By Omeiza Ajayi
ABUJA: Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has condemned the National Economic Council’s NEC approval of a $4.5 billion refinancing of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company NNPC Limited’s oil-backed loan, describing President Bola Tinubu as a weapon fashioned against Nigeria’s economy.
In a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu on Wednesday in Abuja, the Presidential Candidate of the African Democratic Congress ADC said the fresh borrowing was further proof that the administration had mortgaged the country’s future to sustain its fiscal habits.
Shaibu quoted Atiku as saying every new oil-backed obligation pushed Nigeria deeper into a cycle where tomorrow’s wealth is sacrificed to finance today’s policy failures.
Atiku recalled that only days earlier, the Presidency had responded to his revelation of an unexplained ₦17 trillion crude oil windfall by claiming Nigeria could not fully benefit from soaring international crude prices because future earnings had already been committed to oil-backed foreign loans.
