Tinubu Plans to Raise N4 Trillion in Power‑Sector Bonds, Says Atiku

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar criticized the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu‑led Federal Government’s latest proposal to issue another bond to pay off power sector debt.

Atiku called the plan a “scandalous display of fiscal recklessness.” He made the remarks in a statement released on Sunday by his spokesperson, Phrank Shaibu.

President Tinubu had announced in his Democracy Day message that his administration intends to raise a N4 trillion bond to address legacy power sector debt.

Atiku said Nigerians have every right to be outraged by what he sees as a growing pattern of borrowing, deception and lack of transparency under the Tinubu administration.

He argued that no government acting in good faith can repeatedly raise funds to solve the same problem while refusing to explain how previous funds were used for that purpose.

“Yet, before the applause from that announcement could die down, Nigerians were confronted with the uncomfortable reality that previous debt‑clearing bonds remain shrouded in unanswered questions. Democracy is not sustained by grand declarations; it is sustained by accountability. A government cannot celebrate a new solution while refusing to explain the fate of the old one. The irony is striking: on a day set aside to honour democratic accountability, Nigerians were presented with yet another borrowing proposal for the same problem that previous borrowings supposedly addressed,” Atiku said.

He added, “This raises a simple question that the Tinubu administration appears unwilling to answer: What happened to the money? The Nigerian people are counting, and what they are seeing does not add up. There is a name for repeatedly collecting money to solve the same problem while the problem remains unsolved. It is called a ‘racket.’”