Atiku urges World Bank to reject $500 million loan for Nigeria
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Daily Post
Former vice-president Atiku Abubakar, ADC candidate, criticises the Tinubu government’s plan to take a $500 million loan from the World Bank. He argues that an outgoing president should not burden his successor with debt, and calls on the institution to reject the transaction scheduled for 25 May 2027, according to Daily Post Nigeria.
Former Nigerian vice-president Atiku Abubakar, the candidate of the ADC (African Democratic Congress) in the presidential election, on Tuesday condemned the move by the government of President Bola Tinubu to obtain a $500 million loan from the World Bank. In a statement, he called on the institution not to approve the financing.
According to him, the loan, scheduled for review on 25 May 2027, four days before the next presidential inauguration, would commit the country well beyond the end of Mr Tinubu’s term. Atiku accuses the president of compromising Nigeria’s future by exposing it to creditors.
Daily Post recalls that the country’s total public debt stood at around 166.79 trillion naira in June 2026, according to data from the Debt Management Office (DMO). The government considers this debt sustainable, while Professor Godwin Oyedokun, among other financial experts, calls for caution.
Atiku had already opposed, on 4 November, another loan of $7.7 billion. On 7 November, he had already accused President Tinubu of worsening the economic crisis in the country.
