The Tinubu Media Support Group (TMSG) has described the position of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) on the external borrowing plan of the President Bola Tinubu-led administration as a clear case of political gamesmanship and public deceit.
The opposition party, through its spokesman and former Minister, Bolaji Abdullahi, had recently questioned the federal government’s borrowing trajectory and called for a forensic audit of all loans obtained by the All Progressives Congress (APC) administrations since 2015, including details of disbursement and utilization.
However, in a strongly worded statement jointly signed by TMSG Chairman Emeka Nwankpa and Secretary Dapo Okubanjo, the group accused the ADC of selective criticism and deliberate omission of the borrowing activities under the Goodluck Jonathan administration, in which Abdullahi himself served.
“We noticed that as part of efforts to present itself as a credible alternative to the APC, the ADC has decided to raise the issue of external borrowing in the last ten years,” the statement read.
“And just like its recent comments on refineries, the ADC restricted itself to successive APC administrations and demanded a probe into what it termed fiscal vandalism. This is laughable.”
The group expressed dismay that Abdullahi would accuse the Tinubu administration of recklessness for a borrowing plan recently approved by the National Assembly, claiming it would balloon Nigeria’s debt profile by year-end.
“For us, there is no way a former cabinet member of the Jonathan administration whose government secured approvals for $9.3 billion in concessionary loans under its 2012–2014 plan could feign ignorance about how external borrowing plans work, more than a decade later,” TMSG noted.
TMSG further clarified that an external borrowing plan does not automatically translate into immediate debt accumulation. Citing the Ministry of Finance, it explained that draw-downs from the approved 2024–2026 plan would happen over 5–7 years and are strictly tied to development projects such as the Eastern railway corridor.
“For 2025, the actual external borrowing component is US$1.23 billion—not the $21 billion falsely implied by the ADC. To claim otherwise is dishonest and misleading,” the group added.
TMSG also dismissed ADC’s call for a forensic audit of the loans taken since 2015, describing it as a continuation of “the politics of deceit, chicanery, and subterfuge.”
“Why is ADC limiting its probe to the past ten years and not including the years prior, especially the 2010–2015 period when Abdullahi served under a government that earned N51 trillion from crude oil sales?” the group queried.
Citing policy perspectives from the Independent Media and Policy Initiative (IMPI), the group said loans under the APC have been tied to visible and verifiable development outcomes, unlike what it described as the opaque spending pattern under previous administrations.
TMSG also noted the irony in ADC’s internal contradictions, pointing to the roles of former ministers like Abubakar Malami, Rotimi Amaechi, and Rauf Aregbesola who served under President Buhari but now hold key positions in the ADC.
“For us, if there’s any proof that ADC is a coalition of strange bedfellows—united more by bitterness over loss of power than ideology this is it,” the group said.
It concluded by stating that ADC’s latest statement has only deepened internal tensions within the party, which continues to battle a crisis of legitimacy and direction.
