigerians have been pushed into deeper economic distress. Leadership must have the humility to admit when policies have inflicted enormous pain on the people they were supposed to serve.

“Good economics must ultimately improve human life. If government revenue rises while families become poorer; if debt rises while public services remain inadequate; if citizens surrender subsidies, pay higher prices and endure declining purchasing power while government continues borrowing, then Nigerians have every right to demand a full account of where their sacrifice has gone.

“President Tinubu and the APC owe Nigerians that account and they owe them an apology. Apologise to Nigerians. Account for the money collected. Reconcile the borrowing. Explain the charges. Show the people what their sacrifice bought. Then make a solemn pledge to step away from governance rather than ask Nigerians for another mandate to endure this suffering.

“The real test of this economy is not whether the numbers look good in government presentations. It is whether ordinary Nigerians can afford to live.

“Reconcile the borrowing. Explain the charges. Show Nigerians what their sacrifice bought. Apologise for the hardship. And leave governance to those prepared to make life affordable again.”

https://dailytrust.com/hardship-apologise-then-leave-the-stage-atiku-tells-tinubu/

Atiku needs to lead by example!

Will Atiku apologize to Nigerians for selling out our nations asset and concurrently looting our national treasury through dubious means.

Obasanjo told Nigerians all we needed to know. He specifically mentioned about how Atiku’s penchant for money was deadly!

Atiku should lead by example!

Anybody seen voting APC next year should be considered a danger to the society.

People are buy eating maggot-infested rotten tomatoes and in mile 12, Lagos and Abuja.

https://youtube.com/shorts/xl6oqxfTsgM?si=UjUKTXhED47xG80d


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUc4tdcXWAo?si=MKKLSXNqbnM5M5jW

Tinubu loves to see Nigerians suffer while enjoy and gallivants from France to Spain on Taxpayers money.

Pain is coming to Lagos tomorrow to lock everywhere again. The hardship is unprecedented.

ATIKU is just completely confused, hehehe TINUBU na your mate in politics ne

Atiku has no credibility to ask PBAT to leave the stage.. majority of the problems facing Nigeria today can be traced right back to Atiku but here he is today talking like a saint.

What happened to the billions of dollars meant for power sector reforms?. Had it been our power sector got fixed with the money, most entrepreneurs will be doing well today and businesses will flourish. Poverty in Nigeria wouldn't be this bad, yet the same individual that ruined everything is asking the man trying to fix things to leave the stage. What an irony.

flokii:
Atiku has no credibility to ask PBAT to leave the stage.. majority of the problems facing Nigeria today can be traced right back to Atiku but here he is today talking like a saint.
What happened to the billions of dollars meant for power sector reforms?. Had it been our power sector got fixed with the money, most entrepreneurs will be doing well today and businesses will flourish. The same individual that ruined everything is asking the man trying to fix things to leave the stage. What an irony.

Hehehehe.

4000 influencers.

Isn’t your duty to promote the “good works” of your demigod?

Summary : Nigeria must never elect a threat to national security again

Tinubu has failed and he needs to take a bow before he is disgraced in 2027

Atiku is really desperate this time around

HacheNoire:
Atiku needs to lead by example!

Will Atiku apologize to Nigerians for selling out our nations asset and concurrently looting our national treasury through dubious means.

Obasanjo told Nigerians all we needed to know. He specifically mentioned about how Atiku’s penchant for money was deadly!

Atiku should lead by example!

Given the opportunity, Atiku will sell the whole of Nigeria.

Atiku Abubakar, is this how you want to be president?

Atiku Abubakar:

1. You bungled the privatization of national assets. Have you apologized and left the stage?

2. You bungled the liquidation of Nigerian Airways and NITEL and their staff were not paid. Tinubu is now clearing the debts. Have you apologized and left the stage?

3. You admitted to paying power contractors 100% upfront who later disappeared. $16 billion was wasted there. Have you apologized and left the stage?

4. You paid $12.4 billion to secure debt forgiveness as if we could not spend the money on building railway. Have you apologized and left the stage?

5. You spent $60 billion to keep the exchange rate low. Have you apologized and left the stage?

6. You designed the framework for removing subsidy as vice president which you have disowned by saying you would bring back subsidy in an opaque way. Have you apologized and left the stage?

7. You were indicted for laundering $40 million between 2000 and 2008. Received visa ban as a result and only got temporary reprieve in 2019 and 2022. Have you apologized and left the stage?

8. You were indicted for a $1.75 million Siemens bribery scandal. Have you apologized and left the stage?

9. You hired a von Batten to clean your image in the US. That is an admission that your image needs cleaning. Who ruined your image in the US? Have you apologized and left the stage?

10. ASUU had one of their longest strikes in history which led you and your boss to open your own private universities. That led to every PEP opening private universities as investment. Have you apologized and left the stage?

😁 this one now na by force from Atiku ooo

When u have rascals/drug barons at the helm of affairs of a country.....what do u expect?

Tinubu will never agree to apologise even people die finish for the country. As long as he's doing fine with his family n the poor ones on Nairaland are surviving everything is okay

The Opoloh eye druqqie knows he has failed.

He loaned Nigeria to his Lebanese friends and allowed his fellow country men to bear the burnt of the export of wealth.

He should go home and enjoy his loot.

Anything aside Emilokan

Very anyhow town hall.

