KEY POINTS

• ADC’s Bolaji Abdullahi accused the Tinubu administration of running a “Ponzi economy” after the federal government sought another $1.25 billion World Bank loan.
• Nigeria’s public debt sits at about N159.28 trillion, with 2026 debt servicing projected at $11.6 billion or over N15 trillion.
• Abdullahi said the National Assembly has been reduced to a rubber stamp on borrowing requests despite worsening living conditions.

The African Democratic Congress on Thursday accused President Bola Tinubu’s administration of running what it called a “Ponzi economy” after the federal government moved to secure another $1.25 billion World Bank loan, even as the country’s total public debt sits near N159.28 trillion.

Bolaji Abdullahi, ADC’s national publicity secretary, said the latest borrowing request deepens concerns over Nigeria’s debt exposure at a moment when millions of Nigerians grapple with food inflation, unemployment, business closures and worsening living conditions almost two years into the Tinubu reform agenda.

Now the intervention adds a sharper opposition voice to the debt sustainability conversation, with the ADC framing fresh multilateral borrowing as a structural feature of a model in which new loans cover the cost of old ones.

‘Ponzi economy’ charge

Specifically, Abdullahi accused the administration of borrowing constantly without translating the inflows into visible improvements for ordinary citizens. He said new debt mainly finances repayments and fiscal gaps rather than productive capital spending.

“This is why the ADC says the Tinubu administration is running a Ponzi economy, where new loans are constantly being taken to service old debts and cover fiscal failures, while ordinary Nigerians are left to carry the burden,” Abdullahi said.

Indeed, he pressed the basic political question that opposition camps have been sharpening since the post-subsidy crash: “If this government keeps borrowing trillions of naira every few months, why are Nigerians getting poorer, and why is life getting harder for the majority?”

The debt math

Moreover, the ADC sees little real-economy lift from Nigeria’s rising debt stock. The party flagged that food prices climb daily, electricity tariffs are increasing, the naira remains weak, businesses are shutting down, insecurity is spreading and youth unemployment is widespread.

Furthermore, Abdullahi pointed to President Tinubu’s own statement that Nigeria will spend about $11.6 billion, more than N15 trillion, on debt servicing alone in 2026. That spending, the ADC said, will crowd out funding for roads, hospitals, schools, electricity, security, agriculture and job creation.

Additionally, the party criticized what it called acronym-driven borrowing, naming RESET, ARMOR, HOPE and SPIN among the labels the World Bank and federal government have used to package successive loans. Abdullahi said the brand names mask the same underlying borrowing trajectory.

Pressure on the legislature

Meanwhile, the ADC took aim at the National Assembly for what it described as a rubber-stamp role on executive borrowing requests, accusing lawmakers of approving multi-trillion-naira loans with limited resistance or public scrutiny. The framing positions the legislature itself as part of the fiscal problem rather than a constitutional check.

However, the federal government has consistently argued that the new debt finances structural reforms in finance, digital services, electricity and competitiveness, with multilateral facilities offering longer tenors and lower rates than commercial alternatives.

Together with the broader subsidy-removal narrative, the ADC’s charge sketches a political contest over how Nigerians should read the post-2023 reforms: as painful but necessary medicine or as a Ponzi-like cycle that benefits creditors more than citizens. “Nigeria cannot continue mortgaging the future of unborn generations simply to keep the current administration politically afloat,” Abdullahi said.

Whether the ADC’s framing gains traction with voters ahead of the 2027 election cycle will depend on whether economic indicators improve before the campaign clock runs out. Yet for now, the opposition party has identified a critique that will likely resurface every time Abuja signs another loan paper, regardless of which acronym the next facility carries.