The Makinde-Daura Presidential Campaign Organisation (MDPCO) has rejected President Bola Tinubu’s fresh requests for $20.5bn and €1.04bn in foreign loans, warning that the country is being pushed towards a debt trap that threatens its sovereignty and the future of generations of Nigerians.
The reaction came on Wednesday, just 24 hours after the President forwarded a letter to the National Assembly seeking the approval of the Senate and the House of Representatives.
The organisation described the fresh borrowing requests as reckless, arguing that the administration had yet to present a credible repayment plan for the N166.7tn debt accumulated under its watch since 2023.
Raising its objections on Wednesday through its Director of Strategic Communications, Mr Richard Ihediwa, the MDPCO urged the National Assembly to reject the requests, noting that continued foreign borrowing without commensurate development or a clear repayment strategy was mortgaging the nation’s future.
It said, “This malignant debt cancer and insatiable appetite for foreign loans have reached alarming proportions that every well-meaning Nigerian should fear for the nation’s future.”
It added that Tinubu’s latest borrowing plan had reinforced its concern that “President Tinubu is burying Nigeria by instalment.”
The organisation further warned that “President Tinubu is steering Nigeria towards the fate of Egypt under Khedive Isma’il (1863–1880), whose dependence on foreign loans and extravagant spending drove Egypt into bankruptcy, with devastating consequences for the sovereignty of that nation.”
Listing loans secured by the administration since 2023, the MDPCO recalled that Tinubu obtained a $750m World Bank loan in June 2023 under the Power Sector Recovery Performance programme to improve electricity supply nationwide. It questioned the impact of the loan, noting that Nigerians continued to endure persistent power outages, while the Presidential Villa in Abuja was powered by a solar plant.
The organisation also cited another $500m loan secured in June 2023 for institutional strengthening and women’s empowerment, as well as $800m obtained in July and another $700m in September of the same year for conditional cash transfers.
It recalled that in June 2024, Tinubu borrowed $2.25bn for economic stabilisation and transformation but argued that the economy remained neither transformed nor stabilised.
The MDPCO added that the administration borrowed another $1.57bn in 2025 for healthcare, education and human capital development, alongside $500m from the African Development Bank later that year.
It also recalled that the Senate approved a borrowing plan in 2025 involving $21.19bn, €4bn and ¥15bn, including $3bn for the Eastern Railway Corridor linking Port Harcourt to Maiduguri, which it claimed had yet to record tangible progress. According to the organisation, the Senate approved another $6bn in April 2026 for port modernisation, alongside $1.5bn for early childhood development and household prosperity.
Ihediwa wrote, “What bitter irony of a beautiful caption in Nigeria where millions of households struggle to afford food, while battling a devastating out-of-school-children crisis.”
The organisation described the latest loan requests as evidence of what it called the administration’s reckless borrowing, insisting that the mounting debt burden would leave future generations struggling to repay obligations they did not incur.
“It is unfortunate that, at his age, President Tinubu is leaving a legacy of debt and enslavement rather than productive investments, prosperity and economic stability,” the organisation further stated.
The MDPCO urged Tinubu to withdraw the fresh loan requests and called on the National Assembly to reject them, insisting that Nigerians should not remain silent while the country’s future was threatened by what it described as endless borrowing and reckless economic policies. It added, “Nigeria is nobody’s personal fiefdom!”
Furthermore, the MDPCO urged Nigerians to support the presidential candidate of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), Engr. Seyi Makinde, in the 2027 election, saying his “Reset Nigeria Agenda” offered a blueprint for economic viability, national self-sufficiency and sustainable development.
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