Leave the stage so that we can go back to the same old ways of just managing without any meaningful development?
You will bring back subsidy, some of the gullible will be happy but no meaningful development to speak.
Roads, airports and other major indicators of development will go back to where they used to be.
You start to borrow money just to pay salaries z the states will also be paying half salaries.
Petrol queues will come back, we will start to fight at filling stations just to buy fuel.
Main while, Atiku and his cronies will be stealing the country dey, buying more properties in Dubai while they sell Petrol at 200 Naira. To get thr Petrol self go be wahala.

HacheNoire:
Atiku needs to lead by example!
Will Atiku apologize to Nigerians for selling out our nations asset and concurrently looting our national treasury through dubious means.
Obasanjo told Nigerians all we needed to know. He specifically mentioned about how Atiku’s penchant for money was deadly!
Atiku should lead by example!

Atiku is an angel compared to worst rogue Tinubu.

Did Obasanjo say what you needed to know before or after 2019, when he endorsed his multiple benefactor Atiku for the job of president?

Did Obasanjo ever endorse the Guinean Jagaban of Borgu?

anonimi:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAU9bwL37FI?si=fj8_EQDqX3_j3lcr


If there is anything I can do to help you out, I stand ready to assist.

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5 mind-boggling revelations from Obasanjo’s ‘My Watch’

5. Tinubu was one of the most corrupt, of the 36 governors

Obasanjo never got along too well with former Lagos state governor, Bola Tinubu, and unsurprisingly, Tinubu got a mention in the former’s book.

Obasanjo revealed that then EFCC boss, Nuhu Ribadu tried to investigate almost all the state governors during his tenure but that of the 28 confirmed to be manifestly corrupt or tainted one way or the other, Tinubu’s case was one of the worst.

https://encomium.ng/5-mind-boggling-revelations-from-obasanjos-my-watch/

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Nigeria: Corruption - Kalu, Tinubu Can't Escape -Ribadu

19 FEBRUARY 2007

Daily Champion (Lagos)

Lagos — ABIA State governor, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu and his Lagos State counterpart, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu would not escape justice but would be made to face the full wrath of the law following their recent indictment for alleged corruption by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Chairman of the commission Mallam Nuhu Ribadu who made the vow yesterday said the duo must account for their stewardship and may be thrown out of office.

https://allafrica.com/stories/200702190245.html

No vacancy till 2031

You can only run run run...you will never get there

Dear Atiku, you showed ingratitude to Tinubu who rescued you from political annihilation in 2007.

You showed ingratitude to PDP, a party you betrayed in 2015, gave you ticket in 2019 amd 2023, and you betrayed again in 2025. Have you apologized to the PDP?

The families of unpaid NITEL and Nigerian Airways workers who faced hardship because of your mismanagement of the unbundling, have you apologized to them?

Have you apologized to former US Congressman William Jefferson who went to prison because of you?

Don't take this desperate noisemaker seriously. His kind of corruption, he will sell this country without looking back. Learnt one of his wives was named in the Mambila bribery deal.

Atiku help me tell him, That man is very stubborn.
Wasted everybody's time.

Anybody but Obi

That's the goal

Would he do same if hhbvvvvvvvvvvv

My question is would he do exactly what he has advised if he was in the shoes of tinubu, African leaders do not voluntarily resign from power.

Na so dem go dey talk like better people until power enter their hand

last kick of a dying horse……Atiku as lost steam. It’s now seems like he is practically begging Tinubu to give him a free pass to rule Nigeria, knowing fully well he can’t defeat Tinubu and this is his last attempt at the presidency just as he said……Gringory is not even in the scheme of things and have never been a threat to Tinubu presidency but a blessing in disguise Tinubu is just a lucky man Atiku should man up and face the challenge and not be a low budget bitter obi who feel so entitled and always looking for sympathy vote…..Tinubu till 2031

PigTormentor:
Leave the stage so that we can go back to the same old ways of just managing without any meaningful development?
You will bring back subsidy, some of the gullible will be happy but no meaningful development to speak.
Roads, airports and other major indicators of development will go back to where they used to be.
You start to borrow money just to pay salaries z the states will also be paying half salaries.

Life is difficult for the blind truly.

Tinubu saved billions of dollars from subsidy removal that has made petrol expensive instead of crashing it below N185 promised.

Nevertheless the Guinean is borrowing money more than PDP presidents who gave us cheap fuel, less debt and tax burden as well as better roads.

What would make any sane Nigerian support this worst rogue?

Video: The current state of Ikare–Ogbagi–Irun–Imesi Road a vital federal corridor connecting communities across Akoko land in Ondo State to Ekiti State and other parts of South West Nigeria. pic.twitter.com/MkR54FuYgC

— Káyọ̀dé Ògúndámisí 🇳🇬 (@ogundamisi) August 31, 2026

What Tinubu and APC can’t destroy does not exist.
11 years of change and 3 years of reform with subsidy removal TWICE along with huge debt cum tax burden on people, why should we have roads worse than when PDP gave us cheap petrol and cheap dollars without piling up debt?

givedemwotowoto:

“This is how the Benin–Asaba Expressway looks yesterday, Thursday, August 20, 2026. Look at how cars and trailers are stuck because of the bad road. Mr Peter Obi advised the APC to start fixing existing roads, but instead, they are att@cking him. Instead of Dave Umahi focusing on… pic.twitter.com/k3V0eCNOo8

— CHUKS 🍥 (@ChuksEricE) August 21, 2026

Tinubu is a collateral damage to this country

Nigerians are making lots of money nowadays, rhe economy seem to be improving.

Them don buy the whole land and housings for my area, club dey full everyday, students still dey enter private universities, new model of cars for Abuja, lagos, everywhere!

Thanks mr President, I know you will do more !