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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.’

Among the remarkable sideshows at the recently concluded 81st United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) was a foreign investment attraction rally by the governor of Rivers State, Siminalayi Fubara.

Officially part of the federal government delegation led by Vice President Kashim Shettima, Governor Siminalayi Fubara used the opportunity to showcase a priority need of his administration being the wellbeing of the state, both for now and in the future.

His choice of scouting for foreign investments in, of all places, the UNGA, remains remarkable for several reasons.

In the first place, the attraction of foreign investments remains a cardinal policy goal of the federal government, with the UNGA dispensation serving as the summit of global deals and dealmakers across the world.

Hardly could any other forum outclass it as the critical leaders of nations assemble there once a year.

A second reason is that the economy of Rivers State – just as it is with the rest of the Niger Delta zone – is dependent on exploiting other natural resources beyond oil and gas, which are still largely untapped.

Meanwhile, even as the claim of scouting for foreign investments has been the cliché adopted by not a few Nigerian officials across administrations to justify their foreign tours and attendances at various fora, Fubara’s search for foreign investment at this point in his tenure remains remarkable.

Considering the circumstances that have marked his tenure and made him the ‘poster boy’ of ‘godfather oppression of godson’ scenario in governance, his enterprise in seeking foreign investment flows into the state economy, qualifies to be seen in the proper light as borne out of an indomitable will to succeed in breaking new grounds in governance, as well as a genuine concern for the state. A major plank in consideration of his enterprise in scouting for foreign investments is the fact that with his voluntary withdrawal from seeking a second term in office, he has just eight months left in office to deliver on his ambitious development agenda for the entire state. Hence his courting of foreign investors in the course of UNGA 81 qualifies as a global projection of his sustainable economic development agenda to provide a succeeding administration, a solid base to continue the course of good governance currently emplaced in the state under him.

As the hub of Nigeria’s oil and gas economy, Rivers State constitutes the undisputable jugular of the Nigerian economy. Beyond the endowment of the status of the hub of the country’s wealth, Rivers State also constitutes a nexus for several aspects of social and economic life for all Nigerians and foreigners alike.

With three airports – one of international class in Omagwa, one in the capital city of Port Harcourt and one other in Bonny, the state guarantees rapid access to visitors from any part of the world.

Also, to accentuate the infrastructural endowments of the state are three seaports in Port Harcourt, Onne and Bonny, along with a complement of jetties and wharves. With respect to roads, the state can be reached directly from the East by travellers through neighbouring Akwa Ibom State and beyond to East Africa, and on the West through Bayelsa State to Lagos and beyond. Just as well, the northern corridor traverses through Abia State to any other part of Nigeria upland.

Meanwhile, in composition, the state comprises several indigenous and non-indigenous ethnic nationalities – most of who live in an extremely challenged environment and compromised connection with the national politics. Beyond Lagos, it is contestable if there is any more cosmopolitan community in Nigeria than Rivers State.

That is why Fubara’s disposition of pursuing peace and sustainable development even at the cost of suppressing personal ambition of seeking a second term in office places him even ahead of the end of his tenure in the pantheon of public spirited political leaders.

Observers of the politics of Rivers State cannot easily forget the twists and turns that tended to jolt the processes of governance severally and in a manner that tested and proved the resilience, as well as leadership acumen of the Governor Siminalayi Fubara all through his tenure.

Without doubt, less disposed leaders would have allowed personal interests and ego considerations to becloud their judgement, and in that process, flounder with devastating consequences for the strategic Rivers State, and by extension, the rest of the country.

It is also not surprising that not a few Nigerians decried the voluntary withdrawal from the bid for a second term for which he was eminently qualified and was even guaranteed significant organic support, just in case he did bid.

Nevertheless, given that governance is a continuum, the governor’s efforts have set in motion, the expectation that enquiries in respect of viable investment destinations in the state would be coming. And without much equivocation, these investment destinations are numerous; what, with agro-based investment options like fisheries, lumber, charcoal making and even mineral exploitation from the rich alluvial deposits that are common with all delta regions of the world.