Stop rubber-stamping loan requests, ADC tells National Assembly

The African Democratic Congress Presidential Campaign Council has urged the National Assembly to stop automatically approving loan requests by President Bola Tinubu’s administration, calling on lawmakers to exercise their constitutional oversight responsibilities and scrutinise the terms and purposes of government borrowing.

The council warned that the continued accumulation of public debt without demonstrable development benefits could plunge the country into a cycle of unsustainable indebtedness and leave future generations to bear the consequences.

The Director of Media and Publicity for the ADC-PCC, Kola Ologbondiyan, in a statement issued in Abuja on Friday, also appealed to international donors, development partners and financial institutions to demand transparency and accountability before extending further loans to Nigeria.

The opposition council’s position followed comments by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, who defended the administration’s borrowing record, arguing that the more important question was what the country had built with borrowed funds rather than the total amount borrowed.

However, the ADC-PCC described the presidential aide’s remarks as an insult to Nigerians, arguing that the administration had little to show for its borrowings.

“Let President Tinubu show Nigerians one tangible project his administration has delivered with its trillions of naira in loans, beyond the solar farm in the Presidential Villa.

“History will not forgive the 10th National Assembly if it stands by while the country is plunged deeper into a cycle of unsustainable indebtedness,” the statement said.

The council accused the government of relying on publicity and announcements to project an image of development while major infrastructure projects remained incomplete or had yet to make meaningful progress.

“For three-and-a-half wasted years, the Tinubu government has borrowed without restraint and built nothing. No value, no legacy, no impact,” the council stated.

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It specifically questioned the progress of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, the Sokoto-Badagry Superhighway and the Trans-Sahara Superhighway, describing them as projects that existed largely in government announcements and publicity materials.

“Under Tinubu, virtually every project exists in a press statement,” it added.

The council also faulted the pace of work on the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano Highway, arguing that its prolonged construction, despite being awarded several years ago, reflected the administration’s failure to deliver infrastructure within reasonable timelines.

The campaign council maintained that projects inherited from the late President Muhammadu Buhari should not be presented as achievements of the Tinubu administration.

It further accused the government of neglecting the worsening economic conditions of citizens, citing hunger, insecurity, poverty and deprivation as evidence of poor performance.

“Citizens are hungry and enduring excruciating hardship. People are dying from hunger, insecurity and deprivation, while the government remains preoccupied with propaganda and self-congratulatory statements,” the statement added.

The ADC-PCC argued that borrowing could be justified if funds translated into improved living conditions, functioning infrastructure and economic opportunities for citizens.

It, however, warned against the continued accumulation of public debt without demonstrable benefits, saying future generations should not bear the consequences of loans whose proceeds could not be accounted for through tangible development.