The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has accused the national assembly of complicity in Nigeria’s growing debt crisis under President Bola Tinubu.
In a statement on Tuesday, Bolaji Abdullahi, national publicity secretary of the ADC, faulted Tajudeen Abbas, speaker of the house of representatives, for retracting his earlier remarks on the country’s rising debt profile.
Abdullahi said Abbas’s initial admission that the country’s debt-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio had crossed statutory limits and now stands at 52 percent was “a rare moment of honesty” but lamented that his withdrawal showed “political cowardice and legislative complicity”.
“Like a flame in the wind, the Speaker’s statement offered a momentary flicker of the truth, only to be quickly doused by political expediency,” the statement reads.
Advertisement
“Rather than standing by his remarks and on the side of the people, he chose to play safe and be politically correct.”
The ADC spokesperson accused the Tinubu administration of contradicting itself, noting that while the president assured Nigerians that borrowing was over, the government announced plans to take a $1.75 billion loan from the World Bank less than a week later.
He said the role of the 10th national assembly in approving fresh loans without rigorous scrutiny amounts to “legislative complicity” and a betrayal of its constitutional duty to check the executive.
Advertisement
“The Speaker was right the first time—our debt is out of control, and our children’s future is being written in red ink,” Abdullahi said.
He called for fiscal discipline, transparency, and public debate on borrowing plans, insisting that every loan must be tied to measurable outcomes and long-term strategies for job creation and domestic resource mobilisation.
“Let the record reflect that, when the opportunity came to speak truth to power, some chose silence, some chose survival, but the ADC chose to stand with the Nigerian people,” he added.
Advertisement
